Effective: 2023-2025

Funding Type: BCSER IID

Principal Investigator: Simone Sisneros-Thiry

Institution: California State University, East Bay Foundation, Inc.

This project aims to serve the national interest by contributing to the understanding of experiences of students and instructors of assessment strategies aligned with active learning methods. Towards this goal the project will seek to incorporate the student voice into professional development experiences for collegiate mathematics instructors. In particular, this project will focus on assessment strategies that are aligned with the values and practices of active learning. The community of...

Effective: 2023-2025

Funding Type: BCSER IID

Principal Investigator: Jeremy Hsu

Institution: Chapman University

Many skills are typically taught in introductory biology lectures and labs and are important for success as a biologist. One of these skills is quantitative reasoning. Quantitative reasoning is the ability to use mathematical concepts in biological contexts, which encompasses processing and interpreting numerical and graphical data. However, many students in introductory biology struggle to apply quantitative reasoning skills taught in math classes and other classes to these biological...

Effective: 2023-2025

Funding Type: BCSER IID

Principal Investigator: Youmi Suk

Institution: Teachers College, Columbia University

The current math course-taking plan for high school students across much of the United States is not optimized for every student’s success in math, especially in advanced mathematics. In particular, there has been disproportional participation in advanced math courses among different racial/ethnic and income groups. To this end, this research project develops data-driven, personalized math course-taking plans by leveraging recent advances in personalized medicine. In personalized medicine,...

Effective: 2023-2024

Funding Type: BCSER IID

Principal Investigator: Peggy McNeal

Institution: Towson University

This project aims to serve the national interest by developing a researcher’s skills to conduct fundamental geosciences education research that investigates how college students use spatial reasoning to think and learn about fluid-Earth science concepts. In fluid-Earth science courses, topics such as atmosphere and ocean dynamics are highly abstract and mathematical without a natural bridge to everyday understanding of physical reality. The important leaps in thinking from mathematical...

Effective: 2022-2028

Funding Type: BCSER IID

Principal Investigator: Sona Gholizadeh

Institution: University of South Carolina at Columbia

This project will investigate the influence of family on student interest and persistence in engineering. The overarching goal of this project is to expand the investigator’s expertise to conduct fundamental research on the influence of family in engineering fields to better understand facilitators of student persistence. The research findings have the potential to inform a larger quantitative study through developing and testing a theory about impacts of family relationships on STEM student...

Effective: 2022-2025

Funding Type: BCSER IID

Principal Investigator: Kimberly C Rogers

Institution: Bowling Green State University

Undergraduate mathematics courses are required foundational courses for almost all STEM majors, since science, technology, and engineering are all built on mathematical underpinnings. Therefore, effective mathematics instruction at the undergraduate level opens the door to these fields, making it possible for students to pursue studies in scientific and technical areas. Unfortunately, students typically cite ineffective or uninspiring classroom instruction in foundational mathematics courses as...

Effective: 2022-2025

Funding Type: BCSER IID

Principal Investigator: Alejandra J Magana-de-Leon

Institution: Purdue University

As society becomes increasingly globalized, STEM graduates are increasingly called upon to work with individuals from different cultures and backgrounds. Thus, organizations and governments expect STEM graduates to contribute as productive members and leaders of intercultural teams. This project is designed to conduct fundamental research on team cognition, an important component of teamwork training. Team cognition refers to the knowledge, interactions, and processes essential to effective...

Effective: 2022-2025

Funding Type: BCSER IID

Principal Investigator: Lizandra C Godwin

Institution: University of New Mexico

Advancing participation in engineering is significant for meeting NSF’s goals and benefits national priorities. The University of New Mexico aims to improve understanding of the impacts of Latinas’ undergraduate experiences on their graduate school and career aspirations in engineering. As a designated Hispanic-serving Institution, the University of New Mexico is an ideal site for this study. Through advancing knowledge of the impact of intersectional identities on interest in graduate...

