Dear REESE Investigator,
The Center for Advancing Research and Communication in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (ARC) is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to conduct research and provide a variety of services in support of the REESE program and community of researchers. To help promote awareness of the program and its contributions to STEM learning, ARC will make available online descriptions of the work undertaken by the projects currently supported through the REESE program. To ensure consistency in the descriptions of each project’s key characteristics and major outcomes, we would appreciate your using the attached form to provide some background information about your REESE project. Your participation is voluntary, but invaluable in helping us provide the most complete information possible on the work and findings of the REESE program.
This form has been created so you can answer some questions by checking boxes (e.g., scrolling over the box and clicking your mouse to check ‘yes’). Answers to other (open-ended) questions can be typed into the highlighted box (which will expand to fit your answer). When you have completed this form, please save the file and e-mail it to:
Sarah-Kay McDonald
Center for Advancing Research and Communication in Science,
Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (ARC)
E-mail:
I would be pleased to answer any questions you might have about this project. Thank you very much for your assistance.
Sincerely,

Sarah-Kathryn McDonald
Executive Director
Center for Advancing Research and Communication in Science,
Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (ARC)
Senior Research Scientist
NORC at the University of Chicago
1155 East 60th Street, Room 277
Chicago, Illinois60637
Phone: (773) 256 6199
E-mail:

I. About your project

The questions in this section follow the headings commonly used in preparing structured abstracts to report on the goals, methods, and outcomes of a research project.

Background & Purpose
1. What is the title of your project?
2. Please provide two- to three-sentences on the question and/or purpose(s) of this study.
Setting
3. IF APPLICABLE, please provide a one- or two-sentence description of the place(s) studied (e.g., institutional setting(s), district(s), geographical location(s)). (Please note: we understand the importance of preserving the anonymity of sites participating in some studies; if this is a concern for you, it would be helpful to characterize the type of setting in which your work is conducted.)
4. Please indicate the time period during which these places are being studied.
Project begins
Data collection begins
Data collection ends
Project ends
5. Which of the following best describe the timeframe and overall design of your research project? (Please check all that apply)
This project is: Longitudinal
Cross-sectional
Comparative
Population of interest & study sample
6. What is the target population of interest (e.g., if your research involves the development or testing of an intervention, who are the subjects of your study?)
7. Does this project focus on a particular sample of the population?
No
YesPlease provide a one- to three- sentence description of the population(s) of
the study sample(s), (e.g., the number(s) of units sampled and selection
criteria).
8. Which of the following educational level(s) are targeted by your project? (Please check all that apply)
PreK-12 education (not informal settings)
Pre-kindergarten
Grades K-2
Grades 3-5
Grades 6-8
Grades 9-12
School personnel education and/or professional development
Pre-service teachers
In-service teachers
School administrators
Higher education (other than teacher education)
Undergraduates
Graduate students
Learning in informal settings
Children
Teens
Adults
Families
General public
Other (please describe):
Research Design
9. Research may be designed to generate evidence regarding relationships among variables that is descriptive (recording observations of the characteristics of variables, including across settings and/or the ways in which they change over time), associative (establishing whether a relationship between one set of changes and another exists), correlational (documenting the strength of the relationship), causal (indicating which produces, which results from, the other), or synthetic(drawing together findings and insights across studies and lines of inquiry). Which of the following types of evidence is your project designed to generate? (Please check all that apply)
Descriptive
Case study
Design research
Ethnography
Observational (e.g., field note excerpts, interview quotes, narrative vignettes)
Phenomenological
Other (please describe):
Associative and/or correlational
Analytic essay
Interpretive commentary
Quasi-experimental
Other (please describe):
Causal  What type of design does this study employ to warrant causal inference?
Experimental
Quasi-experimental
Statistical modeling
Other (please describe):
Synthesis
Meta-analysis
Other (please describe):
9a. If your project includes an intervention, what is it?
9b. If applicable, what is the comparisoncondition?
Data Collection
10. Does this project involve data collection?
No  Skip to Question 13.
Yes How are data collected for this project? (Please check all that apply)
Diaries / journals / records kept by study subjects
School records or policy documents
Assessments of learning, achievement tests
Observation
Personal observation
Videography
Web logs (records of online usage)
Survey research
Self-completion questionnaire
Paper & pencil
Online
Structured Interviewer-administered questionnaire
Face-to-face
Computer assisted personal interview (CAPI)
Telephone
Computer assisted telephone interview (CATI)
Semi-structured or informal interviews
Face-to-face
Telephone
Focus groups
Imaging(e.g., brain imaging)
Other(Please describe):
11. Please provide a brief description of the instruments or measures used in your study (including, if applicable, reference to instruments your project developed or from other sources).
12. Does your project have any plans to make originally-collected data available for use by others?
No
YesHow does your project plan to do / is it doing this?
13. Does this project involve secondary data analysis?
No
Yes Which secondary sources are analyzed?
Analysis Plan(s)
14. Please provide a two-or three-sentence description of the methods employed to analyze data.
Findings & Products
15. Is this project designed to generate particular products (e.g., curricula, teacher professional development materials, new instruments for measuring outcomes, new cyberlearning techniques)?
No
YesPlease provide a brief description of the products you expect to generate.
16. What is the estimated timeline for when the results of this study would be applicable to classroom practice or educational policy?
17. Please indicate the groups you expect would be immediate consumer(s) of your project’s findings. (Please check all that apply)
Education researchers
Researchers in other fields
Education policymakers
School administrators
School teachers
University and college instructors (of any rank)
Teacher-educators or professional development providers
Curriculum developers and/or publishers
Assessment experts and/or organizations
Software developers
Informal education and the public
Other (Please describe):
18. Has your project generated any findings to date?
No
YesPlease provide a one- to two-paragraph description of key project findings.
Citations
19. Please provide as many references as possible to publicly available descriptions of and reports of your study, including project web sites, academic publications, technical reports, instrumentation, research briefs, working papers, and press releases. Please include URLs for any items available online.

