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.

Home > ECR Projects Search > Project Detail
STEM Workforce Development STEM Workforce Development  STEM Learning and Learning Environments STEM Learning and Learning Environments  

Summit for Examining the Potential for Crosscutting Concepts to Support Three-Dimensional Science Learning

Effective Years: 2018-2022

This project will convene a group of scholars in K-12 science education for a workshop that will lay fundamental conceptual groundwork for research on how crosscutting concepts (CCCs) can inform science teaching and learning. CCCs, along with disciplinary core ideas and scientific practices, reflect a new vision of science proficiency expressed in recent national and state science education frameworks and standards. This vision integrates the "knowing" and "doing" of authentic science and promotes knowledge and skills necessary for participating productively in society as a citizen. The primary aims of the summit are to (1) develop preliminary theoretical models for learning that can underpin research programs on CCCs, (2) map the terrain of existing research on CCCs, and (3) identify central issues that can guide research about the roles of CCCs in science teaching and learning. These aims will help the field move beyond challenges that it currently faces, such as ambiguous terminology, a lack of clear theoretical consensus, and a lack of empirical grounding. This project is funded by the EHR Core Research (ECR) program.

The summit will enable scholars who are experienced with studying CCCs to discuss the diverse perspectives that exist about the nature and purpose of CCCs, as well as their potential to inform science teaching and learning. Summit participants will include researchers, curriculum developers, school practitioners, and other stakeholders, so as to include diverse perspectives on conceptual and empirical research, classroom implementation, and teacher professional learning. Summit activities will focus on the authoring of position papers that will be presented, peer-critiqued, and refined over the course of the 3-day event. The agenda will address specific topics such as how CCCs can support the integration of science disciplines (including engineering), assessing student proficiency with CCCs, and viewing the CCCs across grade bands. Insights will be published in a proceedings that will articulate key issues and challenges; which will be made freely available to the science education community.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.