Effective: 2022-2025

Funding Type: BCSER IID

Principal Investigator: Dina Verdin

Institution: Arizona State University

The project aims to build the investigator’s capacity to conduct robust fundamental STEM education research by implementing a small-scale research project and a professional development plan. The research investigates how culturally responsive gamified activities impact STEM identity development and promote STEM pathways among students of migratory families. The project extends the efforts of the Migratory Student Summer Academy at Arizona State University that provides summer enrichment...

Effective: 2022-2025

Funding Type: BCSER IID

Principal Investigator: Allyson Flaster

Institution: Regents of the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

Advanced training and education in STEM are of critical importance for the nation’s workforce and economic status. Equitable access to graduate level training reduces barriers for individuals from minoritized groups. Standardized graduate exams are becoming less important in the graduate admissions process, which places a higher weight on letters of recommendation for the selection of graduate students for a program. This project focuses on examining the language used by mentors in describing...

Effective: 2022-2025

Funding Type: BCSER IID

Principal Investigator: Nicole C Kelp

Institution: Colorado State University

Broadening participation in STEM is critical on many levels, from the equity perspective of removing barriers for success for people from historically excluded groups and from the perspective of increasing knowledge in the field of STEM. Both people and scientific endeavors benefit from increasing inclusion. However, evidence indicates that students who experience marginalization due to their socioeconomic status, first generation college attendance, or race and ethnicity are underrepresented...

Effective: 2022-2025

Funding Type: BCSER IID

Principal Investigator: Jennifer G Cromley

Institution: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

To better support college students in learning about science, it is important to understand how they make connections among the concepts and ideas as they are learning. Network Analysis (NA) has potential to enable new ways of analyzing student learning data to reveal such connections. This project seeks to serve the national interest by developing a researcher’s skills to apply the statistical techniques of NA to real-time data about students’ science learning. The principal investigator...

Effective: 2022-2025

Funding Type: BCSER IID

Principal Investigator: Steve Bennoun

Institution: University of California-Los Angeles

This project aims to serve the national interest by enhancing student learning in calculus with a teaching method called interleaving. Unlike the common practice of studying and practicing one topic at a time and them moving to the next topic, interleaving consists in intermixing the study and practice of different topics together. Research conducted in middle school mathematics classrooms shows evidence that interleaving can help improve student learning. Yet, it is currently unknown if...

Effective: 2022-2025

Funding Type: BCSER IID

Principal Investigator: Julianne Wenner

Institution: Clemson University

Families are children’s first teachers and significantly influence children’s interest, engagement, and aspirations (IEA) in science. Family attitudes, conversations about science, expectations for their children, and family science/STEM career role models can be influential, particularly for people who identify with populations that are underrepresented in science. However, what families from these populations provide in terms of support for IEA in science is often framed as inadequate or...

Effective: 2022-2025

Funding Type: BCSER IID

Principal Investigator: Ryan Stowe

Institution: University of Wisconsin-Madison

To prepare learners to productively use scientific knowledge as they navigate life, science courses must develop students’ understandings of what it means to know and learn science (i.e., their epistemologies). This project aims to serve the national interest by developing a researcher’s skills to conduct fundamental chemistry education research that investigates both instructors’ and students’ epistemologies in the context of organic chemistry courses. Studies indicates that...

Effective: 2022-2025

Funding Type: BCSER IID

Principal Investigator: Mohammad Amin Alipour

Institution: University of Houston

This project aims to serve the national interest by understanding the impact on computer science education of using artificial intelligence (AI) to generate computer code. Artificial intelligence tools can generate computer code from the description of a problem written in natural language, and it may lead to faster and easier development of high-quality software programs. While these “code intelligence” (CI) systems may positively improve workflow for professional developers in industry,...

Effective: 2022-2025

Funding Type: BCSER IID

Principal Investigator: Sara Hooshangi

Institution: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Participation in computer science by women is a significant goal for NSF and benefits the nation’s workforce in emerging technologies. Academic and career path decisions are made by individuals and understanding barriers that contribute to student selection of computer science careers may reduce the gender gap in this field. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University seeks to understand personal, social, and institutional constraints that influence the decision-making of first-year...

