ScienceEducation.gov
U.S. Department of Energy
Connecting teachers and students to free STEM education resources.
The Challenge
U.S. Federal science agencies offer a wealth of classroom resources and materials. Yet these resources have not been readily transparent, accessible or searchable via a single, online portal that provides a friendly interface to help increase public participation.
Through interagency collaboration initiated by the Department of Energy, ScienceEducation.gov uses open source software in a Web 2.0 platform that invites public participation and increased visibility to open government science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education resources as never before.
The Solution
This free, web-based gateway makes searchable 15,000 STEM education resources created by federal agencies or for which agencies have funded investigators to develop content. Content is searchable via a single query. ScienceEducation.gov ensures that resources are made available transparently through a participatory and collaborative initiative. Search results are stratified by type of resource and grade level, and the education community and other users may participate by rating resources, commenting, and suggesting “tags” or labels to aid others in finding appropriate STEM education materials.
Development of ScienceEducation.gov has been made possible through the voluntary collaboration of the following:
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- National Institutes of Health
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
- National Science Digital Library
- National Science Foundation
- U.S. Department of Agriculture
- U.S. Department of Education
- U.S. Department of Energy
- U.S. Department of Homeland Security
- U.S. Department of Transportation
- U.S. Geological Survey
The Benefit
The immediate beneficiaries of ScienceEducation.gov will be educators, students, and the general public interested in current STEM educational content available through Federal science and technology agencies. Much of the content, such as cutting edge renewable energy technologies, is not available through standard textbooks. These resources will enable educators and students to become involved in modern scientific challenges.
Additional Details
All of the ScienceEducation.gov resources are made findable by type of resource, grade level, and content provider. Where grade levels have not been pre-determined for a resource, that resource is made findable via a technology that searches each word and aligns resources to an average grade range using a pioneering grade-level stratification tool.
ScienceEducation.gov was developed through a partnership of the Offices of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI) and Workforce Development for Teachers and Scientists (WDTS), within the DOE Office of Science, in collaboration with other federal science agencies.
For more information, email: info@scienceeducation.gov.