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: RAPID/EAGER

Principal Investigator: Gerald R Marschke

Institution: National Bureau of Economic Research Inc

This RAPID project addresses the need to maintain resilience in the STEM workforce during a pandemic. The researchers aim to assess which STEM jobs in which industries are more or less able to telework in the near term during the COVID-19 pandemic. The project also will examine the distribution of STEM occupations and wages within firms and compare across industries to gain insight into how disruptive COVID-19 will be at the workplace level. The research team will use large-scale population...

Effective: 2020-2023

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigators: Jaclyn Ocumpaugh, Jonathan Rowe

Institutions: University of Pennsylvania, North Carolina State University

Student interest and affect play critical roles in shaping how individuals learn. Interest impacts student engagement with scientific ideas and practices, student learning outcomes, and the ability to set goals and self-regulate. Student interest is also a well-known precursor to STEM career development. Over the past several years, research on affect-sensitive learning environments has enabled data-rich investigations into the affective dynamics of student learning. However, designing adaptive...

Effective: 2020-2023

Funding Type: BCSER Institute

Principal Investigator: Shaun B Kellogg

Institution: North Carolina State University

North Carolina State University (NCSU) will establish the Learning Analytics in STEM Education Research (LASER) Institute to build learning analytics capacity in STEM education research. The institute will provide professional development for early and mid-career STEM education researchers in learning analytics, a computational research methodology. The goal of the institute is to increase the capacity of researchers to understand and improve STEM learning and learning environments through the...

Effective: 2020-2023

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Marjorie Rhodes

Institution: New York University

The roots of gender, racial, and ethnic disparities in science achievement take hold in early childhood, with lifelong implications for educational outcomes. Often, these early roots are in the form of problematic beliefs, including beliefs that science is something in which only a select group of people can succeed. These beliefs are particularly discouraging for children from social groups that are underrepresented in science, including girls and children from certain racial and ethnic...

Effective: 2020-2023

Funding Type: BCSER Institute

Principal Investigator: Roni M Ellington

Institution: Morgan State University

Morgan State University proposes to implement an Institute in Research Methods that will build capacity in mixed-methods, with an emphasis on K-12 STEM education in an urban setting. The institute will be managed by the Maryland Collaborative for Research in Urban STEM Education (MD-CRUSE), a partnership involving the Baltimore Education Research Consortium and Baltimore Public Schools. The goal is to enhance participants’ STEM education research skills and competencies, stimulate research...

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...

Effective: 2020-2023

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Ashkan Negahban

Institution: Pennsylvania State Univ University Park

Researchers at Pennsylvania State University propose to create and utilize 3D virtual reality (VR) environments in engineering settings that immerse learners in complex simulation models representing a real-world situation instead of well-defined problems with existing solutions. By partnering with a simulation software company and industry consultants, the project will generate education modules aligned with industry needs and provide novel model-based systems for engineering education. The...

Effective: 2020-2023

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigators: Lorelle A Meadows, Denise J Sekaquaptewa

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

Women have been historically underrepresented in STEM fields, and research evidence suggests that subtle gender bias occurs in many STEM settings, especially those where women continue to be underrepresented. Social psychological research has demonstrated the negative effects of perceived bias or becoming aware that one is the target of stereotyping and discrimination. This project will provide a novel contribution to and extension of the perceived bias research by proposing that simply...

Effective: 2020-2023

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Eli Tucker-Raymond

Institution: Trustees of Boston University

Despite decades-long efforts to broaden STEM participation, the underrepresentation of people from communities of color persists in STEM across many areas, including, for example, laboratory work, engineering, and teaching. Research suggests that more expansive STEM learning opportunities are possible in school and out of school when youth have opportunities to develop and share their experience with others, both in and beyond the classroom. Mentoring is a widely accepted strategy for...

Effective: 2020-2023

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Mala Htun

Institution: University of New Mexico

Researchers from New Mexico State University (NMSU) will implement an EHR Core Research (ECR) program research project. This ECR program supports work that advances fundamental research on STEM learning and learning environments, broadening participation in STEM, and STEM workforce development. The study will assess whether and how bystander intervention training - a successful approach in other contexts such as universities and the U.S. military - can be refined, adapted, and delivered to...

