The National Science Foundation is taking a page from the What Works Clearinghouse with a new Web site that aims to identify the research that will have the greatest impact on practitioners.
The Science, Engineering and Education (SEE) Innovation site, up but still in development, gives brief explanations of the most “transformative” research results in ongoing NSF-funded projects, searchable by topic area, according to Amber L. Jones, legislative and public affairs specialist for the program. Some of the more interesting links include research by John Friedman of the National Bureau of Economic Research Inc. in Cambridge, Mass., showing the workforce benefits for students who attend kindergarten, or a program by Big Sky Science Partnership in Montana to help K-8 science teachers connect content instruction to Native American students’ culture.
Educators and policymakers, Ms. Jones told a meeting of education researchers this morning, “are going to be looking for results with big impacts for their constituents, so that’s what we’re looking for.”
So far, the site is a bit skeletal &mdash it posts only 600 briefs of the more than 50,000 research projects NSF funds &mdash and administrators are still working with scientists to write the briefs with more direct relevance to educators and the public, but Ms. Jones told me the group will add new research based in part on what educators and others say they would like to see. If you want to weigh in on the research topics that would be most helpful in the classroom, write her at aljones@nsf.gov.