Science Education Partnership Awards (SEPA) Annual Program Director Conference

描述（由申请人提供）：NCRR科学教育合作伙伴奖（SEPA）计划资助新颖的项目，提高学生（K-12年级），教师和公众对科学和NIH研究的理解。该计划支持生物医学和临床研究人员与K-12教师和学校，博物馆和科学中心教育工作者，媒体专家和其他感兴趣的教育组织之间建立创新伙伴关系。根据《SEPA计划公告》（PAR-06-549）的规定，受资助的SEPA项目的PI和主要工作人员必须参加年度会议（自1991年该计划开始以来每年举行一次）。来自计划、赠款管理、审查办公室和主任办公室的NCRR工作人员以及来自其他NIH IC的适当工作人员和来自HHMI和NSF的工作人员参加了会议。一个奖学金方案使教师和部落领袖也能参加。年度会议为SEPA PI和NCRR工作人员就SEPA具体的计划、审查和赠款管理问题进行公开和坦率的讨论提供了最佳机制。它还为PI及其工作人员提供了一个重要的机会，以了解正式和非正式科学教育领域的主要发展，建立和加强自己的知识和技能，在与他们的项目相关的领域，分享计划的成功以及挑战，并建立网络和形成合作。SEPA年会在未来三年的总体目标是： 目标1：向SEPA社区宣传和教育严格的评估模型，这些模型符合新的政府授权（学术竞争力理事会）评估标准，并促进采用这些模型。 目标二：提供与SEPA科学中心/博物馆和K-12项目相关的非正式和正式科学教育的趋势、问题和挑战的最新信息。 目标3：通过为受赠方提供机会分享信息、最佳做法和评估方法，为SEPA项目之间的合作提供网络机会和论坛，并为新项目提供指导。 每个2.5天的会议包括全体会议，一般性讨论，分组讨论和海报会议。为了帮助SEPA项目学习如何解决最近的学术竞争力理事会报告的任务，计划评估将是即将举行的会议的一个重点。SEPA PI的会议组织委员会计划每次会议。这些会议由美国各地的SEPA项目主办，有150-180人参加。每次会议结束后，将在大会网站和国家环保总局网站上提供演讲者的PowerPoint幻灯片和会议摘要，以方便查阅和传播。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The NCRR Science Education Partnership Awards (SEPA) program funds novel projects that improve students' (grades K-12), their teachers' and the general public's understanding of science and NIH research. The Program supports the creation of innovative partnerships between biomedical and clinical researchers and K-12 teachers and schools, museum and science center educators, media experts, and other interested educational organizations. PIs and key staff from funded SEPA projects are required to participate in an annual conference - held yearly since the program's inception in 1991 - as specified in the SEPA Program Announcement (PAR-06-549). NCRR staff from Program, Grants Management, Office of Review, and the Office of the Director participate in the conference, as well as appropriate staff from other NIH ICs, and staff from HHMI and NSF. A scholarship program enables teachers and tribal leaders to also participate. The annual Conference provides the best mechanism for an open and candid discussion between the SEPA PIs and NCRR Staff on SEPA-specific programmatic, review and grants management issues. It also provides an important opportunity for PIs and their staff to learn about key developments in the fields of formal and informal science education, to build and strengthen their own knowledge and skills in areas relevant to their projects, to share program successes as well as challenges, and to network and form collaborations. The overall Objectives of the annual SEPA Conference over the next three years are to: OBJECTIVE 1: Inform and educate the SEPA community about rigorous evaluation models that address the new government-mandated (Academic Competitiveness Council) assessment criteria and promote adoption of such models. OBJECTIVE 2: Provide updates on trends, issues and challenges in informal and formal science education which are relevant to SEPA science center/museum and K-12 projects. OBJECTIVE 3: Provide a networking opportunity, a forum for collaboration among SEPA projects, and mentoring of new projects by providing opportunities for grantees to share information, best practices and evaluation methods. Each 2.5-day conference includes Plenary, General Discussion, Breakout and Poster sessions. In order to assist SEPA projects in learning how to address the mandates of the recent Academic Competitiveness Council report, program evaluation will be a strong focus for upcoming conferences. A Conference Organizing Committee of SEPA PIs plans each meeting. The conferences are hosted by SEPA projects around the US and are attended by 150-180 participants. Speakers' PowerPoint slides and summaries of conference sessions will be available on the Conference website and the SEPA website after each meeting for easy access and dissemination.