National Institutes of Health Seeking Applications for Serious STEM Games for Pre-College and Informal Science Education Audiences

Written by Nathan Smith on October 23, 2014. Posted in STEM and STEAM.

The National Institutes of Health, or NIH, is seeking applications for funding awards to develop serious science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, games with a focus on biology that address health and medicine questions for pre-kindergarten to 12th grade students, pre- and in-service educators or informal education audiences.

Serious games are defined as the use of gaming technology to train, educate and encourage behavioral changes in a virtual world format where progressive learning, feedback on success and user control are combined into an interactive and engaging experience.

Two types of grants are available. Awards will be made via Small Business Innovation Research grants and Small Business Technology Transfer grants. Only United States small business concerns, or SBCs, are eligible to submit applications for this opportunity. An SBC is one that, at the time of award of Phase I and Phase II, meets specific requirements. For full details, visit the opportunity website.

The first deadline for applications is Nov. 12, 2014.

For more information regarding these grant opportunities, please visit http://grants.nih.gov/searchguide/related_results.cfm?DocNum=PAR-14-326. Questions should be directed to grantsinfo@nih.gov.

Nathan Smith

Nathan Smith is Director of Technology for the College of Education and Human Services at Utah State University. In that role, he also directs The Adele & Dale Young Education Technology Center (The YETC) located in room 170 of the Education Building on Utah State University's Logan campus. The YETC is a combination student openaccess computer facility, a K12 curriculum materials library, a NASA Educator Resource Center for Utah, and a technology training center. Nathan served eight years (20042012) on the Board of Directors for the Utah Coalition for Education Technology (UCET) He was reelected in 2014 to serve another two year term on the board. A former elementary school teacher, Nathan has taught students every age from young children to senior citizens. He has had the opportunity beginning in 2011 to train international high school teachers from all over the world about technology in education, through the U.S. State