National Science Foundation Funding Research Articles

Megatelescopes look for support

As a huge European observatory nears approval, a National Science Foundation funding competition between equivalent US projects remains in a holding pattern.

Social Science, Spared Again

Last month, a U.S. congressional committee wisely decided not to cut funding of social science research by the National Science Foundation (NSF), despite an attack that cleverly framed the discipline as “good, just not good enough for NSF.” This claim was rebutted across the political spectrum, by physical and biological as well as social scientists, and in the business sector. In May, Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) issued a report arguing that NSF-funded social science should be eliminated. Oddly, however, his report endorsed such funding by other agencies, where, one supposes, it meets a priority test. Indeed, the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Education, Health and Human Services, and the Congress itself hire, consult, fund, and contract with social scientists in great number. The senator acknowledged that the country needs social science, just not at NSF. This makes no sense. If the country needs social science at all, it needs NSF-supported fundamental research. NSF funds frontier science in physics that underpins more-applied research supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. This intelligent division of labor works equally for the social sciences, making continued funding by NSF of the highest priority.

Research Experiences for High School Students

Two principle concerns about science education in the United States are frequently voiced: that we are not doing enough to broaden participation of under-represented minorities in science or increase the pipeline of students going into careers directly involving the life sciences, and that we are not educating our students to deal with the research challenges that present themselves. My laboratory has engaged in outreach activities involving high school and middle school students and their teachers in an effort designed to address these issues. The Math-Science Initiative pairs students with undergraduate mentors and their advisors for a 5 week program that includes a mentored research project and culminates in a formal presentation of the research. In addition my laboratory has involved pre-college students in activities ranging from science fair projects to summer research experiences supported by either ASBMB through its k12 student/teacher summer research awards or National Science Foundation Funding through a RUI award. We have also supported the involvement of teachers (both middle school and high school), often paired with their own students in these research activities. The outcomes of these various activities suggests that such approaches can be extremely effective in promoting and maintaining interest in the sciences as well as fostering a deeper understanding of the process of science.

Vision and change in biology undergraduate education: Vision and change from the funding front

The purpose of this short article is to (a) briefly summarize the findings of two important recent resources concerning the future of biology in the 21(st) century; one, Vision and Change, A Call to Action [AAAS, 2009. AAAS, Washington, DC], concerned with undergraduate education in biology, the other, A New Biology for the 21st Century [National Research Council, 2009. National Academies Press, Washington, DC], concerned with advances within the discipline itself; (b) urge you, the reader of BAMBED, to review the material on the Vision and Change website [AAAS, 2009. AAAS: Washington, DC] and then to think how you might change things at your own institution and within your courses, and; (c) make readers aware of the programs at the National Science Foundation (NSF) that might support change efforts, as well as refer you to efforts other funding agencies are making to help biology undergraduate education respond to the challenges and opportunities chronicled in these two reports. Although NSF funding opportunities are specifically available to US investigators, the recommendations of the two reports should be of interest to a wide spectrum of international researchers.

Science at the Interface with Art

ABSTRACTThe Cultural Heritage Science (CHS, formerly SCIART) Program seeks to enhance opportunities for chemistry and materials research at the interface between science and art. The objective is to promote collaboration between cultural heritage scientists, mainly located in US museums and chemists and/or materials scientists in US academic institutions to address grand challenges in the science of cultural heritage. Through the first competition, eight projects, two to three years in duration, were funded at $270,000 to 495,000 each. Every successful proposal demonstrated a clear need for collaboration with good synergy between the collaborating groups, and provided plans for meaningful training experiences for students and/or postdoctoral researchers in the field of cultural heritage science. It is anticipated that the CHS Program will continue for two additional years in a similar fashion. During this period, researchers should be able to more easily identify the disciplinary programs in materials research or chemistry relevant to their work, and their proposals will be reviewed together in panels. Proposals falling outside of the CHS specifications may be submitted directly to the relevant program/s of interest at the National Science Foundation (NSF) as unsolicited proposals. After the CHS Program ends, unsolicited proposals will remain the key mechanism for obtaining NSF funding in this research area.

Mathematical Biology at an Undergraduate Liberal Arts College

Since 2002 we have offered an undergraduate major in Mathematical Biology at Harvey Mudd College. The major was developed and is administered jointly by the mathematics and biology faculty. In this paper we describe the major, courses, and faculty and student research and discuss some of the challenges and opportunities we have experienced.

