In FY 1998, NSF’s Directorate for Geosciences (GEO) inaugurated a competitive grants program in geoscience education by issuing a program announcement titled "Awards to Facilitate Geoscience Education" (NSF 97-174). In scope and philosophy, the program followed the recommendations of the report of the Geoscience Education Working Group convened by GEO and its Advisory Committee for Geosciences (the report is available at www.geo.nsf.gov).

The purpose of the program is to engage the best of the geoscience research community in education at all levels, to foster active learning in the geosciences, and to promote the integration of geoscience research and geoscience education. The program is intended to catalyze the development of highly innovative programs which show promise for having a broad impact in the future, especially where support may otherwise not be available.

The response from the community to the program announcement was quite remarkable. GEO received 118 proposals for a wide variety of projects involving geoscience education at all levels (precollege, undergraduate, graduate, and public/informal). The proposals came from all kinds of institutions: research universities, large and smaller state universities, colleges, community colleges, university consortia, professional societies, and small corporations. Some of the best proposals involved creative partnerships, the marriage of scientific and educational expertise, and the innovative use of modern communications technologies.

The proposals were reviewed by a distinguished 18-member panel of geoscience educators. The panelists came from a wide range of institutions: large- and moderate-size universities, a liberal arts college, a community college, research institutes, college and university consortia, a museum, and a corporation devoted to research and education. The panel was initially formed into three 6-member subpanels, whose task it was to initially prioritize the proposals. Following its deliberations, each subpanel sent its 11 most meritorious proposals to a "merge" panel (composed of 2 members from each subpanel) for a final prioritization. A look at the distribution of the 33 proposals going to the merge panel by subject matter reveals the scope of the competition (the number in parentheses is the number of proposals in that category):

WWW-based development (11)
3-D visualization (1)
Cognitive psychology applied to geoscience education (1)
Conference (1)
Undergraduate field-based education (2)
Undergraduate research facilitation (2)
Undergraduate teacher enhancement (2)
Undergraduate curriculum development (4)
Precollege teacher enhancement (3)
Precollege curriculum development (1)
Precollege enrichment (3)
Museum exhibits and associated programs (2)

The merge panel prioritized the 33 proposals it considered and placed 26 of these in a "highest priority” category. Thanks in part to generous contributions from the Division of Undergraduate Education and the Division of Elementary, Secondary, and Informal Education in NSF’s Directorate for Education and Human Resources, NSF has been able to support all 26 of the proposals in the highest priority category, giving a 22% success rate overall. All of the above categories are represented in the 26 awards, save one (precollege curriculum development).

To view the list of successful awards, click here. The list contains links to individual project homepages.