New NSF STEP Centers solicitation from the National Science Foundation: Biology, Geosciences, Engineering....

The National Science Foundation has released a new STEP Centers program solicitation - NSF 10-569 - the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Talent Expansion Program Centers. This is a new collaboration between the Directorates for Education and Human Resources (EHR) and Geociences (GEO) building on, yet independent from the existing STEP program and its solicitation (NSF-08-569).

The new solicitation enables "a group of faculty representing a cross section of institutions of higher education to identify a national challenge or opportunity in undergraduate education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and to propose a comprehensive and coordinated set of activities that will be carried out to address that challenge or opportunity within a national context. In the current competition, efforts must be related to the biological sciences, engineering, or the geological sciences." 

Deadlines:

    * Required letters of intent are due August 4, 2010

    * Preliminary Proposals are due September 7, 2010

    * Full Proposals (by invitation only) are due January 20, 2011

Three different STEP Centers will be funded, through collaborations between EHR and the Biological Sciences Directorate, Engineering Directorate, and GEO Directorate. Each of the STEP Centers will support activities "designed to have a national impact on increasing the number of students, including STEM majors or non-STEM majors or both, enrolling in undergraduate courses in STEM, and to improve student learning and retention in those courses, by developing, evaluating, and disseminating one or more of the following:

    * Educational materials for undergraduate courses, laboratories, curricula, or other aspects of the undergraduate experience;

    * Teaching methods for undergraduate courses; and/or

    * Professional development to improve the capacity of faculty and teaching assistants to provide effective instruction in undergraduate courses."

See the solicitation for more information and details.