Award Abstract # 2034189
RAISE: Guiding Earth Educators to Transformative Resources: Broadening the Scope and Increasing the Efficacy of the SERC Discovery System

NSF Org: RISE
Div of Res, Innovation, Synergies, & Edu
Recipient: CARLETON COLLEGE
Initial Amendment Date: September 15, 2020
Latest Amendment Date: February 23, 2022
Award Number: 2034189
Award Instrument: Standard Grant
Program Manager: Brandon Jones
mbjones@nsf.gov
 (703)292-4713
RISE
 Div of Res, Innovation, Synergies, & Edu
GEO
 Directorate For Geosciences
Start Date: September 15, 2020
End Date: August 31, 2025 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount: $999,200.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date: $999,200.00
Funds Obligated to Date: FY 2020 = $999,200.00
History of Investigator:
  • Sean Fox (Principal Investigator)
    sfox@carleton.edu
  • Ellen Iverson (Co-Principal Investigator)
  • Cailin Orr (Co-Principal Investigator)
  • Cathryn Manduca (Former Co-Principal Investigator)
Recipient Sponsored Research Office: Carleton College
1 N COLLEGE ST
NORTHFIELD
MN  US  55057-4044
(507)222-4303
Sponsor Congressional District: 02
Primary Place of Performance: Carleton College
One North College Street
Northfield
MN  US  55057-4001
Primary Place of Performance
Congressional District:
02
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): KALKKJL418Q7
Parent UEI:
NSF Program(s): Hist Black Colleges and Univ,
Integrat & Collab Ed & Rsearch,
EarthCube
Primary Program Source: 01002021DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
04002021DB NSF Education & Human Resource
Program Reference Code(s): 049Z, 8209, 9178
Program Element Code(s): 159400, 769900, 807400
Award Agency Code: 4900
Fund Agency Code: 4900
Assistance Listing Number(s): 47.050

ABSTRACT

This project will improve the tools and practices that support resource discovery for Earth educators visiting SERC-hosted websites. The Earth education community identified improving discovery as its highest priority action for maximizing the impact of the SERC-held collections of education materials. In addition, we will modify tools in the Serckit platform to allow users of the SERC sites to discover Earth education materials hosted by other organizations. This will increase the visibility of resources from many sources and provide the community with a one-stop portal for finding high quality educational materials. The new search and exploration tools will directly support connecting users to materials that: integrate research-driven pedagogy, prioritize student engagement with current research data, and increase the visibility of the community's diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, thereby elevating the spread of these important practices. The investigators will use a systematic, community-informed process to guide the upgrades, ensuring changes lead to increasing impact of the materials and resources.

The investigators will engage in a user-centered design process: a cyclical feedback loop of gathering community input, making targeted improvements and evaluating the results. The focus of this process will be to 1) make iterative improvements to a wide-range of site features intended to improve discovery and 2) expand the range of resources discoverable to include those not directly hosted by SERC. This expanded scope, facilitated by SERC tools for cataloging external resources, will connect the large Earth education audience already on SERC sites to the rich array of resources, projects, and events developed by external Earth education programs including research centers (e.g., UNAVCO, IRIS, UCAR, OOI, CUAHSI) and efforts funded by GEOPAths and NSF INCLUDES. The evaluative part of the design cycle will require developing a deeper understanding of how users engage in discovery with the current site and establishing metrics that characterize how well the modifications and expansion made serve the users.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

Please report errors in award information by writing to: awardsearch@nsf.gov.

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