NSF ITEST Proposal Development Workshop, New England

STELAR has partnered with NSF to raise ITEST awareness and help build strong proposals within EPSCoR jurisdictions. On Friday, June 16th in Augusta, Maine, we held our first workshop supporting projects within the New England area. Thank you to those who attended! A special thanks to our hosts, the Maine Math and Science Alliance.        

Utilizing STELAR’s online resources for crafting a competitive ITEST proposal, participants spent the day in a collaborative-style session learning the elements necessary to prepare and strengthen their NSF ITEST proposals and asking an NSF Program Officer their project-specific questions.  One workshop attendee stated that after the workshop, “I’m definitely more locked in than I’ve been before. I got some direction and it’s been refined.”       

We hope to partner with other EPSCoR states to host more of these events, as well as other meet-and-greet style opportunities. Find out more information about our New England Workshop here. Please reach out to us at stelar@edc.org with inquiries about hosting one of these events. 

Register for upcoming NSF ITEST Q&A Sessions

Join STELAR as we host NSF Program Officers for a series of NSF Q&A sessions in support of those developing an ITEST proposal ahead of the August 11, 2023 solicitation deadline. The final two office-hours–style meetings will be held July 7 and July 21. Discussions are geared toward answering general proposal development questions from participants. More specific proposal questions may be sent to drlitest@nsf.gov

Register Here

STELAR Monthly Highlights

Juneteenth

This month we celebrate Juneteenth, the federal holiday commemorating the 19th-century emancipation of enslaved African Americans. Historian Mitch Kachun writes that emancipation observances have three goals: "to celebrate, to educate, and to agitate." In Developing the Next Generation of Talent: Perspective from the Field on Equity and the Future of Work, we interviewed thought leaders about issues in education, justice, and employment, exploring difficult questions related to equity. These discussions led to the development of the Equity Change Compass, a tool to support people as they work to reconstruct systems of equity and opportunity in STEM fields.

Read the Report Here

International Women in Engineering Day

June 23rd marked the 10th annual International Women in Engineering Day, an initiative to build awareness around women's underrepresentation in engineering and encourage more people who identify as women to involve themselves in engineering spaces. While there has been progress in creating more gender inclusivity across STEM, women still lack representation.   

NSF and STELAR have invested in the advancement of women in engineering by supporting education research at all age levels and within various learning environments. The projects range from supporting teachers with new teaching strategies to empowering students as they prepare to pursue STEM careers. This level of research remains invaluable in addressing the barriers to entry for women, and often generates resources, such as curricular materials, to support educators, students, and mentors alike in promoting gender equity in engineering. Working across grades and education stages, we hope to see women thrive by building a more equitable and inclusive engineering landscape. 

Upcoming Events

July 11 - Dr. Vanessa Peters, Senior Learning Sciences Researcher from Digital Promise, will present her synthesis of research findings from over 70 NSF awards that address the unanticipated effects of the pandemic on STEM teaching and learning. During this interactive one-hour virtual session, Dr. Peters will provide us with a briefing on her synthesis, ask for input from the research community attending, and answer questions.   
 

Upcoming Opportunities

IES Transformative Research in the Education Sciences Grants Program

DUE BY JULY 6

NSF DCL: Rapidly Accelerating Research on AI in K-12 Education in Formal and Informal Settings (NSF 23-097)   
DUE BY AUG 11  
 

NSF ITEST Program Solicitation (NSF 22-585)  
DUE BY AUG 11

The STELAR Center is available to assist grantees as well as those interested in submitting proposals.  

Should you need anything, email us at stelar@edc.org.  

The STELAR Team