Effective: 2020-2023

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigators: NiCole T Buchanan, Martinque K Jones, Isis H Settles

Institutions: Michigan State University, University of North Texas, Regents of the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

This collaborative research project, involving Michigan State University, the University of North Texas and the University of Michigan, will examine whether epistemic exclusion, a form a scholarly devaluation, may create a barrier to the full inclusion and participation of women and faculty of color in STEM. Epistemic exclusion is the devaluation of certain types of scholarship that occurs when invisible biases in systems of evaluation are coupled with prejudice toward, and negative stereotypes...

Effective: 2020-2023

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Karen L Webber

Institution: University of Georgia Research Foundation Inc

The project examines how students’ work-related experiential activities (WREAs) may be affected by their institution’s geographic proximity to major economic and workforce hubs. WREAs include internships, co-ops, practicums, job shadowing, and other similar opportunities that enable students to apply knowledge in an authentic setting and that lead to successful and productive employment. The research will fill a knowledge gap by empirically documenting the influence of locale on internships...

Effective: 2020-2023

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigators: Kendra S Cheruvelil, Isis H Settles

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

Researchers from the University of Michigan Ann Arbor will collaborate with researchers from Michigan State University to implement an EHR Core Research (ECR) project. The project will study how an inclusive educational and workplace climate can affect academic STEM career outcomes, particularly for early-career individuals from underrepresented groups. The proposers will develop a novel construct of inclusive authorship climate in which intellectual contributions are fully welcomed and valued...

Effective: 2020-2023

Funding Type: BCSER Institute

Principal Investigator: John R Morelock

Institution: University of Georgia Research Foundation Inc

The ProQual Institute (PQI) is designed to implement a novel, problem-led, research quality-focused approach to developing STEM education research capacity. The approach starts with the problem, idea, or general topic of interest, and researchers are then guided to identify and visually map a "social reality" of interest to articulate clear and purposeful research questions and to inform a coherent use of theoretical frameworks to undergird the study. Based on understanding the scope and nature...

Effective: 2020-2023

Funding Type: BCSER IID

Principal Investigator: Jeremiah A Henning

Institution: University of South Alabama

This capacity building project includes a study to measure a suite of social identities salient in STEM classrooms to understand how identities shape perceptions of in-class, interpersonal relationships with peers and instructors and perceptions of institutional and disciplinary inclusivity and how these factors impact retention of marginalized identities in STEM majors and careers. The project will simultaneously explore multiple student identities and interactions among identities and explore...

Effective: 2020-2023

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Suzanne T Ortega

Institution: Council of Graduate Schools

The Council of Graduate Schools will examine data about science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) PhD career aspirations and alumni outcomes from a network of 70 diverse U.S. doctoral institutions. The proposed project will conduct a survey to examine individual and environmental factors that influence retention and persistence in STEM careers and transitions between employment sectors. The underlying assumption of the project is that individual attributes such as self-efficacy...

Effective: 2020-2023

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigators: Laura W Burrus, John D Coley

Institutions: San Francisco State University, Northeastern University

This project aims to serve the national interest by improving undergraduate biology education. It will do so by conducting basic research on how the intuitive thinking of biology students helps and/or hinders their learning of biological concepts in STEM learning environments. The project focuses on anthropocentric thinking, a particular kind of intuitive thinking that anchors understanding of the biological world in human terms. Anthropocentric thinking results in a tendency to see humans as...

Effective: 2020-2023

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Peter Youngs

Institution: University of Virginia Main Campus

This research project is supported by the EHR Core Research (ECR) program, which supports work that advances fundamental research on STEM learning and learning environments, broadening participation in STEM, and STEM workforce development.In the last decade, there has been a tremendous increase in the use of video for preparing teachers and studying teaching quality. Prominent approaches to summative evaluation of teaching candidates and beginning teachers feature video recordings of...

Effective: 2020-2023

Funding Type: BCSER IID

Principal Investigator: Geraldine L Cochran

Institution: Rutgers University New Brunswick

This project aims to serve the national interest by improving retention among first-year engineering majors. Research shows that many students who plan to major in engineering leave the field after their first year in college. This attrition is particularly true for women students and students from ethnic or racial groups that are underrepresented in STEM. The low retention rates are disturbing, since the nation has a growing need to increase its engineering workforce. Strategies known to...

