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.

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Broadening Participation in STEM Broadening Participation in STEM

Becoming a Scientist: A Study of Identity Balance and the Persistence of Hispanic Undergraduate Students in Engineering and Biological Sciences

Effective Years: 2019-2024

Advancing a diverse and technically competent STEM workforce is critical for contributing to the progress of science and to the health, prosperity and welfare of our nation. While the number of Hispanic students, who are U.S. citizens and permanent residents, earning STEM bachelor's degrees has increased rapidly during the past decade, Hispanic students enrolled in STEM programs are leaving college or switching majors at higher rates than their White peers. This loss may be related to the stereotypes, lack of support, and the exclusionary spaces that Hispanic students are exposed to in college. Research suggests that developing and maintaining a strong STEM identity is an important predictor of persistence and success in STEM disciplines. Understanding the complexity of Hispanic students' identity, and the balance of that identity, in the context of social stereotypes, could lead to improved STEM undergraduate academic, research and internship programs, which would advance persistence to bachelor's degree completion.

The project team is exploring a framework that considers both implicitly and explicitly held identities for understanding how students achieve and maintain a strong STEM identity across time, and what experiences facilitate or hinder this process. The researchers hypothesize that the strength and nature of the balance between implicitly held associations and identities influence student's explicitly held STEM identity, and that these processes are qualitatively different due to prevailing stereotypes for White and Hispanic undergraduate students, enrolled in Engineering and Biological Sciences degree programs. The current investigation is also examining the identity trajectories of White and Hispanic undergraduate students as they make critical career and academic decisions. Results from the research are advancing knowledge about balanced STEM identity for historically underrepresented minorities. Findings inform university administrators and educators about how their institutions might make evidence-based modifications to undergraduate research, internship and academic programs that impact minority STEM student retention and persistence to degree completion.

This research is supported by NSF's EHR Core Research (ECR) program. The ECR program emphasizes fundamental STEM education research that generates foundational knowledge in the field. Investments are made in critical areas that are essential, broad and enduring: STEM learning and STEM learning environments, broadening participation in STEM, and STEM workforce development. The program supports the accumulation of robust evidence to inform efforts to understand, build theory to explain, and suggest intervention and innovations to address persistent challenges in STEM interest, education, learning and participation.

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.