The following changes have been made to the solicitation.

1. The program title has been modified to: NSF Graduate STEM Fellows in K-12 Education (GK-12), to better reflect program goals. The GK-12 acronym will remain unchanged.

2. Text has been edited to clarify program goals and outcomes in Synopsis of Program.

3. A change has been made to Indirect Cost (F&A) Limitations: The Indirect Cost (F&A) Limitation is 8% of total direct costs, excluding participant support and equipment.

4. Text has been edited in Introduction and Program Description to reflect the changes in Synopsis of Program.

5. Teacher stipend has been increased to $5000 per year.

6. Text has been added to further clarify the lead PI's qualifications: Faculty members whose primary research is on science education (e.g. physics education, technology education, mathematics education, engineering education, etc.) are not eligible to serve as the lead PI.

7. Text has been added and/or edited to help clarify proposal preparation:

   • Results from Prior NSF Support: Wording was added to clarify the need to specify "the outcomes, lessons learned, best practices and sustainability efforts of prior projects" for "institutions that received prior GK-12 funding".

   • Project Plan: minor edits have been made to further clarify the requirements for the project plan. In particular,

     • Wording was added to expand on "how fellows will be prepared for all the activities involved in the project, particularly on the capabilities and skills of communicating STEM subjects to technical and non-technical audiences, leadership, team building, and teaching. Clearly state what the fellows will be doing, how they will be trained to acquire the needed skills and what the anticipated outcomes and measures of success will be."

     • Wording was added to clarify the inclusion of international activities:"For projects that involve international research collaborations, an additional 2-page section may be included in the Project Description.  The PI should describe the procedures and arrangements for selecting, preparing, and sending Fellows and/or teachers to international research sites.  Explain the nature and goals of the research collaboration, the expertise and resources to be made available by the international partner(s), and the expected benefit to the U.S. participants' research and professional development. The international collaboration may include the ways in which the international experience will be integrated into and enhance the overall GK-12 project, including K-12 classroom activities. Address the practical aspects of sending U.S. participatns abroad, including logistical arrangements and language and cultural issues.
       
       
   • Budget

     • The evaluation cost has been reduced from "up to 5% of the total amount requested per year" to "up to 2.5 % of total direct cost over five years" in order to encourage the coordination of evaluation efforts of existing projects and to take advantage of the evaluation instruments developed by the GK-12 community.

     • Wording was added to the Budget Justification to clarify additional funds requested for international activities: "Describe in a separate table the requested amount and allocations over the project duration."
       
       
8. The "Additional Review Criteria" are clustered by "Intellectual Relevance of Research Theme", "Effectiveness of Selection, Training, and Preparation of Fellows", "Readiness and Sustainability of Partnership", "Sustainability and Feasibility of Evaluation", and "Impact on Graduate Education," to facilitate proposal preparation and subsequent review. A review criterion has also been added for those projects that choose to include an international component:  "Quality of the international collaborative activities, benefits to the U.S. participants, and relevance of the international experience to the overall GK-12 project."
   
   
9. Information concerning the Communicating Research to Public Audiences (CPRA) program has been added.

This program provides funding for graduate students in NSF-supported science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines to bring their leading research practice and findings into K-12 learning settings. Through collaborations with other graduate fellows and faculty from STEM disciplines, teachers and students in K-12 environments, and community partners, graduate students can gain a deeper understanding of their own research and place it within a societal and global context. The GK-12 program provides an opportunity for graduate students to acquire value-added skills, such as communicating STEM subjects to technical and non-technical audiences, leadership, team building, and teaching while enriching STEM learning and instruction in K-12 settings. This unique experience will add value to the training of U.S. graduate students and will energize and prepare the students for a broad range of STEM careers in a competitive globalized marketplace. Furthermore, the GK-12 program provides institutions of higher education with an opportunity to transform the conventional graduate education by infusing and sustaining GK-12 like activities in their graduate programs.