K12 students and teachers are creating unprecedented opportunities for inquiry-based learning by expanding the geographic boundaries of their classrooms - - virtually and cost effectively.

Innovation Generation Grants

Funding Organization: Motorola
Website: http://www.motorola.com/content.jsp?globalObjectId=8153

Each year, Motorola opens a call for applications for Innovation Generation Grants, the technology company's signature giving program. Innovation Generation Grants support programs that inspire and cultivate the next generation of inventors and innovators by making science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) accessible and relatable to students at any age. In 2009, the Motorola Foundation will provide $5 million in Innovation Generation Grants to organizations that engage U.S. Pre-K through 12 students, especially girls and underrepresented minorities, and teachers in STEM programming.

Enhancing Education through Technology (Ed-Tech) State Program

Funding Agency: US Department of Education
Website: http://www.ed.gov/programs/edtech/index.html

The primary goal of this program is to improve student achievement through the use of technology in elementary and secondary schools. Additional goals include helping all students become technologically literate by the end of the eighth grade and, through the integration of technology with both teacher training and curriculum development, establishing research-based instructional methods that can be widely implemented.

Local activities include the support of continuing, sustained professional development programs and public-private partnerships. Activities also include: the use of new or existing technologies to improve academic achievement; the acquisition of curricula that integrate technology and are designed to meet challenging state academic standards; the use of technology to increase parent involvement in schools; and the use of technology to collect, manage, and analyze data to enhance teaching and school improvement.

Under the Ed-Tech program, the U.S. Department of Education provides grants to State educational agencies (SEAs) on the basis of their proportionate share of funding under Part A of Title I.

Advanced Technological Education

Funding Agency: National Science Foundation
Website: http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=5464&org=NSF

With an emphasis on two-year colleges, the Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program focuses on the education of technicians for the high-technology fields that drive our nation's economy. The program involves partnerships between academic institutions and employers to promote improvement in the education of science and engineering technicians at the undergraduate and secondary school levels. The ATE program supports curriculum development; professional development of college faculty and secondary school teachers; career pathways to two-year colleges from secondary schools and from two-year colleges to four-year institutions; and other activities. A secondary goal is articulation between two-year and four-year programs for K-12 prospective teachers that focus on technological education. The program also invites proposals focusing on applied research relating to technician education. Full proposal deadline is October 15, 2009.

Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers

Funding Agency: National Science Foundation
Website: http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=5467&org=NSF

The ITEST program responds to current concerns and projections about the growing demand for professionals and information technology workers in the U.S. and seeks solutions to help ensure the breadth and depth of the STEM workforce. ITEST supports research studies to address questions about how to find solutions. It also supports the development, implementation, testing, and scale-up of implementation models. A large variety of possible approaches to improving the STEM workforce and to building students’ capacity to participate in it may be implemented and studied. ITEST projects may include students or teachers, kindergarten through high school age, and any area of the STEM workforce.  Projects that explore cyberlearning, specifically learning with cyberinfrastructure tools such as networked computing and communications technologies in K-12 settings, are of special interest.

This program is interested in addressing such questions as:  What does it take to effectively interest and prepare students to participate in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) workforce of the future?  What are the knowledge, skills, and dispositions that students need in order to participate productively in the changing STEM workforce and be innovators, particularly in STEM-related networked computing and information and communication technology (ICT) areas?  How do they acquire them?  How can the Nation’s burgeoning cyberinfrastructure be harnessed as a tool for STEM learning in classrooms and informal learning environments? What will ensure that the nation has the capacity it needs to participate in transformative, innovative STEM advances?  How can we assess and predict inclination to participate in the STEM fields and how can we measure and study impact of various models to encourage that participation?

Letters of intent are due January 19, 2010.

National STEM Education Distributed Learning (NSDL)

Funding Agency: National Science Foundation
Website: http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=5487&org=NSF

This program aims to establish a national network of learning environments and resources for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education at all levels. The program has four tracks: Pathways projects are expected to provide stewardship for the content and services needed by major communities of learners. Targeted research will focus primarily on educational impact. Services projects are expected to develop services that support users and resource collection providers that enhance the impact, efficiency, and value of the NSDL network.  Projects that explore specific topics that have immediate applicability to collections, services, and other aspects of the development of the NSDL network, which were submitted as Targeted Research under previous solicitations, should now be submitted as small grants to the Services section of the program. The existing NSDL Resource Center will provide collaboration assistance across all projects; undertake strategic partnership development on behalf of projects particularly with respect to non-academic entities; coordinate and, in some cases, perform thematic research and evaluation studies related to the program; synthesize findings across the portfolio; and disseminate findings of the accomplishments of the NSDL program. In FY2009, the program will accept proposals for large grants in 1) the Pathways track, 2) Pathways - II, 3) specific sub-tracks of Services, and 4) Targeted Research . In all tracks, the program will also accept proposals for small grants that extend or enhance results from existing services, collections, or targeted research activity so as to enlarge the user audience for the NSDL network or improve capabilities for the user.