Effective: 2020-2022

Funding Type: RAPID/EAGER

Principal Investigator: Christopher S Hulleman

Institution: University of Virginia Main Campus

The transition to online instruction necessitated by the COVID pandemic has created significant uncertainty for the nation’s college faculty, many of whom have not previously taught online. This research would examine how faculty mindsets about themselves and their students, as well as faculty perceptions of their university/college system’s messages about the transition, relate to their responses to the challenge of rapidly transitioning their teaching online, the quality of instruction...

Effective: 2020-2022

Funding Type: BCSER Institute

Principal Investigator: Jason Owen-Smith

Institution: Regents of the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

The project will train and support diverse education and social science researchers to develop the skills necessary to effectively use large scale, privacy-protected administrative data to analyze core questions pertaining to STEM education. The goals are to provide technical training, methodological training, technical support for research project development, and community building for participants. The capacity building efforts leverage a successful research infrastructure, accessible data,...

Effective: 2020-2022

Funding Type: RAPID/EAGER

Principal Investigator: Susan A Gelman

Institution: Regents of the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

In the current COVID-19 crisis, developing effective means of educating children about disease transmission is a matter of vital concern, not only for scientific literacy, but also for public health. Children play an important role in the transmission of contagious illness, given how frequently they engage in risky behaviors such as touching their faces or making physical contact with caregivers. Public health recommendations include teaching best practice to children to reduce disease spread,...

Effective: 2020-2022

Funding Type: RAPID/EAGER

Principal Investigators: Chi-Ning Chang, Guan K Saw

Institutions: University of Kansas Center for Research Inc, University of Texas at San Antonio, Claremont Graduate University

Researchers from the University of Texas at San Antonio and University of Kansas will examine how electronic mentoring (e-mentoring) affects student academic, career, and mental health outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic. This is an important topic particularly for faculty who are forced to continue mentoring and supporting students through computer-mediated communication technology. The study investigates the life and work challenges for engineering graduate students affected by the COVID-19...

Effective: 2020-2022

Funding Type: Conference

Principal Investigator: Alexis N Petri

Institution: University of Missouri-Kansas City

The proposed three-day conference "Integrating STEM Education Research Collaboration for Regional Prosperity" will highlight topics relevant to STEM education and workforce development in the greater Kansas City region. STEM education topics will include supporting student success, broadening participation in STEM, and developing partnerships between two- and four-year institutions. Regional prosperity topics will include identifying high-impact practices to retain STEM majors, promoting STEM...

Effective: 2020-2022

Funding Type: BCSER IID

Principal Investigator: Yolanda Rankin

Institution: Florida State University

The project aims to create a digital archive of the "networked ecosystem" that documents the social capital of Black women in computing to provide resources, information, and access to potential mentors to increase the representation of Black women in this field. The research study will help develop strategies to leverage the social capital of successful Black women in computing to encourage aspiring Black women to pursue and thrive in this profession. The digital archive entitled: Building a...

Effective: 2020-2022

Funding Type: Conference

Principal Investigator: Mary Bridget Kustusch

Institution: DePaul University

The proposed workshop will convene experts in discipline-based education research (DBER) to introduce novice DBER scholars to interdisciplinary educational theories and research methodologies and to support their scholarship through ongoing mentoring. The event aims to unite mathematics and physics researchers with discipline-based education researchers to share knowledge, develop new understandings, and create new networks. Participants will develop research questions around their interests,...

Effective: 2020-2022

Funding Type: BCSER IID

Principal Investigator: Cheryl Gomillion

Institution: University of Georgia Research Foundation Inc

The proposal focuses on fundamental STEM education research that examines broadening participation and STEM workforce training in engineering graduate programs. The research will contribute to expanding the current understanding of the characteristics and functioning of STEM research labs (microcultures) that may impact the success of underrepresented graduate students. The Principal Investigator has designed a professional development plan that will support individual capacity building in the...

Effective: 2020-2022

Funding Type: BCSER IID

Principal Investigator: Mark Dugo

Institutions: Mississippi Valley State University, Johnson C. Smith University

This project explores approaches to increase the participation of African Americans in environmental and ecological sciences. The project aims to achieve this goal by designing and testing an intervention designed to improve the recruitment of African Americans into environmental and ecological sciences programs and careers. The project will support a combination of exploratory research and professional development activities. The professional development plan centers on helping the...

