The Nebraska Collaborative for Food, Energy, and Water Education (NC-FEW) is a systemic, statewide, partnership-driven effort to foster science literacy about food, energy, and water systems in youth and adults. The Food-Energy-Water (FEW) Nexus, which emphasizes the interconnections between these systems and their human dimensions, serves as crucial framework through which to both a) cultivate systems thinking through education and outreach programming and b) study cognitive and socio-cultural elements of teaching and learning about FEW systems through discipline-based education research. As one of the most productive agricultural regions of the world, Nebraska is home to many contemporary issues that span food, energy, and water and to many educators with extensive expertise in FEW education and outreach. In light of these affordances, NC-FEW will serve as a nucleus for innovation in FEW education, in part through organizational leadership for a Multistate Research project.