Effective: 2019-2023

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Sara Cordes

Institution: Boston College

There is currently a gender gap in STEM fields, such that females participate at lower rates and have lower career attainment than their male counterparts. While much research has focused on gender differences in math attitudes, little work has explored how attitudes in a closely related STEM domain, spatial reasoning, may also contribute to the observed gender gap. The proposed research will characterize the acquisition of gender stereotypes in childhood in two key domains critical to success...

Effective: 2019-2023

Funding Type: BCSER IID

Principal Investigator: Joshua Rosenberg

Institution: University of Tennessee Knoxville

This project explores STEM interest development at the undergraduate level in computer science. It is a study of national importance that will focus on substantial differences in who pursues an interest, a major, or an occupation in computer science. The pilot study will look at what drives these differences at a level where policymakers and educators seeking to support and sustain a more representative population of computer science experts can most effectively act. To address this problem,...

Effective: 2019-2023

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Cassandra Guarino

Institution: University of California-Riverside

This EHR Core Research project will investigate K-12 learning in mathematics within the broader context of the impact of student mobility on an interrelated set of student outcomes. The researchers will focus specifically on how student mobility influences and interacts with the following student outcomes - mathematics achievement, behavior, social-emotional learning and other forms of development, such as language acquisition and disability status ? for vulnerable populations in California....

Effective: 2019-2022

Funding Type: BCSER IID

Principal Investigator: Erin Lynch

Institutions: Tennessee State University, Winston-Salem State University, QUALITY EDUCATION FOR MINORITIES NETWORK

The proposed project will lay the foundation for a clearinghouse of broadening participation STEM education research at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). The clearinghouse is envisioned as an online platform that will be populated with data collected through a systematic literature review during this initial phase. The investigator used the Vitae Researcher Development Framework to identify the STEM education research skills gaps that will be the focus of a comprehensive...

Effective: 2019-2021

Funding Type: BCSER IID

Principal Investigator: Yolanda K Bogan

Institution: Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University

The project examines factors that influence the persistence of African American women in STEM that graduated from an Historically Black College or University (HBCU) by exploring National Center for Education Statistics datasets. The research project will use an intersectionality approach to study gender and race to better understand the experiences of underrepresented minorities in STEM disciplines at HBCUs. The investigator used the National Postdoctoral Association guidelines to identify gaps...

Effective: 2019-2021

Funding Type: BCSER IID

Principal Investigator: Ramon Goings

Institutions: University of Maryland Baltimore County, Loyola University Maryland, Inc.

This project will support fundamental STEM education research that examines broadening participation within the STEM teacher workforce. By investigating the factors that influence undergraduate student persistence in STEM and teacher education, it has the potential to contribute new knowledge about the recruitment and retention of underrepresented minority pre-service STEM teachers. The investigator has designed a professional development plan that will support building his capacity to do...

Effective: 2019-2021

Funding Type: BCSER IID

Principal Investigator: Melo-Jean Yap

Institution: San Diego State University Foundation

This project examines STEM trajectories of women of color who start their STEM education at two-year public institutions. The goal is to use national and social network data: to 1) understand the integration of mobility patterns, student characteristics, college experiences, and institutions to support career persistence in STEM women of color; and 2) identify what influential networks at the student- and institutional-level have affected their scientific thinking, and persistence and success...

Effective: 2018-2024

Funding Type: CAREER

Principal Investigator: Jacquelyn Chini

Institution: The University of Central Florida Board of Trustees

In U.S. colleges and universities about 25% of undergraduate students and 20% of graduate students with a disability enroll in science and engineering fields. Surprisingly, the economic well-being of persons with disabilities has decreased since the passage of anti-discrimination laws such as the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act. However, STEM careers offer better financial outcomes for individuals with disabilities. Additionally, economic projections suggest an increasing need to recruit...

Effective: 2018-2023

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: IVORY A TOLDSON

Institution: QUALITY EDUCATION FOR MINORITIES NETWORK

The Quality Education for Minorities (QEM) Network, in collaboration with the American Institutes for Research (AIR), is studying a model aligned with the successful graduation of undergraduate STEM students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) who go on to earn doctoral degrees. The primary objective of this research is to advance understanding about the characteristics of HBCUs that enable STEM undergraduate students to thrive and prepare them to subsequently pursue and...

Effective: 2018-2023

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Deborah L Ball

Institution: Regents of the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

The fundamental demand of teaching is to see, hear, interpret, and extend students' current ideas and understanding. Students differ from their teachers--in age and gender identity, as well as racial identity, language, social class, and experience. These differences compound the complexity of communicating because implicit racial and gender biases affect teachers' orientations to seeing students' capabilities. This project will focus on (1) understanding what it is involved in communicating...