Effective: 2020-2022

Funding Type: BCSER Institute

Principal Investigators: Ezekiel J Dixon-Roman, Odis D Johnson Jr, Ebony O McGee

Institutions: University of Pennsylvania, Washington University, Johns Hopkins University, Vanderbilt University

The project is a collaborative effort lead by Washington University and involving Vanderbilt University, and the University of Pennsylvania to establish an Institute in Critical Quantitative, Computational, and Mixed Methods Training for Underrepresented Scholars. It is designed to mitigate the disparities in the number of underrepresented scholars that utilize quantitative and computational research methods and techniques. The goals are to enable participants to incorporate quantitative and...

Effective: 2020-2022

Funding Type: Conference

Principal Investigator: Eric Hamilton

Institution: Pepperdine University

This project was submitted in response to EHR Core Research (ECR) program announcement NSF 19-508. The ECR program of fundamental research in STEM education provides funding in critical research areas that are essential, broad and enduring. ECR supports projects that help synthesize, build and/or expand research foundations in the following focal areas: STEM learning, STEM learning environments, STEM workforce development, and broadening participation in STEM. The ECR program is distinguished...

Effective: 2020-2022

Funding Type: Conference

Principal Investigator: David J Purpura

Institution: Purdue University

This award to Purdue University provides partial support for a conference focused on the home numeracy environment (HNE). The conference addresses this critically important topic, drawing on researchers from a range of disciplines and literatures. A robust finding across these literatures is that achievement gaps in math exist at preschool and largely persist through high school. Though it is clear that socio-economic status (SES) plays a significant role in producing these gaps, a better...

Effective: 2020-2022

Funding Type: RAPID/EAGER

Principal Investigator: David R Schaefer

Institution: University of California-Irvine

The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted universities worldwide to abruptly shift to remote learning. This coincides with a critical social change as students are urged to leave campus, “social distance,” and shelter-in-place; practices that will disrupt social network functioning and could lead to feelings of isolation, reduced motivation, and poorer learning outcomes. Worse, the social and academic consequences could be more severe for less academically prepared students (e.g., underrepresented...

Effective: 2020-2022

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Lei Liu

Institution: Educational Testing Service

The goal of this project, led by a team at Educational Testing Services, is to develop automated tools by which assessments aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) can be scored to reveal student reasoning patterns, some of which would reflect particular weaknesses in student reasoning. Reasoning patterns refer to various ways of student thinking when making sense of a natural phenomenon or trying to solve a problem. The investigators will conduct a proof of concept study to...

Effective: 2020-2022

Funding Type: Conference

Principal Investigators: Hironao Okahana, Deborah Silver

Institutions: Council of Graduate Schools, Rutgers University New Brunswick

Rutgers University and the Council of Graduate Schools propose to conduct a survey and workshop to develop templates for Individual Development Plans (IDPs) that can be used by STEM Master’s programs. The project responds to recommendations of the National Academies report on Graduate Education for the 21st Century and growing interest among master’s programs to use IDPs to encourage the acquisition of transferrable skills and career exploration for STEM master’s degree students. This...

Effective: 2020-2021

Funding Type: RAPID/EAGER

Principal Investigator: Suzanne T Ortega

Institution: Council of Graduate Schools

This RAPID project aims to empirically examine obstacles to the matriculation, persistence, and completion of underrepresented minority (URM) students in STEM graduate programs during the COVID-19 pandemic. The underlying assumptions of the project are that URMs may experience greater economic hardship and erosion in motivation to complete a graduate degree during crises. To address this problem, the Council of Graduate Schools will collaborate with the Council for Opportunity in Education and...

Effective: 2020-2021

Funding Type: RAPID/EAGER

Principal Investigator: Matthew T Hora

Institution: University of Wisconsin-Madison

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Center for Research on College-Workforce Transitions will partner with Parker Dewey to generate a robust mixed-methods dataset about the impact of online internships on student progression. Internships, mandated by many STEM academic programs, are a form of work-based learning that can lead to academic and workforce success for undergraduate and graduate students. Traditional face-to-face internships also can enhance students’ social...

