Guidelines & Checklist for Hosting Minors in Labs

This packet is meant to be a Job Aid to assist faculty PIs who wish to host minors in their lab outside of a formal Stanford internship program. It was compiled by Stanford’s Office of Science Outreach, in collaboration with Stanford’s Risk Management, Health & Safety, General Counsel and Human Resources offices. It is not intended to provide legal advice. Questions? Kaye Storm, Office of Science Outreach, 650.724.4332 or kstorm@stanford.edu.

Guidelines & Checklist for Hosting Undergrads from Other Institutions

This packet is meant to be a Job Aid to assist faculty who wish to host undergraduates from other institutions outside of a formal Stanford REU (Research Experience for Undergraduates) Program. It was compiled by Stanford’s Office of Science Outreach, in collaboration with Stanford’s Risk Management, Health & Safety and Human Resources offices. It is not intended to provide legal advice. Questions? Kaye Storm, Office of Science Outreach, 650.724.4332 or kstorm@stanford.edu.

Menu of Outreach Ideas for Faculty

The Office of Science Outreach (OSO) serves Stanford faculty by assisting them in creating outreach project ideas and proposals, identifying potential partners to work with, and facilitating information and resource sharing among all of the University's science outreach programs. In addition, the OSO directs several programs in which Stanford faculty and their students can participate.

We hope this menu will stimulate your thinking about outreach activities to meet the Broader Impacts requirements of NSF and other funders and spur you to action!

Broader Impact Guiding Principles

What does effective BI look like? Faculty, researchers, staff, and administrators agree there is a lack of uniformity in evaluating BI by NSF review panels. With a goal of producing a tool that would result in more clarity and consistency, the National Alliance for Broader Impacts (NABI)  has released this succinct document that is not prescriptive, but gives reviewers the necessary guidance to determine if a BI plan is well structured and likely to be impactful.

NSF Perspectives on Broader Impacts

NSF released a new report in November 2014 with a rationale for its focus on Broader Impacts, a summary of the April 2014 Broader Impacts Infrastructure Summit, and some sample examples of effective BI activities and programs.

NSF's Broader Impacts

NSF seeks outreach activities that address one or more of these Broader Impacts: 

• Advance discovery and understanding while promoting teaching, training, and learning
• Broaden participation of underrepresented groups
• Enhance infrastructure for research and education
• Broaden dissemination to enhance scientific and technological understanding
• Provide benefits to society.

NSF instituted new Broader Impact requirements in January 2013. Need help generating ideas to fulfill these requirements? Click on the red title above or consult NSF's new Grant Proposal Guidelines.

OSO Statement for Facilities Section of NSF Proposals

The NSF Proposal Guide (GPG.II.C.2.i) requires a statement regarding "Facilities, Equipment and Other Resources" available to researchers and projects for both Intellectual Merit and Broader Impacts. OSO is a resource to assist faculty with the Broader Impacts components of their proposals. Faculty interested in listing the OSO as a resource in this section are welcome to use the language available here.

FAQs on Broader Impacts 2.0

These concise FAQs about NSF’s new Broader Impacts criterion were compiled by the Center for Ocean Sciences Education Excellence (COSEE) Florida based on discussions with150 scientists of all career stages (graduate students to senior scientists). The FAQs fall into five broad categories and range from general philosophical questions regarding the underlying motivation for the changes in the criterion, to more detailed ones concerning the impact of the changes on the submission and review process. The Broader Impacts 2.0 seminars targeted ocean scientists in Florida, but the questions contained within this FAQ are representative of the concerns and queries of the broader science research community.

Broader Impacts Wizard

The Center for Ocean Sciences Education Excellence (COSEE) based at Rutgers University developed a Broader Impacts Wizard to help researchers develop a broader impact statement that will satisfy NSF Criterion II and improve researchers' ability to communicate their science.

The BI Wizard provides a user interface that guides users through a series of six well-defined steps necessary for the construction and implementation of a broader impact statement required in research proposals. The goal of this "smart" software, which outputs information based upon selections made by the user, is to help researchers identify their target audience and plan appropriate BI activities, budget, objectives, and evaluation plan. This process culminates in a summary report, including user input and additional supporting information to help plan and draft a broader impact project. Report includes references that can be cited.