Effective: 2018-2023

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Steven T Piantadosi

Institutions: University of California-Berkeley, University of Rochester

Award AbstractThe goal of this project, led by a team of researchers at the University of Rochester, is to answer important questions about fundamental cognitive capacities underlying number learning. The team will examine abilities assumed by prevailing theories to be universal by studying mathematical learning in the Tsimane', a unique population of farming-foragers. The extreme variability in their exposure to formal education will provide the researchers with an opportunity to evaluate the...

Effective: 2018-2023

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Claire W Wladis

Institution: CUNY Borough of Manhattan Community College

This EHR Core Research Project at Manhattan Community College aims to contribute new knowledge and build new theory about students' understanding of the concepts traditionally learned in a college algebra course. College algebra has consistently been identified as a barrier to student degree progress and completion, particularly for groups traditionally underrepresented in STEM fields. One part of the barrier to student progress is the lack of validated assessments to measure understanding of...

Effective: 2018-2023

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigators: Krystal Hinerman, Eric M Riggs, Julie M Sexton

Institutions: Lamar University, Texas A&M University, University of Colorado at Boulder, University of Northern Colorado

The representation of women in the earth, atmospheric, and ocean sciences workforce is significantly lower than that of female undergraduate students majoring in these disciplines. This underrepresentation limits the available role models for female undergraduate and graduate students, and female scientists working in industry. It is critical to understand the factors that may influence why male or female undergraduate students pursue the STEM workforce or not. Advancing a diverse and...

Effective: 2018-2023

Funding Type: CAREER

Principal Investigator: Sepehr Vakil

Institutions: Northwestern University, University of Texas at Austin

The Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) program is a National Science Foundation-wide activity that offers awards in support of junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education, and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of their organizations. This project has the goal to investigate how undergraduate learning contexts may constrain or facilitate productive interactions between ethical,...

Effective: 2018-2023

Funding Type: CAREER

Principal Investigator: Gavin R Price

Institution: Vanderbilt University

Approximately 6% of Americans suffer from the mathematical learning disability developmental dyscalculia (DD), facing academic difficulties, reduced employment, increased mental and physical illness, and higher rates of arrest and incarceration. Despite the potential consequences, no consensus currently exists regarding the brain and behavioral causes of DD. The project team will attempt to characterize the development of and interaction between brain mechanisms responsible for processing...

Effective: 2018-2023

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigators: Natasha J Cabrera, Melissa E Libertus, Catherine S Tamis-LeMonda

Institutions: University of Maryland, College Park, University of Pittsburgh, New York University

The proposed research, led by a team of investigators from New York University, the University of Pittsburgh, and the University of Maryland, will address the persistent problem of low representation of particular US minorities in STEM fields. Already by school entry, children display striking individual differences in math skills that can set them on a path for high or low math performance and participation in STEM disciplines. Latino children, who are disproportionately from low-SES...

Effective: 2018-2023

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Paul T Cirino

Institution: University of Houston

Many more students are enrolled in community college (CC) than in four-year colleges and universities, and many more students take developmental (remedial) math at CC than at four-year institutions. However, failure rates in these courses are high, and failure of developmental math is a significant barrier to STEM participation. There is surprisingly little data about the specific skill deficits and sociodemographic and personal barriers that contribute to this situation. It is likely that...

Effective: 2018-2023

Funding Type: CAREER

Principal Investigator: Samantha Daley

Institution: University of Rochester

This Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) project will pursue integrated research and education efforts to broaden participation, persistence, and success in advanced science coursework and career progression for students with learning disabilities, the largest disability category in United States' public education. Despite the potential for academic and career success in STEM, students with learning disabilities participate in advanced science courses and pursue STEM careers at much lower...

Effective: 2018-2023

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigators: Donald Peurach, James P Spillane

Institutions: Regents of the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor, Northwestern University

To generate foundational knowledge, this project will examine the development of school-level and system-level STEM learning environments that support the implementation of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) through high-quality science instruction at the classroom level. This study is significant since the NGSS depend on local discretion in operationalizing foundational ideals in classroom instruction, yet few systems and schools are organized to support teachers in doing so. As...

Effective: 2018-2023

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Nadya A Fouad

Institution: University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

The study examines how the interaction of diversity and engineering team dynamics impact innovation in the workplace. The investigators apply the Categorization Elaboration Model (CEM) to investigate why simply including women or racial/ethnic minorities on engineering teams does not lead automatically to greater innovation. The model reconciles the inconsistent literature on team diversity and team performance and addresses the fundamental question of when and how team diversity can have a...