Effective: 2019-2025

Funding Type: BCSER Institute

Principal Investigator: Laura Stapleton

Institution: University of Maryland, College Park

Despite the persistent under representation of individuals from underserved populations in STEM, there are not enough scholars and early career researchers trained to adequately study the issues. This training institute project will target early career scholars with research foci on issues of access and equity of underrepresented populations in STEM within either K-12 or postsecondary settings. The goal of the training institute is to focus on and improve education research study design,...

Effective: 2019-2024

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Emily A Dringenberg

Institution: Ohio State University

This EHR Core Research project involves a qualitative, exploratory study that will collect interview data to capture the beliefs and identities of first-year engineering students with respect to intelligence and engineering. Participants will be enrolled in the same introductory engineering courses across six distinct institutionalized pathways. Despite significant efforts to increase the participation of underrepresented groups in engineering, those who earn engineering undergraduate degrees...

Effective: 2019-2024

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: P. Wesley Schultz

Institution: California State University San Marcos Corporation

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...

Effective: 2019-2024

Funding Type: CAREER

Principal Investigator: Moira R Dillon

Institution: New York University

Only humans are capable of doing formal mathematics, like the geometry in Euclid's Elements. The arguments and proofs of this geometry require one to imagine points so small they have no dimension and lines that extend so far they never end. And yet the points and lines experienced in everyday life have dimension and are finite. Where do the uniquely human ideas of abstract points and lines come from? To what extent does human reasoning work with idealizations and abstractions and to what...

Effective: 2019-2024

Funding Type: CAREER

Principal Investigator: Andrea N Ofori-Boadu

Institution: North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University

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 awarded to a CAREER scholar at North Carolina A&T State University has the goal to understand the professional identity development...

Effective: 2019-2024

Funding Type: CAREER

Principal Investigator: Tessa C Andrews

Institution: University of Georgia Research Foundation Inc

Active-learning instruction refers to teaching methods that engage students during a significant amount of class time in work designed to help them learn. When compared with traditional lecturing, studies have shown that active-learning instruction can enhance students' science learning. Active learning is also associated with increased retention of underrepresented minorities in science courses. However, studies also show that the learning gains achieved in active-learning classrooms vary...

Effective: 2019-2024

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Claire W Wladis

Institution: CUNY Borough of Manhattan Community College

This research project will investigate whether online courses provide increased access to college and STEM degrees, particularly for students typically underrepresented in STEM fields. Annually, between 28% and 36% of all post-secondary students in the U.S. enroll in at least one online course. The growth in online course enrollment contrasts with an overall decline in college enrollment. Thus, continued online course growth will have an escalating impact on degree progression and attainment....

Effective: 2019-2024

Funding Type: CAREER

Principal Investigator: Benjamin Zwickl

Institution: Rochester Institute of Tech

This CAREER project investigates learning and assessment of problem-solving in context-rich settings, such as research laboratories, project-based courses, and STEM workplaces. It includes an education plan focused on transferring the research to improve education. Because these context-rich, problem-solving experiences more closely mimic professional work, they offer important venues for STEM workforce development. However, these environments tend to be resource and time-intensive compared to...

Effective: 2019-2024

Funding Type: CAREER

Principal Investigator: Teomara Rutherford

Institutions: North Carolina State University, University of Delaware

The ECR program emphasizes fundamental STEM education research that will generate fundamental knowledge in the field. This Early Faculty Career Development project supports the generation of knowledge through the building of a firm foundation for a lifetime of leadership in integrating education and research in STEM disciplines. It will examine ways to address a national concern for strengthening students' mathematics competency by enhancing their content knowledge in and motivation for...

Effective: 2019-2024

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigators: Jonathan D Bostic, Erin E Krupa

Institutions: Bowling Green State University, North Carolina State University

As education has shifted more towards data-driven policy and research initiatives in the last several decades, data for policy-related aspects are often expected to be more quantitative in nature. This has led to the increase in use of more quantitative measures in STEM education, including mathematics education. Unfortunately, evidence regarding the validity and reliability of mathematics education measures is lacking. Furthermore, the evidence for validity for quantitative tools and measures...

Effective: 2019-2023

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Sapna Cheryan

Institution: University of Washington

This EHR Core Research award is focused on broadening participation in computer science by investigating whether reframing academic interest as something malleable that must be discovered (i.e., a growth mindset of interest) helps remedy gender gaps in computer science. Despite the overall narrowing of the gender gap in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields, the percentage of women computer science majors has remained less than 20% and has even decreased in recent...