In 2000, the National Science Foundation began funding graduate students who also wanted to help out elementary and secondary school teachers in the classroom. A novel idea at the time, the NSF Graduate STEM Fellows in K-12 Education Program is now an established part of the foundation's $900 million portfolio aimed at raising the quality of U.S. math and science education. But it's taken a decade for NSF officials to formally acknowledge that improving science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education is a legitimate research activity for a graduate student.
Candidates for the 2011 Graduate Research Fellowship (GRF) program, whose applications are due in next month, will now find STEM education listed as a recognized field of research. That's a first for NSF's most
