| NSF Org: |
CHE Division Of Chemistry |
| Recipient: |
|
| Initial Amendment Date: | August 10, 2011 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | August 20, 2015 |
| Award Number: | 1118663 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Katharine Covert
kcovert@nsf.gov (703)292-4950 CHE Division Of Chemistry MPS Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences |
| Start Date: | August 15, 2011 |
| End Date: | January 31, 2016 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $150,000.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $150,000.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
|
| History of Investigator: |
|
| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
900 OTAY LAKES RD CHULA VISTA CA US 91910-7223 (619)482-6344 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
|
| Primary Place of Performance: |
900 OTAY LAKES RD CHULA VISTA CA US 91910-7223 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
|
| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
|
| Parent UEI: |
|
| NSF Program(s): |
PROJECTS, AISL |
| Primary Program Source: |
04001112DB NSF Education & Human Resource |
| Program Reference Code(s): |
|
| Program Element Code(s): |
|
| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.049 |
ABSTRACT
Project iLASER (investigations with Light And Sustainable Energy Resources) will engage children, youth and adults in the Southwest United States in public science education and hands-on activities. The Project iLASER team will visit communities in Chula Vista, CA; El Centro/Brawley, CA; Yuma, AZ; Nogales, AZ; Las Cruces, NM; El Paso, TX; McAllen, TX; and Harlingen, TX. Each two-day or three-day visit will include activities in light and solar energy. Numerous local partners, including Boys and Girls Clubs, YMCAs, science museums, two year colleges, chemistry clubs and individuals will assist. Two particularly critical partners are the Nanoscale Informal Science Education Network (NISE Net) and CCI Solar, a basic research center centered at Caltech. Public lectures on the science and impacts of CCI Solar research will be offered in each community.
Project iLASER is supported by the Division of Chemistry and the Division of Research on Learning, Lifelong Learning Cluster, as part of the celebration of the International Year of Chemistry.
PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
Project iLASER was conceived as an endeavor to celebrate the International Year of Chemistry 2011 (IYC 2011), as proclaimed by the United Nations. The project activities were primarily focused on communicating science to public audiences, in one manner or another, with a strong emphasis on engaging children living in U.S. communities along the U.S.-Mexico international border in hands-on science activities.
The Project iLASER goals were to:
- Promote and celebrate IYC 2011 along the U.S.Mexico international border.
- Communicate research efforts on the part of the NSF-supported Center for Chemical Innovation - Solar Fuels (CCI Solar), managed by Caltech (NSF Award IDs CHE 0802907 and CHE 1305124), to 30 public audiences.
- Create a network of after-school and informal science education programs along the U.S.-Mexico border.
- Recruit new institutions into the cohort of those participating in NanoDays events promoted by the NSF-supported Nanoscale Informal Science Education Network (NISE Net) (NSF Award IDs DRL 0532536 and DRL 0940143).
The primary efforts associated with the project included: (1) acquiring educational materials to demonstrate the great potential held by solar power production to meet the energy demands of an ever-increasing world population and implementing activities from the NISE Net collection; (2) developing the curriculum to make the hands-on experiences meaningful to the target populations; (3) traveling to conduct events and distribute materials to numerous sites along the border; and (4) providing professional development to educators and other staff to implement and sustain the activities.
While the original timeline for Project iLASER was 18 months, the project was extended significantly, ultimately to a duration of approximately 4.5 years, due to circumstances resulting from PI Brown serving as a Program Director within NSF's Division of Undergraduate Education for three years. This additional time, during which Brown was able to continue to build capacity along the border, utilizing the Independent Research and Development support from NSF, permitted the accomplishment of a project of greater magnitude than originally proposed. As such, some of the project outcomes include:
- The materials, supplies and curricula for engaging children in hands-on STEM activities were extended beyond chemistry, materials science and sustainable energy to include biology, engineering, environmental science and earth science.
- Events were conducted and educational materials were disseminated at 27 unique venues that span the entirety of the U.S.-Mexico international border from the Pacific Ocean to the Rio Grande Valley of Texas at the Gulf of Mexico. Several Project iLASER participant sites were visited on multiple (as many as six) occasions.
- More than 1,400 children took part in Project iLASER events.
- Professional development was provided for approximately 250 staff in after-school organizations and in-service teachers from schools that participated in Project iLASER.
- The project entailed cumulative travel along the border that included more than 15,000 road miles and a similar number of air miles to targeted and strategic communities that are home to populations often impoverished and under-served in STEM education resources.
Please report errors in award information by writing to: awardsearch@nsf.gov.