Effective: 2022-2025

Funding Type: BCSER IID

Principal Investigator: Fashina Alade

Institution: Michigan State University

Advancing participation in STEM is significant for meeting NSF’s goals and benefits the nation. Michigan State University aims to improve understanding of the impacts of STEM-focused children’s media programming by identifying children’s understanding of racial diversity cures in educational television shows. The professional development plan will build research capacity by exploring children's attention to and interpretations of diversity cues and then building a multi-method study that...

Effective: 2022-2024

Funding Type: BCSER IID

Principal Investigator: Christopher A Randles

Institution: The University of Central Florida Board of Trustees

To meaningfully understand a discipline, students not only need to remember concepts but also understand how those concepts connect to one another. Understanding connections between concepts requires students to engage with their discipline in ways such as using visual representations (e.g. diagrams and graphs), experimental activities (e.g. testing hypotheses), societal influences (e.g. the nature of science and society), and information literacy (e.g. how information is presented and used)....

Effective: 2022-2024

Funding Type: BCSER IID

Principal Investigator: Tim McEldowney

Institution: West Virginia University Research Corporation

This project aims to illuminate how undergraduate student knowledge about the graduate school application and admissions processes acts as a barrier to earning advanced degrees in mathematics for students historically underrepresented in STEM disciplines. The project will consist of a combination of exploratory research and professional development activities to advance the PI’s expertise in quantitative and qualitative research methods. The project will survey undergraduate mathematics...

Effective: 2021-2023

Funding Type: BCSER IID

Principal Investigator: Monica C Vroman

Institution: Rutgers University New Brunswick

This project, administered by Rutgers University New Brunswick, builds capacity in STEM Education Research (SER) through the investigator’s participation in intensive professional growth experiences and application of their new knowledge in the design and implementation of a SER study. The investigator will build proficiency in mixed methods research by engaging in focused coursework, professional conferences, and mentoring by SER experts over the life of the project. In tandem with...

Effective: 2021-2023

Funding Type: BCSER IID

Principal Investigator: Eshani N Lee

Institution: Pennsylvania State Univ University Park

Many students experience language-related barriers that may prevent them from fully understanding and engaging in complex science content. Although dense and technically-rich scientific language is challenging for most students to interpret, it can become a systematic barrier for English Language Learner (ELL) students when it interferes with their ability to demonstrate their science knowledge. To learn how to make science course examinations more equitable, this project will examine ways to...

Effective: 2021-2023

Funding Type: BCSER IID

Principal Investigator: Paul Asunda

Institution: Purdue University

This STEM education research capacity building project combines a research project aimed at examining teachers as agents of change in STEM education and a professional development plan focused on facilitating the principal investigator’s acquisition of competencies in conceptual frameworks and research designs for exploring integrated STEM (iSTEM) learning environments in middle school settings. The research project will investigate teachers’ conceptions of iSTEM teaching and learning and...

Effective: 2021-2023

Funding Type: BCSER IID

Principal Investigator: Sammy L Steen Jr

Institution: George Mason University

This project aims to increase the number of Black male youth who can be successful in advanced mathematics while in public schools. The researcher will use a mixed-methods design to gain a comprehensive and culturally appropriate student perspective. The project includes the implementation of a group counseling program for Black male students beginning in seventh grade and following them through eighth grade. The researcher will gain the knowledge and skills necessary to integrate quantitative...

Effective: 2021-2023

Funding Type: BCSER IID

Principal Investigator: Omar S Lopez

Institution: Texas State University - San Marcos

Improving graduation rates of STEM majors for Hispanic students at Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSI) will contribute to the goal of broadening participation in STEM career fields. Texas State University aims to identify links between investment inputs and success in graduating Hispanic students from Hispanic-Serving Institutions using data submitted to the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES). Patterns in HSI inputs that are associated with institutions that are more efficient at...