II. Your project and the REESE portfolio

Your answers to the following questions will be very helpful to NSF in describing how the goals and results of individual REESE projects contribute to the achievement of the mission of the program overall.

20. Please indicate which of the following disciplines are addressed by your project (Please check all that apply):
Mathematics
Number sense
Geometry and measurement
Elementary algebra
Pre-calculus
Linear, matrix, and abstract algebra
Calculus and differential equations
Statistics
Other advanced mathematics (Please specify):
Science
Astronomy
Biology
Chemistry
Earth Science
Environmental Science
Physics
Other science field (Please specify):
Engineering
Technology
Computer science
Social Sciences and Economics
Behavioral and Cognitive Science
Statistical methods, Research Design, or Educational Measurement
Other discipline (Please specify):
21. Recent REESE program solicitations distinguish emerging research on the frontiers of knowledge from research that addresses “central problems and topics in STEM education, teaching and learning, and evaluation” and is designed to yield “findings, prototypes, or other output … of use to communities of researchers, policy analysts, and developers who seek to develop curricula, improve teacher education programs, or provide guidance to policymakers or other stakeholders.” Using these guidelines, which of the following best describes the type of project your research involves?
Frontier Research (NSF 07-595) or Research on Emerging Topics in STEM Education
(NSF 08-585)
Contextual Research (NSF 07-595) or Contextual Research Topics in STEM Education
(NSF 08-585)
22. Recent REESE program solicitations indicate specific topics which provide the focus of study for particular types of projects. Using these guidelines, do any of the following describe the topic of your research? (Please check all that apply)
Neural basis for learning mathematics (NSF 07-595)
Neural basis of STEM learning (NSF 08-585)
Cognitive processes underlying STEM learning and teaching (NSF 07-595, NSF 08-585)
Measurement, modeling, and methods (NSF 07-595) for research and evaluation (NSF 08-585)
Cyber-enabled learning and teaching (NSF 07-595); cyberlearning and teaching (NSF 08-585)
Studies of STEM teaching and learning in formal and informal settings (NSF 07-595,
NSF 08-585)
Policy, evaluation, and systems studies (NSF 07-595)
Education policy and systems studies (NSF 08-585)
Evaluation studies (NSF 08-585)
Other (please specify)
23. Recent REESE program solicitations also describe particular types of research projects. Which of the following best describes the type of project your research involves, using categories established in the 2006-2009 REESE program solicitations?
Empirical Research and Evaluation Project (NSF 06-537, NSF 06-609)
Synthesis Research and Evaluation Project (NSF 06-537, NSF 06-609)
Knowledge Diffusion Project (NSF 07-595, NSF 08-585)
Empirical Research Project (NSF 07-595, NSF 08-585)
Large Empirical Research Project (NSF 07-595, NSF 08-585)
Does not apply this project (e.g., funded under a previous solicitation)
NSF’s Division of Research on Learning in Formal and Informal Settings (DRL) supports research to generate knowledge at all stages of innovation and learning. Figure 1 displays the cycle of innovation currently used by DRL.
Figure 1: Cycle of innovation and learning

(Source: NSF 08-585, p. 5)
24. Where is your project now with respect to these stages of the research process? (See NSF 07-595, p. 6)
Studying and clarifying phenomena of interest; framing issues
Operationalizing goals and constructs
Developing and proposing theory
Conducting basic research on learning
Designing / developing materials, measurement tools, methods
Testing / validating materials, measurement tools, methods
Refining materials, measurement tools, methods
Implementing innovations
Studying why interventions have the impacts they have
Evaluating effectiveness
Generalizing findings
Synthesizing lines of work
Identifying new insights and questions to inform new research and development
Establishing future research and development (R&D) agendas
25. Where do your expect your project to be a year from now with respect to these stages in the research process?
Studying and clarifying phenomena of interest; framing issues
Operationalizing goals and constructs
Developing and proposing theory
Conducting basic research on learning
Designing / developing materials, measurement tools, methods
Testing / validating materials, measurement tools, methods
Refining materials, measurement tools, methods
Implementing innovations
Studying why interventions have the impacts they have
Evaluating effectiveness
Generalizing findings
Synthesizing lines of work
Identifying new insights and questions to inform new research and development
Establishing future research and development (R&D) agendas
26. Which of the following best describes where you expect your project will be upon completion, with respect to these stages in the research process?
Studying and clarifying phenomena of interest; framing issues
Operationalizing goals and constructs
Developing and proposing theory
Conducting basic research on learning
Designing / developing materials, measurement tools, methods
Testing / validating materials, measurement tools, methods
Refining materials, measurement tools, methods
Implementing innovations
Studying why interventions have the impacts they have
Evaluating effectiveness
Generalizing findings
Synthesizing lines of work
Identifying new insights and questions to inform new research and development
Establishing future research and development (R&D) agendas

Please save and return your completed form via e-mail to:

Sarah-Kathryn McDonald

Executive Director

Center for Advancing Research and Communication in Science, Technology,

Engineering, and Mathematics (ARC)

NORC at the University of Chicago

Phone: (773) 256 6199

E-mail:

Thank you!

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