NSF Geoscience Directorate Education-Related Programs in Latin America
Abstract
The U.S. National Science Foundation supports many grant proposals each year with educational components located in Latin America. Most of these proposals are focused around traditional US-centered scientific investigations with field sites in Latin America, and involve links to local education as an element addressing the NSF's "Broader Impact" criterion. Most governmental science and education funding agencies' missions in the Americas are legally constrained to operate only within their national borders. The NSF's charter allows for the funding of non-US entities, but such programs are rare. This presentation will address two programs that operate within the NSF Geosciences Directorate and carry out activities in Latin America: the Regional Institutes Program, and the GLOBE Program. These two programs go far beyond the traditional model of local involvement described above, and are centrally coordinated efforts that integrate research and education between and among a wide portfolio of projects, rather than within a single grant. These programs address education at different levels (post-graduate and pre- college), and necessarily have very different approaches. However, they both involve extensive collaboration between scientists and educators, research opportunities abroad, and the use of cyberinfrastructure. Differences, successes and false starts will be explored.
http://www.globe.gov- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2006
- Bibcode:
- 2006AGUFMED43G..01F
- Keywords:
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- 0800 EDUCATION;
- 0805 Elementary and secondary education;
- 0810 Post-secondary education