Effective: 2021-2023

Funding Type: BCSER IID

Principal Investigator: Aleata K Hubbard

Institution: WestEd

This project will explore the significance of race and equity in secondary computer science (CS) education. Despite the importance of CS across all aspects of life, there is little racial diversity in the field along the pipeline from elementary school to industry. At the secondary level, even students who are highly interested and confident in CS remain underrepresented in the field. To address this problem, researchers have created culturally responsive computing approaches to effectively...

Effective: 2021-2023

Funding Type: BCSER IID

Principal Investigator: Zerrin Ondin

Institution: Georgia Tech Research Corporation

The importance of removing barriers to accessing STEM instructional materials is paramount to broadening the representation of students with visual impairments in STEM careers. Tactile graphics are important STEM instructional aids, but they are often difficult to understand or have limited content compared to the original. This project aims to conduct a synthesis of the existing body of knowledge of student experiences with tactile graphics to develop a set of best practices and establish...

Effective: 2021-2023

Funding Type: BCSER IID

Principal Investigator: Garth V Crosby

Institution: Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station

This capacity-building project is designed to develop the investigator's knowledge and skills as a STEM education researcher through intensive training followed by the design and implementation of a study to investigate the perceptions and self-efficacy of engineering faculty members who teach lab-intensive STEM courses online. The multifaceted professional development plan comprises coursework in educational research, workshops, and mentoring by a team of education researchers. The research is...

Effective: 2021-2023

Funding Type: BCSER IID

Principal Investigator: Qingxia Li

Institution: Fisk University

The project is designed to enable the principal investigator to conduct an exploratory research project while acquiring skills and competencies to conduct robust STEM education research. The research component will examine factors and experiences that impact African American students’ decision to pursue careers that require quantitative and computational skills. The mentored professional development component will provide the investigator with expertise in qualitative research design and...

Effective: 2021-2023

Funding Type: BCSER IID

Principal Investigator: Ashish Amresh

Institutions: Arizona State University, Northern Arizona University

Advancing participation in computer science is significant for meeting NSF’s goals and benefits the nation. Arizona State University aims to improve pathways in computer science for Native American tribal school students through co-developed culturally relevant computer science programming. Teachers in tribal high schools on the Navajo Nation will use real-world coding exercises that focus on communities, nature, and the arts to provide a richer understanding of computing and its...

Effective: 2021-2023

Funding Type: BCSER IID

Principal Investigator: Alexander J Stokes

Institution: University of Hawaii

This capacity-building project, administered by the University of Hawaii, is designed to develop the investigator’s knowledge and skills in STEM Education research (SER) through participation in intensive professional growth activities including mentoring by a team of experts in STEM Education research, workshops in research methods and cultural competence, and participation in SER professional conferences. In tandem with the project’s professional development activities, the investigator...

Effective: 2021-2023

Funding Type: BCSER IID

Principal Investigator: John Fife

Institution: Virginia State University

Interest in STEM is often shaped in middle school and understanding the STEM attitude and interest of African American middle school students would be significant in reducing barriers to STEM careers. Virginia State University aims to advance knowledge on the impacts of holistic contextual factors, such as race/ethnicity, school quality, family dynamics, gender, social supports, daily danger exposure, social status, and interpersonal competence, on STEM interest and attitudes. The project...

Effective: 2021-2023

Funding Type: BCSER IID

Principal Investigator: Anne M Ho

Institution: University of Tennessee Knoxville

This project investigates the significance of Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching (MKT) in an understudied population of instructors who fall between traditional divisions of high school and college teaching. Past research has typically assumed that an instructor is either a high school or college instructor, but not both. Degree and certification programs also make this assumption. However, many educators teach both secondary (high school) and tertiary (college) classes throughout the course...

Effective: 2021-2023

Funding Type: BCSER IID

Principal Investigator: Erin A Henslee

Institution: Wake Forest University

This is a STEM education research capacity building project that incorporates a study to investigate the effect(s) of Making activities by examining domains of self-efficacy and character development and a professional development plan to build the investigator's subject matter expertise in self-efficacy and character virtue development and qualitative research design and methods. The research project aims to (1) develop Making activities that represent technical, conceptual, or dispositional...