Sustaining The Progress To Improve Physics Education

One of the problems we face in teaching introductory physics courses at the college level is that about 2/3 of students never had physics prior coming to college. Thus, many students find it very difficult to learn physics for the first time at the relatively fast-paced teaching of college physics courses. Sometimes the drop/failure/withdrawal rate at West Virginia University is as high as 65% (~2/3) for the introductory physics courses taken mostly by pre-engineering students. Obviously, there is a strong connection between the students’ physics backgrounds and the success rate of passing physics. With the support of the National Science Foundation (NSF) funding, we created an intervention course for a small group of students who did poorly in the first test in one of the physics courses. This intervention course ran concurrently with the regular physics course, but started at the fourth week of class after the first test. Students who received our intervention showed significant improvement in the subsequent physics tests.1 The recruitment of the students and the supervision of the course were the result of a unique collaboration between the College of Engineering and the Physics Department. After the expiration of the NSF grant, the intervention course was cancelled due to the lack of funds. The labs associated with physics classes, however, give us the opportunity to continue the advancement of physics learning after the ending of the NSF grant.

EVALUATING SELECTED PERCEPTIONS OF SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS TEACHERS IN AN ALTERNATIVE CERTIFICATION PROGRAM

In 2003 the University of Missouri (with the aid of US National Science Foundation funding) initiated an alternative certification program (ACP) to address the well-documented need in the US for increasing the quantity and quality of mathematics and science teachers for the middle and secondary levels. Nationwide current certification programs do not provide the quality and quantity of mathematics and science teachers needed in schools. As a result most American states have begun to experiment with ACPs as a way to address the shortage of math and science teachers. To evaluate the success of this program, we collected data from ACP participants regarding perceived preparation, self efficacy, and outcome expectancy at three time points in the program. State standards for beginning teachers were used to construct a perceived preparation instrument. Analysis of data suggests that over time, ACP participants exhibited an increasingly positive view toward their preparation for classroom teaching, as well as increased self efficacy. However, there was little change in the students’ outcome expectancy over time. In this article we share details of the unique ACP program and we describe steps taken to collect and evaluate a project data set. Our work provides useful guidance to researchers and practitioners in the field of science and mathematics teacher education.

Vectors

Vectors

System Mapping: A Genre Field Analysis of the National Science Foundation's Grant Proposal and Funding Process

In this article we compare two different perspectives on the National Science Foundation (NSF) grant proposal and funding process: that depicted by the genre-dominant NSF Web site and that articulated by several successful NSF-funded researchers. Using genre theory and play theory to map the respective processes, we found that a systems-based refocusing of audience analysis—namely, genre field analysis—allows researchers a more accurate understanding of their roles as agents within the system.

The Accounting Doctoral Shortage: Time for a New Model

ABSTRACT: The crisis in supply versus demand for doctorally qualified faculty members in accounting is well documented (Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business [AACSB] 2003a, 2003b; Plumlee et al. 2005; Leslie 2008). Little progress has been made in addressing this serious challenge facing the accounting academic community and the accounting profession. Faculty time, institutional incentives, the doctoral model itself, and research diversity are noted as major challenges to making progress on this issue. The authors propose six recommendations, including a new, extramurally funded research program aimed at supporting doctoral students that functions similar to research programs supported by such organizations as the National Science Foundation and other science-based funding sources. The goal is to create capacity, improve structures for doctoral programs, and provide incentives to enhance doctoral enrollments. This should lead to an increased supply of graduates while also enhancing and supporting broad-based research outcomes across the accounting landscape, including auditing and tax.

“Evolution for Everyone”: A Course that Expands Evolutionary Theory Beyond the Biological Sciences

A firm grasp of evolution is invaluable for understanding our own species in addition to the rest of the biological world; however, not only does much of the American public reject evolution, but many thinkers within the scientific community resist its application to their own disciplines. In an attempt to overcome these challenges through education, the Evolutionary Studies (EvoS) program at Binghamton University (B.U.) strives to present evolution as a theory relevant to all human-related subjects. Here, we present the cornerstone of this program, “Evolution for Everyone,” an introductory-level, general education course with an academically diverse student population. The curriculum delves into Darwin’s theory and uses it to illustrate not only classical biology but how the same ideas pertain to the full range of human-related disciplines. This material is framed in terms of scientific inquiry, including direct participation in research. An evaluation of the course has demonstrated that it increases both understanding and acceptance of evolution and its relevance to human-related academic disciplines and everyday life. The EvoS program has received National Science Foundation funding to expand into a nationwide consortium, providing a strong infrastructure for the development of similar courses at other institutions.

