Noyce and S-STEM Mini-conference for Nevada and Southern Utah

Utah Tech University, St George UT

Investigators

Abstract

Dixie State University will organize a proposal-writing workshop at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas. The main activities of the workshop will be conducted by NSF staff and include participation of past NSF grant recipients in the area. The PI estimates that there will be 45 participants at the workshop from southern Utah and Nevada. She expects attendance from faculty members at Southern Utah University (SUU), Dixie State University (DSU), the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, the College of Southern Nevada (CSN), the University of Nevada at Reno, and Nevada State College (NSC). Twenty-nine of the anticipated forty-five participants have already expressed an interest in attending. The grant will cover travel costs for participants from SUU, DSU, and Reno as well as meals and refreshments for working lunches and discussion breaks during the workshop. The workshop is designed to raise awareness of funding opportunities for NSF program in the Division of Undergraduate Education in a geographical area that does not have any Noyce grants. The program includes a panel discussion with current NSF grant recipients, an outline of funding opportunities, a workshop on effective grant writing, a mock review panel, a brainstorming session to get started on grant writing ideas, and a question and answer session. Participant selection will focus on a diversity of representation from different schools and STEM disciplines. Because of the need for qualified secondary STEM teachers in high-needs schools in this geographical region, the potential for generating high-impact Noyce proposals is high. The student population in the targeted schools make them good potential sites for S-STEM proposals as well. 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.