Effective: 2021-2023

Funding Type: BCSER IID

Principal Investigator: Kathryn Leech

Institution: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

This STEM education research capacity building project combines a research project that investigates whether parents transmit gender stereotypes about STEM to pre-school children in everyday conversations and a detailed professional development plan that enables the principal investigator to develop competencies in computational research methodologies, skill in mentoring junior colleagues, and knowledge of research on the underrepresentation of women in STEM. The research will examine whether...

Effective: 2021-2023

Funding Type: BCSER IID

Principal Investigator: Katharine Johanesen

Institution: Juniata College

Spatial reasoning skills include the abilities to visualize, interpret, and manipulate information in two dimensions (2D) and three dimensions (3D). These skills predict students’ persistence and success in STEM fields and are recognized as crucial aspects of geoscience education. Thus, teaching undergraduate students spatial reasoning skills is expected to enhance their retention in STEM fields and ultimately increase the number and diversity of STEM professionals nationally. This project...

Effective: 2021-2022

Funding Type: BCSER IID

Principal Investigator: John G Kelly

Institution: Tennessee State University

In this capacity building project, the investigator proposes to replicate a research project to investigate dual process reasoning in an undergraduate physics classroom at a Historically Black College and University. Dual process theories state that when faced with a decision, students may use both an autonomous system of cognition (T1S) and a reflective system (T2S) that relies on working memory and mental simulations. The current project builds on prior research that applied the...

Effective: 2020-2023

Funding Type: BCSER IID

Principal Investigator: Ramon Barthelemy

Institution: University of Utah

This project is a ten-year follow up to a pilot study that examined the educational experiences and career goals of 21 women graduate students in physics and astronomy. The previous study results revealed a complex tapestry of experiences with mentoring, gender discrimination, and the development of career goals that influenced the students’ ultimate outcomes. The study showed that many were considering non-academic careers because of their perceptions of work-life balance and the academic...

Effective: 2020-2023

Funding Type: BCSER IID

Principal Investigator: Qi Shi

Institution: Loyola University Maryland, Inc.

This capacity building project includes a study to examine the experiences of Latina English Learners to identify the resources and assets that impact their academic and career development and persistence in STEM. Guided by the culture wealth model and social cognitive career theory, the investigator will conduct a qualitative study using a phenomenology design to understand the meaning of these students’ experiences using three developmental milestones: interest, access, and persistence. The...

Effective: 2020-2023

Funding Type: BCSER IID

Principal Investigator: Jenny M Dauer

Institution: University of Nebraska-Lincoln

It is essential for citizens to develop the science literacy that empowers them to make informed decisions about challenging real-world issues. Science literacy is a complex process that involves learning to make sense of information from multiple sources, to consider social, cultural and economic values, and to evaluate options for action. To effectively enhance the scientific literacy of their students, science instructors also need to integrate results of psychology research that may help...

Effective: 2020-2023

Funding Type: BCSER IID

Principal Investigator: Jamie Gurganus

Institution: University of Maryland Baltimore County

In this capacity building project, the investigator proposes to develop a model for inquiry in engineering education research that accommodates a range of complementary data types, data sources, points of time, and conceptual lenses while concurrently acquiring skills in explanatory sequential mixed-methods STEM education research. The research project aims to model patterns of major behavior data among undergraduate women entering and exiting an engineering program prior to graduation,...

Effective: 2020-2023

Funding Type: BCSER IID

Principal Investigator: Simi T Hoque

Institution: Drexel University

This two-year project will analyze how adolescent girls develop as sustainable citizens as they take part in a college-based STEM summer program that offers hands-on workshops in sustainability science. As a Building Capacity in STEM Educational Research (BCSER) project, a key goal is to build the principal investigator's knowledge base and analytical expertise in STEM education research. This project aims to position the investigator to conduct longer-term research on broadening participation...