Effective: 2018-2023

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Heather L Thiry

Institution: University of Colorado at Boulder

Given their accessibility and affordability, community colleges attract high numbers of minority, low-income, and first-generation students. Despite their potential to diversify the STEM workforce, few studies have sought to capture how community colleges serve underrepresented students in STEM courses and degree programs. Further, there is a limited understanding of what leads underrepresented community college students to transfer to and attain STEM degrees from four-year institutions. Taking...

Effective: 2018-2023

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Amy D Robertson Jr

Institution: Seattle Pacific University

This ECR project will explore the extent to which educational strategies, tools, and materials in undergraduate physics classrooms and laboratory sessions center some students and marginalize others. This project will identify teaching strategies, tools, and materials that communicate who is welcome, important, and influential in physics and what characteristics are valued and necessary for success in physics. The ways that undergraduate physics is taught may lead to reduced persistence and...

Effective: 2018-2022

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Kelley Durkin

Institution: Vanderbilt University

This study continues a longitudinal study that began with students in preschool and will follow them into high school in a large, urban school district including a large number of African-American students and low-income students. The study is a unique opportunity to learn about how the students go through school from preschool through the end of high school. This opportunity will examine how their readiness for STEM careers and their beliefs about STEM. Their path through school will...

Effective: 2018-2022

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigators: Jennifer M Bekki, Kerrie G Wilkins-Yel

Institutions: Arizona State University, Indiana University, University of Massachusetts Boston

This study will investigate the associations between perceived supports and persistence for both majority (Caucasian) women and underrepresented minority (URM) women in STEM doctoral programs. Women leave doctoral programs in STEM at higher rates than their white male counterparts. Reducing the attrition of these talented individuals from STEM is of particular importance given that diversity at all levels of the STEM workforce has been shown to benefit the outcomes of related scientific...

Effective: 2018-2022

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Tama Leventhal

Institution: Tufts University

This project seeks to broaden the participation of an important underrepresented group in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Mexican-origin children, one of the fastest growing segments of the U.S. population, often come from disadvantaged circumstances that increase their need to use public education for social mobility while also posing challenges to navigating the public education system. Yet, Mexican-origin families are rich in social resources that can be leveraged to...

Effective: 2018-2022

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Sandra Simpkins

Institution: University of California-Irvine

High school is a critical turning point in many students' STEM coursework and career trajectories. For example, students' math motivation peaks in high school yet 45% of 10th graders who express interest in pursuing a STEM career lose that interest by the end of high school. Adolescents with minimal math and science high school coursework are extremely unlikely to either try or be able to enter STEM college majors and careers. To change these trends, it is necessary to understand how best to...

Effective: 2018-2022

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: David S Yeager

Institution: University of Texas at Austin

The ECR program emphasizes fundamental STEM education research that will generate foundational knowledge in the field. This study will add to foundational knowledge by building theory about broadening participation of underrepresented minority groups (students of color, young women, students from low SES families, students with disabilities, English language learners), and intersections among them, in STEM education. The study will use data from the National Study of Learning Mindsets (NSLM),...

Effective: 2018-2022

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Dustin B Thoman

Institution: San Diego State University Foundation

This study will investigate the factors that facilitate or hinder STEM undergraduate instructors from implementing strategies that have demonstrably positive impacts on student outcomes. The research will specifically focus on the study of one such intervention called the Utility Value Intervention (UVI), which has been shown to have a positive impact especially on students who are first generation college students or who are from racial and ethnic minority groups that are underrepresented in...

Effective: 2018-2021

Funding Type: RAPID/EAGER

Principal Investigator: Odis D Johnson Jr

Institutions: Washington University, Johns Hopkins University

The ECR program emphasizes fundamental STEM education research that will generate foundational knowledge in the field. This project will conduct an early stage exploratory study of an untested idea that will address the nation's STEM workforce needs. It will use a radically different approach to uncover barriers that impede broader participation by specific race-gender groups in STEM fields. The study will investigate whether school policies and practices regarding safety, discipline, school...

Effective: 2018-2021

Funding Type: RAPID/EAGER

Principal Investigator: Kathryn H Shows

Institution: Virginia State University

The ECR program emphasizes fundamental STEM education research that will generate foundational knowledge in the field. This project will explore an early-stage, untested intervention aimed at promoting ways to help underrepresented minority students succeed in introductory biology courses and persist in STEM careers. The project will study whether combining team-based geocaching gameplay with near-peer mentoring will help students master content and skills in biology. It will also examine...

