NSF Education Plans

NSF CAREER Award Education Plan Guidelines:

Successful applicants will propose creative, effective, integrated research and education plans, and indicate how they will assess these components.

While excellence in both education and research is expected, activity of an intensity that leads to an unreasonable workload is not.

The research and educational activities do not need to be addressed separately if the relationship between the two is such that the presentation of the integrated project is better served by interspersing the two throughout the Project Description.

Proposed education activities may be in a broad range of areas and may be directed to any level: K-12 students, undergraduates, graduate students, and/or the general public, but should be related to the proposed research.

Some examples are: designing innovative courses or curricula; supporting teacher preparation and enhancement; conducting outreach and mentoring activities to enhance scientific literacy or involve students from groups that have been traditionally underrepresented in science; researching students’ learning and conceptual development in the discipline; incorporating research activities into undergraduate courses; providing mentored international research experiences for U.S. students; linking education activities to industrial, international, or cross-disciplinary work; and implementing innovative methods for evaluation and assessment.

Education activities may also include designing new or adapting and implementing effective educational materials and practices. Such activities should be consistent with research and best practices in curriculum, pedagogy, and evaluation. Proposers may build on NSF-supported activities or other educational projects ongoing on campus.