Effective: 2020-2023

Funding Type: BCSER IID

Principal Investigator: Maia Popova

Institution: University of North Carolina Greensboro

Representational competence is the ability to use drawings, diagrams, and symbols to learn, communicate, and solve problems in a specific area, such as organic chemistry. Studies have shown that undergraduate students’ ability to reason with specific representations is important for their understanding of and success in organic chemistry. However, no validated assessment instruments currently exist that measure students’ representational competence in organic chemistry. With support from...

Effective: 2020-2023

Funding Type: BCSER IID

Principal Investigator: Julia St Goar

Institution: Merrimack College

This award will support the development of research to investigate key developmental mathematics understandings of undergraduates who are intending to become teachers. Many secondary teachers learned geometry through proving theorems. Current secondary standards and guidelines favor a vastly different approach that focuses on geometric transformations, such as reflection of a shape against an axis. This difference in learning approaches provides an important STEM education question: how do...

Effective: 2020-2023

Funding Type: BCSER IID

Principal Investigator: Anne Casper

Institution: Eastern Michigan University

Evaluating Classroom Undergraduate Research Experience Laboratory Benefits for Underprepared StudentsClassroom Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE) laboratory experiences can make science more inclusive by giving large numbers of first-year students the experience of carrying out authentic research. The positive benefits of CUREs include increased analytical skills, technical skills, self-efficacy, and persistence in science. Most of the reported research on CUREs is from research-intensive...

Effective: 2020-2023

Funding Type: BCSER IID

Principal Investigator: Nadia M Mills

Institution: University of The Virgin Islands

This project aims to serve the national interest by increasing undergraduate student success in STEM courses. It will do so by improving implementation of Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL) and implementing research to examine the effectiveness of these improvements. This project focuses on the effects of PLTL in early mathematics courses. When PLTL was implemented in a remedial mathematics course at the University of the Virgin Islands, students were able to complete the course successfully....

Effective: 2020-2023

Funding Type: BCSER IID

Principal Investigator: Philip A Vieira

Institution: California State University-Dominguez Hills Foundation

In this capacity building project, the investigator proposes to investigate the impact of design thinking training combined with established pedagogical strategies in increasing student recruitment, persistence, and retention in STEM at a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) and a predominantly urban undergraduate institution. In this context, design thinking focuses on the iterative process by which solutions are derived, taking multiple perspectives from various disciplines, and encouraging...

Effective: 2020-2023

Funding Type: BCSER IID

Principal Investigator: Lisa B Limeri

Institutions: Texas Tech University, University of Georgia Research Foundation Inc

This project aims to develop a rigorous, evidence-based survey to measure the "mindset" of undergraduate STEM students. Mindset is a psychological trait that may influence student success and persistence. The mindset construct refers to whether a student believes that intelligence is a trait that is innate and unchangeable (called a fixed mindset) or malleable and improvable (called a growth mindset). When students struggle academically, it has been shown that those with a growth mindset are...

Effective: 2020-2023

Funding Type: BCSER IID

Principal Investigator: Golnaz Arastoopour Irgens

Institution: Clemson University

Society’s reliance on digital technologies has resulted in enormous amounts of data being recorded, sorted, and analyzed. While improving human efficiency and life quality, data analytics can also reproduce inequities and further marginalize those from non-dominant populations, including women, people of color, and those who live in poverty. This two-year Building Capacity in STEM Education Research Individual Investigator Development project addresses this issue by developing a data science...

Effective: 2020-2023

Funding Type: BCSER IID

Principal Investigator: Jennifer L Osterhage

Institution: University of Kentucky Research Foundation

Nearly half of undergraduate students who pursue STEM disciplines ultimately change fields. Many who leave STEM majors do so after taking introductory courses that serve as “gatekeepers” to degree progression. Low grades and interest in introductory courses are important barriers to retention. A preliminary study shows that undergraduates who complete Introductory Biology I later in their college career earn lower grades and are more likely to fail than students who complete the course...