Risk Perception and Communication

Many health risks are the result of deliberate decisions by individuals consciously trying to get the best deal possible for themselves and for those important to them. Some of these choices are private ones, such as whether to wear bicycle helmets and seatbelts, whether to read and follow safety warnings, whether to buy and use condoms, and how to select and cook food. Other choices involve societal issues, such as whether to protest the siting of hazardous waste incinerators and half-way houses, whether to vote for fluoridation and "green" candidates, and whether to support sex education in the schools. In some cases, single choices can have a large effect on health risks (e.g. buying a car with airbags, taking a dangerous job, getting pregnant). In other

Human-Centered Computing: Defining a Research Agenda

Three National Science Foundation (NSF) programs—Human–Computer Interaction, Universal Access, and Digital Society and Technologies—were recently combined into one new cluster called “Human-Centered Computing” (HCC). Two workshops were held to share information about this new cluster with researchers, provide guidance to researchers who are early in their research careers and have yet to receive NSF funding, and provide feedback to NSF from the affected research communities regarding topics that are considered particularly important by this community. Continuing and emerging research opportunities identified included privacy and security issues in HCC context, intelligent user interfaces, universal access including research for different populations such as children and older adults, mobile and ubiquitous computing, and social computing, among others. Various issues concerning interdisciplinary research opportunities were also raised, including understanding the disciplines, promotion and tenure concerns, administrative overhead, and where to publish. Education discussions produced a list of curricular recommendations and a number of opportunities to enhance the education of future HCC practitioners and researchers.

Building, Using, and Maximizing the Impact of Concept Inventories in the Biological Sciences: Report on a National Science Foundation–sponsored Conference on the Construction of Concept Inventories in the Biological Sciences

The meeting "Conceptual Assessment in the Biological Sciences" was held March 3-4, 2007, in Boulder, Colorado. Sponsored by the National Science Foundation and hosted by University of Colorado, Boulder's Biology Concept Inventory Team, the meeting drew together 21 participants from 13 institutions, all of whom had received National Science Foundation funding for biology education. Topics of interest included Introductory Biology, Genetics, Evolution, Ecology, and the Nature of Science. The goal of the meeting was to organize and leverage current efforts to develop concept inventories for each of these topics. These diagnostic tools are inspired by the success of the Force Concept Inventory, developed by the community of physics educators to identify student misconceptions about Newtonian mechanics. By working together, participants hope to lessen the risk that groups might develop competing rather than complementary inventories.

Scientists

Scientists

Panel recommends budget cuts for observatories

US. National Science Foundation funding for observatories that monitor the ionosphere, Sun, and solar system could be reduced substantially if recent recommendations from a panel of senior scientists are heeded.The senior review committee, commissioned by NSF to provide outside guidance to the agency, attempted to balance current federal budget outlooks with the ambitious astronomy programs proposed earlier this decade by the U.S. National Research Council. The committee was asked to propose cuts of roughly $30 million in annual spending from the current program—representing 15% of the National Science Foundation's (NSF) annual budget for astronomy—to accommodate NSF plans for developing and operating new facilities.

Announcements

Announcements

Connecting NSF funding to patent innovation in nanotechnology (2001–2004)

Nanotechnology research has experienced growth rapid in knowledge and innovations; it also attracted significant public funding in recent years. Several countries have recognized nanotechnology as a critical research domain that promises to revolutionize a wide range of fields of applications. In this paper, we present an analysis of the funding for nanoscale science and engineering (NSE) at the National Science Foundation (NSF) and its implications on technological innovation (number of patents) in this field from 2001 to 2004. Using a combination of basic bibliometric analysis and content visualization tools, we identify growth trends, research topic distribution, and the evolution in NSF funding and commercial patenting activities recorded at the United States Patent Office (USPTO). The patent citations are used to compare the impact of the NSF-funded research on nanotechnology development with research supported by other sources in the United States and abroad. The analysis shows that the NSF-funded researchers and patents authored by them have significantly higher impact based on patent citation measures in the four-year period than other comparison groups. The NSF-authored patent impact is growing faster with the lifetime of a patent, indicating the long-term importance of fundamental research.

Institutionalization, Sustainability, and Repeatability of ADVANCE for Institutional Transformation

Principal investigators sow the seeds for successful institutionalization and sustainability of their ADVANCE grants when they make the decision to submit the grant and plan the goals, objectives, and activities underpinning the particular aspects of institutional transformation that their university will pursue within a general framework to advance faculty women to senior and leadership positions. Receiving the National Science Foundation (NSF) funding in a very competitive, peer-reviewed program and the relatively large size of the NSF grants carry considerable prestige. It is the institutional investment in terms of both human and capital resources and commitment on the parts of administrators and faculty to establish, change, and implement policies and practices to support ADVANCE that leverages the NSF support and assures long-term impact of the initiative.