SERC and Collaborators Receive $10 Million NSF Grant

NSF has announced the award of a $10 Million grant to a collaboration of geoscience educators lead by the Science Education Resource Center to create the InTeGrate STEP Center. The five-year grant, "Interdisciplinary Teaching of Geoscience for a Sustainable Future," will develop teaching materials and model programs for use in undergraduate education. The team involves collaborators from 14 institutions across the US including Pennsylvania State University, Stanford University, Central Washington University, North Carolina State University, University of Texas El Paso, Columbia University, University of Akron (Ohio), University of Nebraska and the National Council for Science and the Environment. More than $3.5 million will support participation of faculty across the country in the collaborative development and testing of teaching materials and program models.

The STEP Centers initiative provides a unique opportunity for a group of faculty to address a national challenge or opportunity in undergraduate STEM education through a comprehensive and coordinated set of activities. The InTeGrate STEP Center is one of two STEP Centers funded this year through NSF's Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Talent Expansion Program, or STEP.

For more information on the grant and the work that will be done, you can read the following press reports:

• Carleton College News
  
• NSF Press Release
  
• Minneapolis Star Tribune Article