1. Sign up to read 3 proposals by adding to the signupsheet online in the directory where the proposals are put anonymously.

2. The written reviews are due the day and start of the nsf mock panel session.

3. Bring 2 copies of each of your reviews to the mock review panel. One copy should have your name on it. The only copy SHOULD BE ANONYMOUS. The anonymous copy will be given to the authors of those proposals.

4. Choose which famous research expert you would like to become for the panel day and get ready to play that part. You can even dress up like them or wear a wig!

The Panel Day Procedure

1. There will be a brief instruction period where I will explain the procedures once again and answer questions.

2. Then, we will begin reviewing proposals, in the ordered numbered in the signupsheet.

3. Before the discussion of each proposal begins, the authors will leave the room and hang out in the lobby during the discussion. Someone will get them when the discussion is finished.

4. For each proposal discussion, One person who read the proposal will give a brief summary of what the proposal proposes to do. Other folks who did not read the proposal can ask questions at that time for clarification.

Each person who read the proposal will then take a turn discussing their views, using their review sheets to help them in that discussion. The discussion will focus on the questions on the review sheet:
- importance of the proposed activity
- creativity of approach
- organization/soundness of the approach
- evaluation plan - is it targeting the right things to evaluate? is it a reasonable plan?
- foreseen potential impact on society if successful

Then, each person will give their rating and justification for that rating.

I will act as facilitator of the discussion, and use the blackboard to keep track of ratings of each proposal as we go.

Before we have the authors return, we will agree on an overall rating of Highly competitive, Competitive, Not competitive.

5. After each proposal has been discussed individually, everyone will be in the room for a final overall discussion.

The first part of that discussion:
- Which of the highly competitive proposals should be fund? Authors of those proposals will probably leave the room. We have to make the hard decision of funding only one proposal.

- A Discussion of the process of the review. What would you have done differently in your proposal writing? What would you have done differently in your review writing? How could you have acted differently in the review panel to be more effective as a panelist? What part of the process worked well as a fair review? What could be changed? ...

Your class participation grade will be heavily weighted on your active participation in this process.

Anyone who wants to bring food should feel welcome to bring munchies. The Date: To be decided. To be announced.

Pointers on How to Review These Research Proposals:

These are proposals, not finished papers. The researchers are proposing to do something. They have not yet done it.

You want to be convinced that they have a solid knowledge of the state of the art and thus the proposed work is original. Then you want to be convinced by their writing that what they propose seems reasonable, innovative, and a sound way to go about approaching the problem. So, you first figure out what exactly are they proposing to actually do. Then, go from there. Does it seem creative, innovative, worthwhile, doable?...