Advancing STEM Learning: A Comprehensive Look at NSF, Department of Education, and CPB Collaborations

Scientific discoveries and technological innovations have a profound impact on individuals and societies, with science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) shaping our everyday lives and holding the potential to produce solutions to daunting problems facing our nation. The National Science Foundation (NSF), the Department of Education (USED), and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) are key players in advancing STEM education and public understanding of science. This article explores their collaborative efforts and individual programs aimed at fostering lifelong STEM learning and preparing the next generation of innovators.

The Role of the National Science Foundation (NSF)

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is charged with promoting the vitality of the nation's science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) research and education enterprises. As part of this mission, the Directorate for Education and Human Resources (EHR) has primary responsibility for providing national and research-based leadership in STEM education. EHR emphasizes several themes:

Furthering public understanding of science and advancing STEM literacy.
Broadening participation to improve workforce development.
Promoting learning through research and evaluation.
Promoting cyberlearning strategies to enhance STEM education.
Enriching the education of STEM teachers.
Preparing scientists and engineers for tomorrow.

To address these themes, the Directorate sponsors programs in the Divisions of Research on Learning in Formal and Informal Settings (DRL), Undergraduate Education (DUE), Graduate Education (DGE), and Human Resource Development (HRD). The Informal Science Education (ISE) program is managed in DRL. DRL invests in projects to enhance STEM learning for people of all ages. Its mission includes promoting innovative and transformative research, development, and evaluation of learning and teaching in all STEM disciplines in both formal and informal learning settings.

DRL and Innovation

All research and development activities within DRL aim at generating knowledge and transforming practice in STEM education. DRL's programs are designed to complement each other within a cycle of innovation and learning. All DRL programs are concerned with all five components of the cycle, to different degrees.

Informal Science Education (ISE) Program

The Informal Science Education (ISE) program supports innovation in anywhere, anytime, lifelong learning, through investments in research, development, infrastructure, and capacity-building for STEM learning outside formal school settings. The ISE program seeks to expand its portfolio of projects conducting research about informal STEM learning, in order to build the theoretical and empirical foundations for effective informal learning activities and to inform strategic investments in the future.

Read also: The CPB Logo: A Visual History

ISE Project Categories

The ISE program invests in five types of projects:

Research: These projects contribute to the "hypothesize and clarify" and "synthesize and theorize" components of the DRL cycle of innovation. Their primary goal is to advance knowledge in the informal STEM learning field rather than to develop specific deliverables for implementation.
Pathways: They include planning activities, pilot studies, and feasibility studies, or, in general, work that is on a path toward a major project (Research, Full-Scale Development, or Broad Implementation) but that need to address critical issues or decisions before major projects can be formulated.
Full-Scale Development: The main purpose of these projects is to generate an innovative idea or approach to informal science education, create a version that can stand alone in the public or professional arena, and evaluate its effectiveness.
Broad Implementation: Projects are expected to substantially broaden the reach of products or programs in the informal science education field that have demonstrated success with the audience they reach without sacrificing quality.
Communicating Research to Public Audiences: PI must hold an active NSF-funded research award in any NSF directorate or program.

Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL)

The name of the program has changed from Informal Science Education (ISE) to Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL). The Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) solicitation invites investigators to propose ideas, concepts, models, and other opportunities for learning and learning environments that will capture the creative and innovative potential of informal STEM learning for the future, and potentially forge new connections across all STEM learning communities.

Key Aspects of AISL Proposals

Advancing the Field: Articulate how the proposed project advances the field of informal STEM learning, describing key issues, hypotheses, opportunities, and/or challenges to which the proposed work is responsive.
Innovation at the Frontier of Informal Learning: Articulate how proposed work is informed by, or based upon, prior work in the field of interest and how the work will demonstrate innovation.
Broadening Participation: Projects must seek to provide greater access to STEM-learning opportunities for underserved audiences, such as racial and ethnic minorities, women and girls, those with disabilities or learning differences.
Collaborations: To stimulate innovative thinking, diversity of perspectives, and culturally inclusive learning, it is expected that projects will involve the participation of relevant collaborative partners.
The STEM Content: AISL proposals may address any area supported by the National Science Foundation.

Department of Education (USED) Initiatives

The Department of Education (USED) plays a crucial role in shaping education policy and funding initiatives. Several programs and actions undertaken by USED demonstrate its commitment to improving education across various levels.

