2010 MSP Learning Network Conference Information

MSP: An Intergenerational Learning Network

Pre-Conference for New Awardees

Dear MSP Colleagues:

The 2010 Math and Science Partnership (MSP) Learning Network Conference (LNC) will be held on January 24-26, at the Renaissance Hotel, 999 9th St. NW, Washington, DC. This year's theme is MSP: An Intergenerational Learning Network.

The meeting will convene representatives from all Comprehensive, Targeted, Institute, Phase II, and MSP-Start Partnership projects, as well as from Research, Evaluation and Technical Assistance (RETA) projects. We anticipate that over 350 members of the MSP community will participate.

Registration and Meeting Times: Registration will be available on site. Online pre-registration is now closed.
Hotel reservations must also be secured by January 8th:

The main meeting will begin on the morning of Monday, January 25, at 8:30 am, and will conclude by 3:00 pm on Tuesday, January 26. Up to five members from each Comprehensive, Institute, Phase II and Targeted Partnership project, four members from each MSP-Start, and two members from each RETA project are invited to attend. Each four- or five-member team should include at least the PI, a K-12 administrator or teacher leader, a STEM faculty member, and an evaluator.

A pre-meeting for new projects will be held on Sunday, January 24:

Pre-Conference Required Meeting for MSP-Start and MSP-Institute Projects Funded in 2009

View Agenda for New Awardees Meeting
Date: Sunday, January 24
Time: 2:00-7:00 pm, with refreshments during the meeting
Location: Renaissance Washington Hotel (room TBA)
Who: All MSP-Start and -Institute projects funded with start dates between 1/1/2009 and 12/31/2009 are required to attend this pre-conference meeting
RSVP: By January 8, 2010, to Daphne Rainey (drainey@nsf.gov) - see details in the description below on information to send

This pre-conference meeting offers an opportunity for new MSP projects to learn about programmatic features common to all MSP projects. These include annual reporting, fiduciary reporting, and participant reporting, as well as resources such as the Knowledge Management and Dissemination (KMD) and MSPnet projects that serve the MSP community. Projects will also have time to meet individually with their program officers. This meeting will be most informative for the PI and Project Director, who are expected to attend. Other project team members are also permitted to attend. Please email Daphne Rainey (drainey@nsf.gov) by January 8, 2010, with the names and project roles of members of your project who will be in attendance at this meeting.

An optional meeting on Sunday, January 24:

Pre-Conference Optional Meeting -- Carpe Diem Phase II!

Date: Sunday, January 24
Time: 3:00-4:30 pm
Location: Renaissance Washington Hotel (room TBA)
Who: All NSF-MSP projects that are considering submitting a proposal for Phase II funding are strongly encouraged to attend this pre-conference meeting
RSVP: By January 8, 2010, to Kathleen Bergin (kbergin@nsf.gov)

Innovation, Research, Partnership, STEM Faculty Engagement, Scaling-up, Analysis, Adaptation, Dissemination, Documented Evidence-Based Outcomes, Deepening/Extending Proven MSP Project Aspects, Importance to the M/S Education Field, Implementation, AND Evaluation = the ingredients of a Phase II proposal. Eligible Partnerships are all those who have successfully completed or are about to complete their original five years of funding. So the competition is great and the focus on research that emanates from successful aspects of the original funding and is of significant importance to the Math and Science Education field cannot be over emphasized.

Optional Meetings for Special Interest Groups
On the morning of the second day of the Learning Network Conference (Tuesday, January 26), from 7:30 - 8:30 AM, we will offer an opportunity for Special Interest Groups to gather prior to the opening plenary session of the day. Tables will be set up in the main ballroom with signs on them to indicate the titles of the Special Interest Groups. If you are interested in joining a discussion at a Special Interest Group, you may bring your own breakfast to the conference area and join a discussion. If you are interested in announcing and hosting a Special Interest Group, we ask that you send a title and a brief description (250 words or less) of the topic to Ann McKenna (amckenna@nsf.gov) by Thursday, January 14. These titles and descriptions will be included in the Technical Program, which will be posted on MSPnet around January 18, so that LNC participants can make decisions prior to attending the conference about Special Interest Groups they may wish to attend on Tuesday morning.

Posters: This year, the LNC will include a poster session as a means of generating dialogue, particularly between veteran and new projects. Each MSP project, including RETA projects, will present a single poster at the LNC this year. All posters should include four quadrants:

Brief description of your project
What would be indicators of success for your project and how do you plan to document them? OR: What have been some successes of your project? Include citations of up to 3 publications, if relevant.
What challenges, including unanticipated ones, has your project overcome, how did you do so, and what challenges remain ahead?
What would you most like to learn from other projects at this LNC?

A poster session will take place on Monday evening, concurrently with a working dinner, and all conferees will be expected to visit specific posters identified on their individual "dance cards" generated during an activity we will do on Monday morning. You are also encouraged to bring handouts on standard sized paper of a miniature version of your poster, to offer to visitors to your poster. Posters should be set up on Sunday night, or on Monday morning prior to the start of the conference.

Important Rules and Poster Guidelines

Call for Abstracts: The main meeting will also include presentation breakout sessions for MSP projects to share with each other what they are in the process of learning, and to learn from and with each other in the context of the conference strands . All MSP projects are encouraged to consider presenting aspects of their work aligned with one of the three conference strands. Project teams may submit more than one abstract if they wish. The abstracts will be reviewed and project teams may be asked to revise their abstracts as part of the review process. For this year's LNC, we request that abstracts be submitted under a specific strand. Structured abstracts of 3-4 pages, using the abstract submission form available on MSPnet. Further information on the call for abstracts is available on MSPnet.
LNC Strand Definitions

The timeline for abstract submission, revision, assignment to sessions, and posting of the technical program of the conference is as follows:
Monday, December 7, by 5:00 pm local time: Abstract submission deadline.

Thursday, December 17: Authors will be notified of acceptance. Session co-chairs will send requests for revisions, if any, to authors.
Friday, January 8: Abstract revisions due.
Monday, January 18: Technical program available on MSPnet.

We look forward to learning from and with you at the Learning Network Conference.

Sincerely,
The MSP Program Staff at NSF and
The 2010 Learning Network Conference Planning Committee (13 members of our MSP Learning Network)

MSP LNC 2010

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