Understanding NSF Research: Education
Image Captions and Credits
Next-generation Learning Environments
The CAVE2™ system is a next-generation, large-scale, virtual environment--a room in which images are seamlessly displayed so immersed in a cyber world of 3-D data. Here, Khairi Reda, a research assistant at the University of Illinois at Chicago's Electronic Visualization Laboratory and computer science Ph.D. candidate, uses the CAVE2 system to fly through a simulation of a glass fissure.
Credit: Photo by Lance Long; courtesy Electronic Visualization Laboratory, University of Illinois at Chicago
Research on Learning
University of Maryland researchers conducted one of the first, in-depth analyses of whether people recall information better with virtual reality or desktop computers. Virtual reality continues to grow in popularity for gaming and entertainment, but the technology also shows promise for changing the landscape of industries such as medicine, education and workforce training.
Credit: John T. Consoli
Education Diversity
San Francisco State University's SF Call: Computing for All Learners and Levels is a K-20 curriculum designed to encourage students from all backgrounds to get excited about computer science careers.
Credit: San Francisco State University
Globally-engaged Graduate Research
Oregon State University Ph.D. candidate Alexandra Davis studies the ecological effects of the Indo-Pacific red lionfish. Since 1952, the National Science Foundation's Graduate Research Fellowship Program has recognized and supported outstanding early career graduate students. The program has supported some 40 Fellows who have become Nobel Laureates and more than 450 who have become members of the National Academy of Sciences.
Credit: Kristian Dzilenski
Education for High-technology Fields
A student participating in a Southeast Regional Center for Laser and Fiber Optics Education (LASER-TEC) degree program learns how to align a Michelson interferometer. Supported by the National Science Foundation's Advanced Technological Education program, LASER-TEC anchors a broad educational infrastructure in the Southeast to enhance and promote careers in lasers and fiberoptics. The center and its partner colleges offer degree and workforce programs, as well as professional development for educators.
Credit: ATE Centers Impact 2016-2017 (www.atecenters.org)
Learning and Learning Environments
Anytime, anywhere, access to information provides unparalleled opportunities to advance STEM learning. Informal settings such as citizen science projects, interactive educational websites, IMAX movies, science museums, television shows and much more provide venues for improving STEM education.
Credit: Science Museum of Minnesota
Broadening Participation & Institutional Capacity
The Atlanta Center for Behavioral Neuroscience, a National Science Foundation Science and Technology Center, provides one of the most diverse environments for undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral research in the nation.
Credit: Atlanta Center for Behavioral Neuroscience
STEM Professional Workforce
NSF prepares a diverse, globally engaged science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) workforce.
Credit: Amina Khan/NSF