EAGER: Study of Longitudinal results and the I CORPS L Ecosystem

National Collegiate Inventors And Innovators Alliance, Hadley MA

Investigators

Abstract

This project will conduct a study of the outcomes achieved by teams in the National Science Foundation Innovation Corps for Learning Program (NSF I-Corps L) and will analyze the specific activities found to be successful in helping educational innovations achieve wider use and impact. NSF's Innovation Corps for Learning Program takes discoveries and promising practices from education research and development and provides support to help achieve broader adoption of these STEM education and learning innovations. I-Corps L teams receive support in the form of mentoring and funding to accelerate scaling of educational innovations in a sustainable manner. This project will examine the results from I-Corps L and determine if and how the participating team members apply what they learned through I-Corps L. This work will identify and monitor the outcomes of participation in I-Corps L on the scaling up educational innovations of the team as well as the professional development of the team members. The project will seek to identify the key features and pathways in the educational systems which are most useful to I-Corps L teams in successfully scaling up and sustaining their STEM education-related innovations. This study will provide a better understanding of the long-term outcomes achieved by the I-Corps L program. This information will be useful in helping other educational innovations to achieve greater impact. This project will document the longitudinal outcomes of the three I-Corps L cohorts trained in 2015 and early 2016 and will create a greater understanding of the conditions that are responsible for their relative success. The investigation will be guided by two main questions. First, what are the outcomes of participation in I-Corps L on the teams' innovations, the team members' personal and professional development? Second, what are the key features of and pathways within the ecosystems in which I-Corps L team members seek to successfully scale and sustain their STEM education-related innovations? Through surveys and interviews with participants, experts and education entrepreneurs the project will document the intermediate and long-term outcomes of participation in I-Corps L on the teams' innovations and on team members' personal and professional development and the factors associated with the I-Corps L process; and identify and define the key features and pathways in the ecosystem(s) in which I-Corps L team members seek to successfully scale and sustain their STEM education-related innovations. Results will include a set of recommendations and observations to support future research and evaluation of NSF education programs including I-Corps L and recommendations for NSF's role and policies directed to scaling STEM educational innovations. This study will become part of an emerging body of literature around educational related entrepreneurial studies in STEM.