Effective: 2018-2021

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Maria Ong

Institution: TERC Inc

This project will review and synthesize existing literature on factors that impact the interest, participation, retention and success of women of color in computing and technology fields. This type of project informs areas for future research and helps to identify promising practices that others can implement. The project will result in a report to help inform those who are practitioners in STEM education, STEM employers, and STEM policy makers. This project is a mixed-methods meta-synthesis...

Effective: 2018-2020

Funding Type: Conference

Principal Investigator: William R Penuel

Institution: University of Colorado at Boulder

The ECR program emphasizes fundamental STEM education research that will generate foundational knowledge in the field. This conference will provide a venue for state science coordinators from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and US territories and their teams to learn about tools and practices that will help them identify, analyze, and adapt resources that shape educational opportunities in science co-designed through the Advancing Coherent and Equitable Systems of Science Education...

Effective: 2018-2019

Funding Type: Conference

Principal Investigator: David J Kraemer

Institution: Dartmouth College

Creativity in STEM is the difference between basic competency and innovative advancement. To foster continued innovation, it is essential that we develop new methods to foster students' creative thinking skills in STEM. However, many issues regarding creativity remain unresolved. For example, we know little about how creativity develops, how the brain gives rise to creativity, and what sorts of educational experiences can make a student more creative over time. Indeed, even determining how to...

Effective: 2017-2024

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigators: Adam E Green, Robert A Kolvoord, David J Kraemer, David H Uttal

Institutions: Georgetown University, James Madison University, Dartmouth College, Northwestern University

Spatial thinking is a powerful driver of success in the STEM classroom and spatial thinking is a major predictor of future STEM success in the workforce. The brain systems that support spatial thinking have been well mapped by neuroscience to allow clear interpretation of new brain-imaging data. Recent advances in tools used to analyze brain activity allow detection of changes in the brains of students that signify accurate learning of STEM concepts. This advance may open a window onto...

Effective: 2017-2024

Funding Type: CAREER

Principal Investigator: Dara Shifrer

Institution: Portland State University

This Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) grant will establish an integrated research and education program focused on questions underlying persistent underrepresentation of racial minorities, youth with lower socioeconomic status (SES), and disability classifications in STEM fields. In general, there is a lack of clear direction for addressing these disparities. The project aims to promote understanding of the conditions under which racial minorities, persons with disabilities, and...

Effective: 2017-2023

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Mary C Murphy

Institution: Indiana University

This project consists of a large randomized-controlled trial (RCT) of a social psychological intervention with college students. The social-belonging intervention seeks to normalize the students' experience of struggle in the transition to college and provides productive strategies to help students perceive initial challenges with adjustment as relatively commonplace and not indicative of a lack of belonging. The project examines the experimental effects of the belonging intervention on the...

Effective: 2017-2023

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Eric W Welch

Institution: Arizona State University

A team of researchers from Arizona State University, Georgia Institute of Technology, and the University of Arkansas will investigate factors affecting the retention of foreign STEM higher education faculty in the US and those factors leading to their being more productive members of the workforce and advancing STEM in this country. In an era of global competition for academic STEM talent, and despite the high representation of foreign STEM faculty in US post-secondary institutions, significant...

Effective: 2017-2023

Funding Type: CAREER

Principal Investigator: Kathleen H Corriveau

Institution: Trustees of Boston University

The United States invests over $600 billion on public K-12 education every year to further the Nation's prosperity and welfare. The National Science Foundation's CAREER program supports junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of education and research. This CAREER project dissects and characterizes science explanations in formal and informal learning settings to uncover best practices for optimizing...

Effective: 2017-2023

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Lois Weis

Institution: SUNY at Buffalo

Although we have some evidence of the effects of state policy on postsecondary costs, tuition waivers, and earmarked grants for college attendance, we have little evidence of the effects of STEM-specific state policy defined as math and science course requirements for high school graduation, and presence or absence of high-stakes testing on high school opportunities and short and long term outcomes for STEM. Although students interested in STEM pursue varying paths toward STEM degrees and...

Effective: 2017-2023

Funding Type: RAPID/EAGER

Principal Investigator: Mary M Atwater

Institution: University of Georgia Research Foundation Inc

The ECR program emphasizes fundamental STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education research that will generate foundational knowledge in the field. This project will examine ways to broaden participation in STEM for science education faculty of African ancestry and science education Latino/a faculty. Research shows that science and science education faculty and students from these populations regularly face intentional and unintentional acts of racial microaggressions...

