Full Proposal Deadline: October 07, 2020

The goal of the Discovery Research PreK-12 program (DRK-12) is to catalyze research and development of science, technology, engineering, mathematics and computer science (STEM) education innovations or approaches that can serve as models for use within the nation’s formal preK-12 STEM education system (e.g., states, districts, schools, and teachers). The intent of the DRK-12 program is to: (1) catalyze new approaches to STEM learning, teaching, and assessment; (2) build knowledge about how to develop preK-12 students’ STEM content knowledge, practices, and skills; and (3) provide multiple resources in a variety of STEM learning environments and study the learning process itself. The DRK-12 program is committed to research and development that inform strategies to promote success for all students in all STEM fields of study. The program encourages proposals from a range of institution types and categories including minority-serving institutions (e.g., HBCUs, Tribal Colleges, Hispanic Serving Institutions, Alaska Native-Serving Institutions, and Native Hawaiian-Serving Institutions), primarily undergraduate institutions and other organizations focused on preK-12 STEM Education. The DRK-12 Program especially welcomes proposals that are consistent with the goal of developing STEM talent and workforce from all sectors and groups in our society (e.g., NSF INCLUDES). Collaborations are encouraged between DRK-12 proposals and existing NSF INCLUDES projects, provided the collaboration strengthens both projects.

Projects in the DRK-12 program build on fundamental research in STEM education and prior research and development efforts that provide theoretical and empirical justification for proposed projects. School leaders, teachers, and students who participate in DRK-12 studies are expected to enhance their understanding and use of STEM content, practices, and skills. The DRK-12 program invites proposals that seek to transform the STEM education landscape of the future by reimagining structures and systems of PreK-12 teaching, learning, and assessment, while also addressing current challenges in PreK-12 STEM research and practice. The projects funded by the program should reflect the needs of the increasingly diverse population and national, state, or district priorities. Projects should contribute to the research base in STEM education by studying how students and teachers learn, through well-articulated STEM education innovations with clear theories of action. DRK-12 projects are expected to contribute to both theory and practice. Therefore, projects are expected to result in innovations or approaches that can be shared with and feasibly implemented by other organizations as well as research shared in peer-reviewed research and practice publications.

There are three strands that guide the focus of DRK-12 projects: (1) Assessment; (2) Learning; and (3) Teaching.

The DRK-12 program encourages proposals that address STEM assessment questions facing the field including, but not limited to, the following:

1. How does assessment information move across levels of the educational system and with what degree of validity?
2. How are assessment frameworks related to theories of learning, and in what ways do the resulting assessment innovations or approaches inform and advance the field conceptually?
3. How do users of STEM assessments (e.g., students, teachers, administrators, districts, parents) interact with, perceive, respond to, and make sense of the assessment information?
4. How are disciplinary learning progressions and trajectories informing and being informed by and through assessment?
5. What are effective ways to build capacity in the field for the design, development, implementation, interpretation, and use of assessment in STEM learning settings?
6. What roles and opportunities do emergent technologies have related to assessment?

The DRK-12 program encourages proposals that address important questions facing the learning of STEM including, but not limited to, the following:

1. How does the innovation or approach challenge and improve upon current practices and standards?
2. How does the innovation or approach focus on emerging STEM concepts and practices that reimagine or transform existing school curricula?
3. How does the innovation or approach make use of data and practices from STEM fields to transform existing school curricula?
4. How is the innovation or approach likely to be transformative for STEM teaching and learning?
5. How does the innovation or approach increase broader participation in STEM by targeting underserved or disadvantaged groups of learners, such as English language learners, underrepresented minorities, or students with disabilities?

The DRK-12 program encourages proposals that address important questions facing STEM teaching including, but not limited to, the following:

1. How does the innovation or approach improve instructional practices and increase students’ learning and outcomes?
2. How does the innovation or approach recruit, certify, induct, and/or prepare STEM teachers better than existing practice?
3. How do pre- or in-service teachers develop STEM content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge in ways that improve their instructional practice?
4. How does the innovation or approach develop teaching expertise and instructional leadership across schools, districts, and the broader national teacher community?
5. How can we assist teachers in making data-driven instructional decisions to meet the needs of all learners?
6. How can teachers’ capacity and willingness to customize instructional approaches be developed to meet standards and the needs of diverse student populations?
7. What are effective methods for developing, applying, and testing effective models of professional development that improve STEM teaching and learning?

The DRK-12 program invites proposals for six project types: (1) Exploratory, (2) Design and Development, (3) Impact, (4) Implementation and Improvement, (5) Syntheses, and (6) Conferences.

More information is on the NSF DRK-12 program page, including the program guidelines.