The President’s Open Government Initiative asks three things of the federal government: transparency, participation, and collaboration. OSTI, in partnership with the DOE Office of Workforce Development for Teachers and Scientists (WDTS) and through a voluntary interagency coordinating group, has achieved all three in one project: ScienceEducation.gov.

The White House recognized this achievement by posting ScienceEducation.gov on the Open Government Innovations Gallery (read more about the OSTP recognition on the DOE Blog and the DOE facebook page).

The Innovations Gallery celebrates the innovations that champion the President’s vision of more effective and open government. At the Innovations Gallery, the public can browse examples of new ways in which agencies across the Executive branch are using transparency, participation, and collaboration to achieve their mission.

ScienceEducation.gov (beta version) began as a direct response to the call for increased web-based K-12 science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education resources in the 2007 America COMPETES Act. Today, ScienceEducation.gov is a searchable portal of STEM education resources freely available online. ScienceEducation.gov ensures that resources are made available transparently through a participatory and collaborative initiative. 

The site is continuously evaluated by the education community through the ScienceEducation.gov interactive platform. Teachers, students, education professionals, parents and the public can search multi-agency STEM education resources for free. They can also register for a free membership to tag, rate and comment on the 15,000 STEM education resources created or funded by federal agencies (see video). The resources of ScienceEducation.gov are accessible via a single-query and stratified by type of resource (lesson plans, curricula, classroom activities etc…) and grade level.

Through the Interagency Science Education Portal Coordinating Group (ISEPCG), a voluntary group of U.S. federal government science and technology organizations, the government is striving to make STEM education resources more transparent and open to public participation. As it stands, U.S. Federal science agencies offer a wealth of classroom resources and materials, yet these resources have not been readily transparent, accessible or searchable via a single, online portal that provides an interface to help increase public participation.

The ISEPCG, through the development and continuous improvement of ScienceEducation.gov, is committed to serving the STEM education information needs of the nation. Agencies and organizations represented include:

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

National Institutes of Health

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

National Science Digital Library

National Science Foundation

U.S. Department of Agriculture

U.S. Department of Education

U.S. Department of Energy

U.S. Department of Homeland Security

U.S. Department of Transportation

U.S. Geological Survey

For more information about ScienceEducation.gov, feel free to email:info@scienceeducation.gov. 

Submitted by ScienceEducation.gov Product Manager, Joanna Martin

Contributions by Sharon Jordan, OSTI Assistant Director and Kate Bannan, OSTI Communications & Outreach Specialist