Designing Effective K-12 Educational Initiatives for Grant Proposals

The National Science Foundation requires that grantees make an effort to extend the reach of academic research to communities beyond the laboratory and address the work's possible ``Broader Impacts'' to society. NSF CAREER awards and many of the NSF Research Center grant solicitations are even more explicit, requiring that grantees craft educational initiatives that are based in best practices, bring the academic research to the broader community, and positively impact the pipeline of students pursuing science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education and careers. For new faculty, and even veteran faculty, these requirements for creative educational initiatives that significantly affect a community outside the confines of the laboratory can be very daunting. This presentation addresses how to design an effective educational plan that incorporates K-12 educational outreach, that will have a real impact on the target audience, and that can realistically be accomplished by a science faculty member.