Discovery Research K-12 (DR-K12)

This revised Discovery Research K-12 (DR-K12) program solicitation has been restructured in order to clarify the call for proposals. The first major change is the elimination of the separate Contextual and Frontier strands in the previous solicitation. The DR-K12 program goal is to support projects along a continuum, from those that respond to immediate concerns and issues within the current educational context to those that anticipate education as it could be in future decades. The second major change is the consolidation of the five DR-K12 challenges in the previous solicitation into three, and the introduction of implementation studies as a fourth challenge. The four DR-K12 challenges now focus on assessment, STEM learning, teacher practice and implementation. The new implementation challenge calls for studies that examine how promising resources, models and technologies can be implemented, sustained, and scaled in the formal education settings they are intended to serve. The program scope has been broadened to include research and development at the preK level. In addition, new language encourages projects that support cyber-enabled learning and/or that hold promise to transform current educational practice and research.

The Discovery Research K-12 (DR-K12) program seeks to enable significant advances in preK-12 student and teacher learning of the STEM disciplines through the development, implementation, and study of resources, models, and technologies for use by students, teachers, and policymakers. Activities funded under this solicitation begin with a research question or hypothesis about effective preK-12 STEM learning and teaching; develop, adapt, or study innovative resources, models, or technologies; and demonstrate if, how, for whom, and why their implementation affects learning.