Pilot Project at WHOI Sparks Innovative Outreach
By Catherine Cramer
As funding agencies have ramped up their requirements for including outreach and education efforts (also known as ``broader impacts’’ or ``NSF Criterion II’’) in research grant proposals, the need to get research scientists interested in and engaged with these activities has also increased. Recently, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) has instituted a groundbreaking matching fund program to encourage more, and more variety of, outreach activities included in ocean scientists’ grant proposals. The hoped-for effect is a greater number of successfully funded projects.
Meeting NSF Criterion II
In June 2005, a small group of WHOI scientists and staff got together to discuss the possibility of creating an experimental cost-sharing program at WHOI. ``We wanted to find out how much of a role broader impacts plays in getting funding,’’ said Stephanie Murphy, Manager of Internal Communications & Communication Research. ``If we want to improve WHOI’s success rate with proposals, to what extent is Criterion II a factor? We thought that if WHOI put up $5000 in matching funds as a contribution toward the broader impacts portion of the proposal, NSF might see that as a nice incentive to get funded.’’
Ken Buesseler, WHOI Senior Scientist and Chair of the Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry Department, lobbied hard to get the program up and running. ``It seemed that often the science in a proposal would be reviewed well but the Criterion II section would be reviewed negatively,’’ he said. ``Simply training a grad student isn’t good enough any more. So we began to strategize, and said, `What if we put money on the table for costs associated with broader impacts?’ We figured that would help encourage a greater variety of outreach ideas. It’s not a large amount but enough to plant seeds, and might help older PIs who don’t normally get involved with outreach.’’
The pilot project was begun in August of 2005, with WHOI sending out this official announcement:
The Institution has initiated a pilot effort to increase participation in the “Broader Impacts Criterion” on NSF proposals in 2006. WHOI will provide limited support on proposals for activities that meet NSF’s outlined goals for this criterion. According to NSF, possible activities satisfying this criterion include:
- advancing discovery and understanding while promoting teaching, training and learning,
- broadening participation of underrepresented groups,
- enhancing infrastructure for research and education,
- contributing to broad dissemination to enhance scientific and technological understanding, and
- fostering connections between discoveries and their use in service of society.
An internal WHOI website devoted to broader impacts was created containing guidelines, contacts, an ongoing list of outreach opportunities and suggestions, as well as examples of activities, such as Whyville and Dive and Discover. (The site also contains a link to the COSEE-NE website.) The website also educates research staff as to which activities are appropriate for inclusion in funding proposals as broader impacts. We have links to several of these resources here.
Next, a small number of proposals that included the statement that WHOI would be providing an additional $5000 for outreach activities were submitted to funders – and the reaction was positive. One of the first to get funded is Sonya Dyhrman, whose research focuses on harmful algal blooms. ``I had been to the Science of :Learning lecture given by Jim Bowen, and got very excited about the potential for Whyville,’’ said Sonya. ``I saw it as a great opportunity for girls, very compelling. So I put together a description of Whyville in my NSF proposal, and a description of how I would use the WHOI matching funds to create software to be used on the website.’’
Expanding Outreach
Still in the planning stages, Sonya’s project involves creating software for the Whyville site that will illustrate the importance of nutrient supplies in coastal waters and how those nutrients influence phytoplankton growth. She expects the program to be up and running in the fall of 2006. ``My plan is to build inquiry activities around the development of red tide, or Harmful Algal Blooms,’’ she said. ``Whyville visitors will take samples, identify nutrients and implement mitigation strategies, requiring observation skills, lab work, and analytical thinking – all online.’’ While a software specialist does the technical work, Sonya will be involved in the content and directing the scientific goals of the project.
``These funds allowed me to do something on a different scale,’’ said Sonya. ``I might have 25,000 users per day, and to expose that many girls to oceanography is phenomenal. It allows me to do outreach on a level I couldn’t have envisioned before. It doesn’t take the place of a face to face visit but it’s a great way of reaching kids. It’s also really nice to not have to take away from the science budget. These funds being available gives people the ability to think more creatively and expansively about outreach. And putting money into an outreach component makes the reviewer take it more seriously. Now I’d never submit a proposal without it!’’
Another WHOI scientist, Dan Repeta, has also included the matching fund in a recent proposal, and refers to his work with COSEE-NE’s OSEI carbon cycle project in the Fairhaven, MA school district as an example of his outreach activities, describing ``…working with approximately 16 teachers from the Boston/Fairhaven/New Bedford area to develop a curriculum for Middle School science that integrates the ocean carbon cycle in teaching physical, chemical, and biological sciences.’’ Dan requested funds to hire a high school student to assist him in the lab for the duration of the project. In particular, he will seek under-represented groups from the local area for this training. ``WHOI will contribute $5000 towards the project to support high school or summer student training and education,’’ he writes. ``In the past many of the summer fellows in my laboratory have continued onto graduate level training in pure and marine chemistry.’’
Ken Buesseler himself just received word that one of his proposals has been funded, and he will also be receiving $5000 in matching funds from WHOI. ``I have a project running through the education office of the Bermuda Biological Station and I’ll use those funds to train undergraduate students, invite them on cruises, maybe pay for their teachers too,’’ said Ken. For more details on Ken’s research, see an article published in WHOI’s Oceanus.
``It’s hard to evaluate how well it’s working, but we put in a lot of proposals in February and more in August,’’ said Ken. ``There are no negatives. This is the direction that the NSF is going in, and help like this is making outreach activities more visible and better funded.’’
``When the panel at NSF is reviewing a proposal, seeing institutional support is a real nice plus,’’ said WHOI scientist and COSEE-NE PI Judy McDowell. ‘’You might think $5000 doesn’t go a long way but it’s amazing how far it does go. Here’s something an institution has done with private sources – it’s not the amount but the impact.’’
