Call for Proposals
Student and postdoctoral researchers from the NSF-funded Science of Learning Centers (SLCs)
will meet at the Fifth Annual iSLC Student / Postdoctoral Fellow Conference on April 21-
23, 2012. During this three-day conference hosted by TDLC, participants will discuss their
interests for understanding and improving how people learn in a variety of settings. To this end,
participants will share and learn about useful methods for conducting research to achieve these
goals.
The iSLC 2012 conference will be focused on the general theme of "Time, Mind, and Education
Intertwined." This theme emphasizes that time plays a vital role in the science of learning,
and it is an important aspect in many topics studied by the Centers, ranging from the temporal
characteristics of communication, longitudinal studies on learning, technologies for processing
video data, and more. The conference will focus on helping participants understand the temporal
aspects of learning studied by all of the Centers.
All invited attendees are encouraged to submit a one-page proposal for a poster or symposia
presentation. All poster proposals will be accepted. Symposia submissions will be reviewed by a
committee of representatives from the six SLCs. If your proposal is not selected for a symposia
session, it will automatically be entered as a poster. All proposals should be formatted according
to the Proposal Template. Proposals are due on 11:59 p.m. PST on Friday,
December 16, 2011. Email notification of acceptance will be provided by Saturday, March 10,
2012.
POSTER SUBMISSIONS: Posters may represent SLC research in any stage of development:
conceptualization, data collection in progress, analysis in progress, completed work, etc.
SYMPOSIA SUBMISSIONS: Participants who have research that is in a complete or near-
complete stage are encouraged to submit their abstract proposal as a symposium presentation. All
research topics representative of work across the SLCs are welcome, although we are particularly
interested in submissions related to the conference theme and on broadening participation in
the sciences (e.g., designing and researching culturally-responsive curriculum; understanding
multiple pathways into science; add another example here). Symposia will be single track and
each presentation will be 20 minutes long (including questions).
WORKSHOP SUBMISSIONS: Student and postdoctoral fellows are invited to submit individual
or collaborative proposals to present a workshop on research tools and methods of interest
to learning science researchers. Individuals or teams can present on topics of data collection
techniques, methodologies used to analyze data, and/or demonstration of tools and their use in
context. Each workshop will be 2.5 hours and should aim to give attendees an overview of a
method or tool. The iSLC 2012 planning committee will also be working to create at least one
cross-Center collaborative workshop that combines the expertise of members from multiple
SLCs toward specific needs and interests of the various Centers. If you plan to contribute to a
workshop, please check the relevant box during registration and email abstract proposals directly
to workshops@nsf-islc.org.
We look forward to seeing you in San Diego in April!