NSF School of Games Grant Application Group

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THIS IS THE GRANT WE ARE APPLYING FOR
http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2010/nsf10602/nsf10602.htm




Questions for Programme Officer:


Notes Feb 8th

Grant REqs
"The cross-cutting proposals will draw from work in the four primary DRL programs: Discovery Research K-12 (DR K-12), Informal Science Education (ISE), Research and Evaluation on Education in Science and Engineering (REESE), and Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST)."

What is the intellectual merit of the proposed activity?

How important is the proposed activity to advancing knowledge and understanding within its own field or across different fields? How well qualified is the proposer (individual or team) to conduct the project? (If appropriate, the reviewer will comment on the quality of the prior work.) To what extent does the proposed activity suggest and explore creative, original, or potentially transformative concepts? How well conceived and organized is the proposed activity? Is there sufficient access to resources?


What are the broader impacts of the proposed activity?

How well does the activity advance discovery and understanding while promoting teaching, training, and learning? How well does the proposed activity broaden the participation of underrepresented groups (e.g., gender, ethnicity, disability, geographic, etc.)? To what extent will it enhance the infrastructure for research and education, such as facilities, instrumentation, networks, and partnerships? Will the results be disseminated broadly to enhance scientific and technological understanding? What may be the benefits of the proposed activity to society?


NEXT STEPS
BUDGET > Philipp
Look at previous proposals > June
Drew & June > need to submit from both ends, some logistics from p2pu 
Follow up Email > divide concurr plan > June
Drew & Chloe > think of how the curriculum would look like
June & Chloe > vignette in the beginning



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Notes Dec 8th

Atendees
June
Chloe

There are two NSF grants that we are considering:
1) focused on computational thinking
http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2010/nsf10619/nsf10619.htm
2)focused on STEM
http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2010/nsf10602/nsf10602.htm#pgm_desc_txt

We think 1) sounds like a better idea for what we are doing at P2PU, in combination with School of Webcraft


Next steps:


Draft of a 1 page Project Summary (that is required for the NSF proposal, and we can use to organize our thoughts): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zrPnZalxQHaA-_gveMxCpuyzDXlIU5XTYL6f8LOzMvo/edit

BIGGER VISION

Create a School of Games at p2pu.org.

Modeled after School of Webcraft, School of games will provide an open learning platform for young adults and college students who want to learn how to design and develop games. During a series of challenges learners will use programming skills to create artifacts such as games, video tutorials etc. Meanwhile there will be opportunities for them to meet offline through School of Games - Jams.

The project will be two fold: on one side we will suggest an online community (with some offline potential as well) that learns how to progam and design games, on the other side we will collect data from this and do evaluation.

Bigger Vision ok (games + programming)
What we need to make clear > 

1) CURRICULUM: What course will be in the school of games and what kids of competencies will be in the school of games. 

2) FEATURES: What tools will we be using, what programming languages we will promote, logistics of how it would work. They will especially want to know what types of computational skills we want to teach.

Audience > for the NSF grant there are teachers but also broader audiences. For us makes sense to focus on college, young adults > goal to increase their computational thinking.

CE21 Goals
Need to map clearly to the goals of the CE21 program:

Problem CE21 is trying to solve:

Constraints:

Thoughts:

Type of Grant / I think we could consider a planning proposal (>200k) or Type I grant (>1M)

PROJECT SUMMARY

Peer to Peer University and University of Maryland (ok to include UoM, June?) propose to bring together youth and digital game experts in an online community dedicated to learning how to design and develop digital and non digital games.

The community will come together online by joining a "School of Games" in the Peer to Peer University platform as well as offline by participating in local "School of Games Jams". In "School of Games"  youth will build mastery in the design and development of digital games, fostering a 21st century space for creativity and expertise exchange. 

The School of Games will:

In this way, the Peer to Peer University aims to ... 

Two alternatives:


POTENTIAL PARTNERS

Curriculum expertise:

Pilot site / reach under-served communities, youth:

Pilot site / reach (young) women:


PROJECT DESIGN (GUIDELINES)

Evidence-based hypothesis about how education in computing is best effected and improved through proposed innovation(s):

...

Plan for developing and/or studying the impact of the suggested innovation(s) in learning and teaching:  

...

Clear goals and a plan of work that describes research, development, and implementation strategies appropriate for attaining its goals.

...

The Division for Research on Learning in Formal and Informal Settings (DRL) of the Directorate for Education and Human Resources (EHR) has developed a conceptual framework to help guide the design and development of projects focused on enhancing teaching and learning in science, technology, engineering, computing and mathematics. The framework incorporates five stages that together create a cycle for innovation and learning:

CE21 efforts should be developed within this framework.  For example, Type I projects that produce research findings, methods, and theoretical perspectives regarding the engagement of diverse populations of students in computing education would fall into the study, design, implement and/or evaluate stages.