Effective: 2017-2023

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigators: Eric Deemer, Aryn M Dotterer

Institutions: Purdue University, Utah State University

The ECR program emphasizes fundamental STEM education research that will generate foundational knowledge in the field. As such, this study will build on an emerging body of research about ways to broaden the representation of the African American undergraduate students in STEM fields. This type of research is highly important since studies show that racial bias weaken scientific identity in STEM by triggering and perpetuating threatening stereotypes that African Americans do not have the...

Effective: 2017-2023

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Jonathan E Cook

Institution: Pennsylvania State Univ University Park

The ECR program emphasizes fundamental STEM education research that will generate foundational knowledge in the field. This study will examine whether stress from psychological threat helps explain why nearly half of doctoral students overall and even higher rates of women and underrepresented minority students leave graduate school before attaining their terminal STEM degrees. The proposed research will be guided by the self-affirmation theory in determining whether social psychological...

Effective: 2017-2023

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Mary Blair-Loy

Institution: University of California-San Diego

The underrepresentation of women faculty in STEM limits the potential for scientific creativity and reduces available role models for female undergraduate and graduate students pursuing STEM careers. Research on implicit bias indicates that women candidates for faculty positions are less likely to be selected than men. It is critical to understand the experiences of hiring committee members, and of candidates for faculty positions, in order to advance STEM academic hiring practices. Having a...

Effective: 2017-2023

Funding Type: CAREER

Principal Investigator: Ebony O McGee

Institution: Vanderbilt University

The EHR Core Research program emphasizes fundamental STEM education research that will generate foundational knowledge in the field. This essential research will examine ways to broaden participation in engineering and computing through a multi-tiered research design that studies how race-related bias and microaggressive acts affect the career trajectories of Black, Native American, and Latino/a doctoral students and postdoctoral researchers. The research will examine three main variables in...

Effective: 2017-2023

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Brian Donovan

Institution: BSCS Science Learning

This project draws on the relation between genetics instruction and psychological biases associated with the development of racial stereotyping. Previous research has suggested that when students are taught genetics in particular ways, it increases faulty assumptions. For example, learning about the prevalence of sickle cell anemia in people of African descent and the prevalence of Cystic Fibrosis in people of European descent can cause middle and high school students to infer that racial...

Effective: 2017-2023

Funding Type: CAREER

Principal Investigator: Yi Zhang

Institution: University of Texas at Arlington

The ECR (Education and Human Resources Core Research) program emphasizes fundamental STEM education research that will generate foundational knowledge in the field. As transfer students continue to use community colleges as stepping stones to pursue STEM degrees, it is important to understand the unique challenges these students encounter and the diversity within this important student population. This study will develop a transfer student typology and investigate its relationships with...

Effective: 2017-2022

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigators: Diana Franklin, Cathy N Thomas

Institutions: University of Chicago, University of Missouri-Columbia, Texas State University - San Marcos

In order to produce a more competitive, computer-literate domestic workforce ready to be computational innovators, this project seeks to improve computer science instruction at the upper elementary school level. It will create strategies for teaching a diverse set of students, including students with learning disabilities, English language learners, and students with a variety of ethnic, gender, and socioeconomic backgrounds. It will draw on decades of research on reading comprehension to drive...

Effective: 2017-2022

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Lucas C Parra

Institution: CUNY City College

When a teacher is presenting new material during class or online, are students actually paying attention? The ambitious goal of this project is to objectively measure students' attentional engagement during learning using electroencephalography (EEG). Specifically, it measures students' brain activity as they watch online educational videos, and then compares their neural activity to how well they perform on traditional measures of learning such as tests and quizzes. If successful, this project...

Effective: 2017-2022

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Gavin R Price

Institution: Vanderbilt University

Math skills are a strong predictor of life success, yet many people struggle to acquire basic numerical and mathematical skills. Being able to fluently process symbolic numbers (i.e. Arabic digits) is a key foundation for the development of basic math skills. However, very little is known about the brain systems which support the processing numerical symbols, how those systems develop in the early school years, and how they are related to math skill development. Understanding the development of...

Effective: 2017-2021

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: David S Knight

Institutions: University of Texas at El Paso, University of Washington

Maintaining U.S. global competitiveness in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) industries requires increasing participation among traditionally underrepresented groups including people of color and women. Studies show creating more equal educational opportunities in the K-12 education system is an effective, socially just approach to expanding STEM participation. This study examines the impact of Texas Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (T-STEM) academies on (a) STEM...