Increasing sustained adoption and adaptation of promising instructional strategies, programs, and materials has been identified as a critical component needed to improve science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education.  This NSF Central Resource Project has used literature on change to develop a rubric to understand and analyze STEM education projects.  Understanding focuses on the type of project and what is expected of potential adopters and analysis has focused on factors that should influence propagation strategies and should be addressed in the proposal to enhance the likelihood that propagation efforts are successful. To help PIs design educational development projects that are more likely to result in sustained adoption of their innovations, several resources have been developed that are designed to guide PIs in creating a more effective propagation plan.  These resources prompt PIs to consider propagation at the beginning phases of their project and include information on the theoretical framework behind propagation, questions that PIs should consider when designing a project's propagation plan, and a list of various helpful activities to incorporate in a propagation plan. The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the NSF (DUE 1122446, 1122416, and 1236926) for support of this project.

Increasing the impact of STEM education projects

248th National Meeting (2014)

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