ECR Projects

Explore past and current fundamental STEM education research projects across the three research areas that NSF's EDU Core Research (ECR) program funds, as well as across ECR funding types. Other search filters draw from both NSF's data and the ECR Hub's hand coding of award abstracts.

Ninth-grade biology students create cell models using clay.

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STEM Workforce Development STEM Workforce Development  

Exploring the Alignment Among Employer Expectations for STEM Skills and the Design of Education Curricula and Interventions

Effective Years: 2013-2016

EHR Core Research
Workforce Development

This project focuses on workplace expectations for STEM related competencies and the subsequent design of educational curricula in postsecondary institutions and STEM education interventions. It responds to the need to produce empirical evidence regarding employer expectations in STEM related fields that would enable the integration of these expectations into educational practice. Thus, the project goals are to (1) identify employer expectations for the types of skills, knowledge, and competencies required for success; (2) ascertain the degree to which these expectations are integrated into the design of educational curricula and STEM education interventions; and (3) explore the implications of employer desires for hard and soft skills for the postsecondary curriculum. These issues will be examined in regard to the advanced manufacturing and biotechnology industries within the State of Wisconsin. It expands a small-scale study on these topics that was launched in 2012 by the University of Wisconsin-Madison Center for Education and Work. That study draws on a sociotechnical theory of organizations by focusing on the ways in which successful employees are able to bring a variety of skills and competencies obtained through their education to navigate workplace complexities and maximize their performance. The PIs will use a comparative qualitative case study design where in-depth interviews