Structured Abstract

Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 05/24/2011 - 07:41

Dear REESE Investigator,

The Center for Advancing Research and Communication (ARC) in STEM is funded by NSF to conduct research and provide a variety of services in support of the REESE program. To help promote awareness of the program and its contributions to STEM learning, ARC makes available online descriptions of the work undertaken by the projects currently supported through the REESE program. To ensure consistency in the project descriptions, we request that you use the following online structured abstract form. Additional details about the information being requested in the abstract form are available in the Rigor Standards Guidelines that ARC has developed with NSF for assessing the scientific rigor of funded research.

Your participation is entirely voluntary but will be invaluable in helping us provide the most complete information possible on the work of the REESE community. Note that only select answers with be used for the online summary, which you will have the opportunity to review and edit before it is posted. You also will be able to add or delete information at will once the summary is online. All other responses will be kept strictly confidential and only aggregate results will be reported to NSF. A copy of your responses will be emailed to you when you submit the form. I would be pleased to answer any questions you might have about this project (brown-kevin@norc.org). Thank you very much for your assistance.

Sincerely,

Kevin Brown

Part I: About Your REESE Project

Background & Purpose
Setting

IF APPLICABLE, please provide a one- or two-sentence description of the place(s) studied (e.g., institutional setting(s), district(s), geographical location(s)). (Please note: we understand the importance of preserving the anonymity of sites participating in some studies; if this is a concern for you, it would be helpful to characterize the type of setting in which your work is conducted.)

4. Time Period

Please indicate the time period during which these places are being studied.

Which of the following best describe the timeframe and overall design of your research project? (Please check all that apply)

Population of Interest & Study Sample

What is the target population of interest (e.g., if your research involves the development or testing of an intervention, who are the subjects of your study?)

If YES, please provide a one- to three- sentence description of the population(s) of the study sample(s), (e.g., the number(s) of units sampled and selection criteria).

8. Educational Level

Which of the following educational level(s) are targeted by your project? (Please check all that apply).

Research Design
9. Types of Evidence

Research may be designed to generate evidence regarding relationships among variables that is DESCRIPTIVE (recording observations of the characteristics of variables, including across settings and/or the ways in which they change over time), ASSOCIATIVE (establishing whether a relationship between one set of changes and another exists), CORRELATIONAL (documenting the strength of the relationship), CAUSAL (indicating which produces, which results from, the other), or SYNTHETIC (drawing together findings and insights across studies and lines of inquiry).

Which of the following types of evidence is your project designed to generate, and what design elements do you employ to produce that evidence? (Please check all that apply).

If your project includes an INTERVENTION, what is it?

If applicable, what is the COMPARISON CONDITION?

Data Sources
Data Collection

If NO: skip to Question 13

Data collection YES

How are data collected for this project? (Please check all that apply).

If this project involves observation as a means of data collection, what form(s) is utilized?

Please provide a brief description of the instruments or measures used in your study (including, if applicable, reference to instruments your project developed or from other sources).

How does your project plan to do/ is doing this?

Which secondary sources are being analyzed?

Analysis Plan(s)

Please provide a two-or three-sentence description of the methods employed to analyze data.

Findings & Products

Is this project designed to generate particular products (e/g/. curricula, teacher professional development materials, new instruments for measuring outcomes, new cyberlearning techniques)?

If this project is designed to generate particular products, please provide a brief description of the products you expect to generate.

What is the estimated timeline for when the results of this study would be applicable to classroom practice or educational policy?

Please indicate the groups you expect would be immediate consumer(s) of your project's findings. (Please check all that apply)

Has your project generated any findings to date?

If your project has generated findings, please provide a one- to two-paragraph description of key project findings.

Citations

Please provide as many references as possible to publicly available descriptions of and reports of your study, including project web sites, academic publications, technical reports, instrumentation, research briefs, working papers, and press releases. Please include URLs for any items available online.