Chemical Education Today
Report
Award Data Searches at the NSF Web Site by Donald J. Wink
The National Science Foundation has supported thousands of projects in education and many hundreds in chemistry. These make a rich resource of experienced educators who have already investigated an idea, developed applications for an instrument, or implemented a new course method. How can you find out what has been done and by whom? Obviously, the best way is to be a steady reader of chemical education journals, but what can you do if something is not published? That is when you turn to the actual award data on the NSF Web site. NSF award data consists of important administration information, but it also contains an abstract of the project and contact information. This way, if you know of a project that interests you, you can reach the person in charge for more information.
There are three kinds of searches. One is by “browsing”, the second is by a search of the text of the abstract of the award, and the third is through a more advanced search interface. All are accessible through the NSF Awards page: http:/ /www.nsf.gov/home/grants/grants_awards.htm. Browsing
Ideally, this would be an excellent way to search, but it takes a great deal of getting used to. If one clicks on the “browse” option, one enters the NSF “FastLane” system. This system operates on a secure server and also supports the NSF grant submission and review program, items that require institutional registration. The browsing features do not, to my knowledge, require anything other than a Web browser that handles secure transmissions. Browsing can be used to inspect lists by recent award date, by state, and by institution. Table 1. NSF Program Names and Codes for Fielded Searches of Award Data But the one that may be most helpful is browsing by the NSF Program. This is located at Code Program Namea h t t p : / / w w w. f a s t l a n e . n s f . g o v / a 6 / 1139 Research Experiences For Undergraduate Sites (see also 1986 below) A6QueryPgm.htm. The page gives a dialog box 1169 Recognition Awards for Integration of Research and Education for a program name. But only specific program names (not always obvious) are acceptable. 1340 Engineering Education What I suggest you do is select the option to 1544 EHR Activities for Women and Girls in Science, Engineering and Math list all the programs by name, which brings up 1545 EHR Activities in Science, Engineering and Math for Persons with a drop-down list to choose from. But be paDisabilities tient: not all programs are listed by obvious titles. So, in true browser style, explore all the 1546 Summer Science Camps different names that interest you. 1547 Comprehensive Partnerships for Mathematics and Science Achievement 1986 Undergraduate Programs in Chemistry (includes Research Experiences for Undergraduates)
Text Searching
1990 Chemistry Education
This option, controlled through the nonsecure page at http://www.nsf.gov/verity/ srchawd.htm, requires the input of keywords. The advantage is that the search covers the entire abstract posted with the award data. But you must restrict you initial query if you are to avoid irrelevant citations. There is an explanation of the syntax that is easy to follow. The search is a one-time access only: you cannot hone the search through more and more specific filters. So to search for programs that involve undergraduate education in physics and chemistry, you need to search for “physics AND chemistry AND undergraduate AND education” from the start. This particular search returned 932 awards since 1989, including many that contained the stem of these words (educational instead of education, etc.). This list, in groups of 25, can be browsed online, or you can download a text or database file of all the awards.
7256 Research in Education, Policy, and Practice 7258 Research in Teaching and Learning 7259 Informal Science Education 7260 Studies and Analyses 7261 Program Evaluation 7263 Networking Infrastructure for Education 7300 Teacher Enhancement Program 7348 Teacher Preparation Program 7355 Instructional Materials Development 7400 Undergraduate Instrumentation and Laboratory Improvement Program 7410 DUE Course and Curriculum Program 7412 Advanced Technological Education Program 7430 Undergraduate Faculty Enhancement Program 8888 Learning and Intelligent Systems a
Do not use this name in the program name field; use the code.
JChemEd.chem.wisc.edu • Vol. 75 No. 6 June 1998 • Journal of Chemical Education
677
Chemical Education Today
Report Table 2. Informational Sites Web Page Title
URL
NSF Funding Opportunities and Awards: Awards and Award Abstracts http://www.nsf.gov/home/grants/grants_awards.htm Quer y Awards by NSF Program
http://www.fastlane.nsf.gov/a6/A6Quer yPgm.htm
NSF: Search Awards
http://www.nsf.gov/verity/srchawd.htm
NSF Awards - Fielded Search
http://www.nsf.gov/verity/srchawdf.htm
NSF Awards - Program Code Help
http://www.nsf.gov/awards/pgmhelp.htm
NSF Budget Internet Information System
http://Ntalpha.bfa.nsf.gov/
Field Searches A subset of the search methods just discussed is the “fielded” search, located at http://www.nsf.gov/verity/ srchawdf.htm. This is a powerful search engine, with 14 different fields, including one for abstract searching. This permits one to search in particular time periods, and is the best way I know to search by the NSF program that funded a project. The only hitch is that the “NSF Program” field does not respond to conventional names, but to the NSF abbreviated names. Fortunately, all these programs have a fourcharacter (usually four numbers) code that can also be used instead of specifying the program by name. The full listing of the codes (at http://www.nsf.gov/awards/pgmhelp.htm) is quite large, so I have listed 23 of the most relevant and current programs in Table 1. The table contains programs with active projects (I have omitted awards to individuals, such as fellowships).
Late Breaking News The National Science Foundation recently announced an interdisciplinary program with possible applications in education. It is the Urban Research Initiative, and is online at http://www.nsf.gov/ pubs/1998/nsf9898/nsf9898.htm. There is a July 17, 1998 reception deadline for this program.
678
For example, say you wanted to know who received an award for “physics AND chemistry AND undergraduate AND education”, but you only wanted grants initiated in 1997 and supported under the Course and Curriculum Development program. At the fielded search, you would enter the abstract search as before, but also you would select “Contains 7410” in the two boxes provided for “NSF Program” and “Between 01-01-97 12-31-97” in the three boxes provided for “Start date”. This restricted search returns only 11 awards, a considerable filtering from an abstract-only text search. In closing, I want to flag a site that may become more useful as time goes on. It is the NSF “Budget Internet Information System” located at http://Ntalpha.bfa.nsf.gov/. Currently this allows the retrieval of award data by organization and state, but it has the look of something that may expand to other types of browsing in the future. Acknowledgments I am grateful to the NSF personnel, including Dan Hofherr and Mike Morse, who responded to my request for help in getting the information for Table 1. I am responsible for its formatting. Donald J. Wink is in the Department of Chemistry, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL 60607;
[email protected].
Journal of Chemical Education • Vol. 75 No. 6 June 1998 • JChemEd.chem.wisc.edu
