NSDL Center for Sustaining Broader Impacts

University Corporation For Atmospheric Res, Boulder CO

Investigators

Abstract

The NSDL Center for Sustaining Broader Impacts combines intra-community support structures for NSDL grantees with well-defined mechanisms for effective outreach and dissemination in a Web 2.0 world to organizations and coalitions that provide K-12 teachers and/or higher education faculty with educational materials or professional development. Four primary goals guide the work of the center: 1) Mobilization: to facilitate the flow of information and communications across NSDL projects to build community capacity, set priorities, and identify emerging issues so that the community can exploit its opportunities and address its challenges collectively. 2) Synthesis: to mine the collective knowledge and experience of the community and synthesize the work of NSDL projects to inform community best practices. 3) Dissemination: to place resources and research into the hands of educators through targeted outreach activities, by bundling specific products and services to meet users' needs, and by distributing NSDL products and services through trusted dissemination channels. 4) Analysis and Evaluation: to create and foster a culture of data gathering and interpretation to support the analysis of needs and trends so that NSDL can create more effective products and services that meet the demands of STEM learners. The intellectual merit of this project lies in its core strategies of: i) brokering partnerships and opportunities on behalf of the community; ii) monitoring trends and practices; iii) promoting and advocating for NSDL; iv) customizing and contextualizing NSDL resources; v) putting NSDL in the path of users; and vi) systematic data gathering to inform short-term decision-making and long-term sustainability planning. Taken together these can serve as a model for Web 2.0 educational organizations. The project is exerting broader impacts through its dedication to the integration of research with education, the provision of services and support for teacher training, professional development, and STEM workforce growth. By advocating for STEM education through partnership and capacity-building activities, across multiple disciplines and audiences, the center is extending NSDL's reach and effectiveness and creating new channels for reaching audiences and for understanding impact. This effort is essential to the realization of the NSDL community vision of transforming many distinct and important initiatives into an increasingly coherent whole, all in the service of STEM education.