USED's Oversight Actions and Investigations

USED has taken new oversight actions for the federal student loan portfolio following a “comprehensive analysis [which] uncovered nearly $90 million disbursed to ineligible recipients, including thousands of deceased individuals receiving some form of payment.” USED’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has concluded its investigation into the New York Department of Education and the New York State Board of Regents (the Board). OCR’s investigation determined that the Board has violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act (1964) by banning the use of Native American mascots and logos by school districts in the state of New York.

USED's Focus on Title IX

USED announced that it is recognizing June as ‘Title IX Month’ - in the past, “typically known as Pride Month” - “in honor of the fifty-third anniversary of Title IX of the Educational Amendments (1972) being signed into law.” Additionally, USED’s OCR launched new Title IX investigations at the University of Wyoming and Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS) in Colorado.

USED's Stance on Discrimination

USED’s OCR announced an investigation into Green Bay Area Public School District following a complaint filed by the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL), which alleges that the district discriminated against a student by prioritizing special education services for students of other races.

ED Games Expo

Department of Education hosts the ED Games Expo, an in-person event to showcase educational learning games and technologies developed through programs at the US Department of Education and across the government.

Learning Games and Technologies

With the global outbreak of COVID19 and the closure of tens of thousands of schools across the United States and world, a group of government supported developers and researchers are now offering their learning games and technologies at no cost through the end of the school year for use in distance learning settings with internet access. The resources are appropriate for young children to postsecondary students as well as for teachers in education and special education across a wide range of educational topics, such as for early learning, in STEM, reading and language learning, and social studies.

Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB)

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) is a private, nonprofit corporation created by Congress in 1967. Its mission is to ensure universal access to non-commercial high-quality programming and telecommunications services. CPB provides grants to public television and radio stations, as well as independent producers, to create and distribute educational and cultural programs.

CPB-Funded Initiatives

Public television stations active in early childhood education can apply to be in this second cohort of CPB-funded Ready To Learn State Projects. In this 18-month project, stations will collaborate with state-level partners to extend the impact of RTL work.

Read also: The Impact on Education

Public Media Bridge Fund

This program from the Public Media Bridge Fund provides limited financial support paired with professional advisory services essential to restructuring or partnership work for stations at great risk of being unable to maintain or restore service to their communities.

The Importance of STEM Education

According to the Report to the President, Prepare and Inspire: K-12 Education in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) for America's Future (President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, 2010), successful science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education in both school-based and out-of-school settings combined, will determine whether the United States will remain a leader among nations and be in a position to solve an array of immense and rapidly emerging national challenges in science and technology.

Informal Learning Environments

In Learning Science In Informal Environments: People, Places, and Pursuits (National Research Council, 2009), it was concluded that learning experiences across informal environments positively influence science learning in school, attitudes toward science, pursuit of science-related occupations, and engagement in lifelong science learning.

Challenges and Opportunities in Informal STEM Learning

“Informal” science education, which occurs outside formal school settings and across all ages, plays an increasingly vital role in the 21st century educational landscape. Americans spend over 80% of their lifetime waking hours outside schools, and have access to a vast array of learning resources, experiences, and educators. Within this context, informal settings are ideally situated for research and development of STEM learning.

Ubiquity: Almost any environment can support informal science education, such as a home, a museum, a street, a virtual or augmented reality game. This strength creates a challenge of continuity: How can learners be supported to make conscious and strategic bridges between what they learn in one setting and another, to be cumulative over their lifetimes?
Equity: Informal environments are, in principle, accessible to all learners, and evidence suggests they have particular potential for supporting learners from nondominant groups (National Research Council, 2009). How can the field capitalize on this potential, exploring new community partnerships and creating learning experiences that are relevant and inclusive for all learners?
Compelling experiences: Informal settings typically offer learners direct access to compelling and even unique phenomena in the natural and designed world, and powerful representations of those phenomena. How can learners participate in the less accessible aspects of scientific practice, such as reflection, abstraction, or grappling with scientific principles? How can learners be supported to engage in all aspects of science learning?
Flexible assessment: In informal environments, learners advance and share their knowledge voluntarily, without the constraints of mandated curricula and high-stakes tests. How can such unconstrained learners be supported to demonstrate what they know and can do, in ways that are seen as legitimate by themselves and others?
Abundance of educators: Ubiquity, digital networks, and lack of formal accreditation procedures mean that anyone with appropriate expertise can facilitate STEM learning in the informal world. What can be done to develop and support a network of professional development opportunities to take advantage of this enormous resource?
Nimbleness: The informal science education sector is agile, able to adapt quickly to new knowledge, systems, and opportunities. At the same time it consists of many distinct, independent entities and communities. How can increased coherence of effort and impact be achieved?

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