The Amir Lopatin Fellowship at Stanford University issued its first Request for Proposals on March 25, 2009. The text of the announcement is below.
“The Amir Lopatin Fellowship”
Announcing: Request for Proposals (RFP)
Date of announcement: March 25, 2009
Deadline: May 1, 2009
Decision date for award: May 22, 2009
The Stanford University School of Education (SUSE) has recently established an endowment fund thanks to the generosity of the family and friends of Amir Lopatin, former Learning Sciences and Technology Design (LSTD) doctoral student. Five years ago on March 25th, Amir sadly lost his life in an unfortunate automobile accident during Spring Break. His family and over 300 families and friends worked intensively to create a memorial fund in his name to support research in learning sciences and technologies design, which Amir strongly felt held much promise for education. Proceeds from this endowment fund will provide support to a research project of exceptional merit, selected each year from among proposals submitted by SUSE doctoral students in the Learning Sciences and Technology Design (LSTD) program, in line with the criteria described below. In 2009, the first year of this Fellowship, the selected proposal will be awarded up to $1,200, to cover research-related expenses (with future amounts dependent on the endowment payout in a given year). The Fellowship will be advertised on a similar calendar each year.
The eligibility requirements described in the endowment award, and the proposal specifications determined by LSTD faculty administering the program are as follows:
• The purpose of the Fund shall be to provide funding for LSTD PhD students to support an exceptional project involving technology and education.
• “Special consideration will be given to projects involving community-level fieldwork which use technology and project based learning to make education more engaging for primary and secondary school age students and otherwise enhance children’s educational experience.”
• A brief description of the research proposal will be provided in no more than five single space pages (12 pt font). A project description should include: (1) statement of your research problem; (2) your approach to investigating the problem (research design, sample, procedures); (3) timeline with key activities for your research activity, and (4) budget and budget explanation. Select references should be included, and will not count toward the five-page limit. A current resume should also be included with the application.
• A brief final report from the Lopatin Fellow’s research activities will be due no later than March 25th of the year following their award, and will be posted on a website associated with the Fellowship.
The application due date is Friday, May 1st, by noon. The application should be submitted as a single PDF file, including the project description, budget and resume. Send a copy of your application via attachment, with Subject header “Lopatin Award Application” to Roy Pea ([email protected]). Put your last name into the file name of your document, using the following file naming convention when you email your award application: LastnameLopatinAward.doc
After award applications are received, the Lopatin Award Committee (comprised of a group of LSTD program faculty) will review proposals and make decisions about the award for announcement on May 22, 2009. The decision will be based on scientific merit, and not financial need, consistent with the terms of the endowment award. Students in the program will only be able to win the Lopatin Award once during their doctoral training. For the project budget, funds can be proposed for a broad range of purposes, such as research media (e. g., audio or videotapes, hard-disks or charges for media storage), transcription costs, paying data coders, participant costs, photocopying, mailing, software, living expenses at research site if maintaining residence there, travel expenses to/from research site. With the size of the awards currently anticipated, the Lopatin Fellowship funds will not be used for tuition payments to Stanford, to purchase capital equipment, or for self-payment for transcription or other research activities.
For more background on Amir Lopatin, please see the family’s memorial site at http://www.amirlopatin.com/