By Katie Haymaker, Co-editor of DUE Point

Every year the National Science Foundation (NSF) funds hundreds of grants that support undergraduate education, with many of them specifically targeting mathematics or STEM disciplines. The goals of the NSF Division of Undergraduate Education (DUE) are “to provide leadership, support curriculum development, prepare the workforce, and foster connections.” Math-oriented DUE projects range from local scholarship programs for future mathematics teachers to multi-institutional grants aiming to improve the standard introductory undergraduate mathematics curriculum. The projects are diverse in both aim and scope, with funding levels that begin at a few thousand dollars for collaborative research projects to multi-million dollar grants to support wide-ranging educational reform.

The MAA DUE Point blog will feature one DUE project each month, with the goal of sharing the motivation and results of recent NSF-funded projects. The DUE Point blog posts also aim to:

• Demystify the NSF funding process through snapshots of successful projects;

• Spread the word about program-wide innovation and curriculum development in mathematics;

• Share strategies that helped recent projects get funded;

• Highlight the work being done to improve undergraduate education by researchers across the country;

• Help disseminate products of NSF DUE grants that improve undergrad math education.

Introducing the Editors

The DUE Point blog is edited by Audrey Malagon, lead editor, of Virginia Wesleyan University, Erin Moss, co-editor, of Millersville University, and Katie Haymaker, co-editor, of Villanova University.

Audrey is a Batten Associate Professor of Mathematics at Virginia Wesleyan University with research interests in inquiry based and active learning, election security, and Lie algebras. Erin is an Associate Professor of Mathematics Education at Millersville University, where she works with pre-service teachers at the undergraduate level and in-service teachers through the Masters of Education program. Katie Haymaker is an Assistant Professor of Mathematics at Villanova, where her research interests include coding theory and mastery-based testing in undergraduate mathematics courses.

An Assortment of Acronyms

Stage 1 of demystifying NSF DUE funding is to sort through some of the common shorthand that the NSF uses to refer to different types of grants. Under the DUE umbrella, we have:

• ATE: Advanced Technological Education - this program has an emphasis on two-year colleges and encourages partnerships with other manufacturing and technology programs.

• IUSE-EHR: Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Education and Human Resources - this program supports projects that have the potential for “broad societal impacts” in STEM education.

• S-STEM: NSF Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Program - the S-STEM program funds scholarships and evidence-based curricular activities that encourage student retention and success in STEM fields.

• “Noyce Scholarships” (this one is not an acronym, but is sometimes abbreviated in this way): Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program - the aim of this program is to support efforts to recruit and prepare effective K-12 science and mathematics teachers to work in high-need schools and educational programs.

For more information on any of these programs, follow the links, and follow these blog posts! This blog is a project of the Mathematical Association of America, produced with financial support of NSF DUE Grant #1626337.

Katie Haymaker is a co-editor of DUE Point and an Assistant Professor of Mathematics at Villanova, where her research interests include coding theory and mastery-based testing in undergraduate mathematics courses.