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: Benjamin Kelcey

Institution: University of Cincinnati Main Campus

There is widespread recognition that research on malleable teacher attributes represents a critical component of the foundational knowledge necessary to improve and advance STEM education. A method of research to understand how teachers affect students is mediation analyses. Mediation analyses decode how and why attributes are connected to student improvement by probing the intermediate developmental processes and behaviors of teachers that operationalize these relationships. Multi-school or...

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: CAREER

Principal Investigator: Yasemin Copur-Gencturk

Institution: University of Southern California

Pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) plays a vital role in carrying out quality instruction and improving students' learning. Despite the evidence reported in expert-novice teacher literature suggesting that teachers become experts by gaining PCK through on-the-job learning, little is known about what and how teachers learn during their early career. This project addresses the fundamental issue of how and under what conditions beginning Grades 3 to 7 teachers of mathematics improve their PCK,...

Effective: 2018-2023

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigators: Vincent Aleven, Martha W Alibali

Institutions: Carnegie-Mellon University, University of Wisconsin-Madison

This Education and Human Resources Core Research project addresses a persistent challenge in designing effective mathematics instruction: how to foster deep learning of concepts and skills, with strong connections among them. This challenge arises especially in middle school and high school algebra; far too often, students in algebra courses come away with only a moderate level of skill at procedures (e.g., equation solving) with almost no conceptual understanding of why these procedures work....

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: Elizabeth M Brannon

Institution: University of Pennsylvania

Early mathematics learning for children provides the foundation for multiple Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) interests and careers. However, early math experiences in school and at home differ dramatically among children. This project explores whether the numerical intuition that children possess before they learn formal mathematics can be harnessed to improve math performance. Two studies will examine the connections between children's informal numerical intuition and...

Effective: 2018-2023

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: James Minogue

Institution: North Carolina State University

The need to prepare a skilled and motivated STEM workforce who can meet the demands of a dynamic and complex global economy is a widely recognized national challenge. This project, a cross-institutional collaboration among North Carolina State University, the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and Davidson College, capitalizes on advances in technology to respond to that challenge. It aims to provide empirical evidence on the enhancement of foundational physics concepts of pre-service...

Effective: 2018-2023

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigators: Joshua A Danish, Ravit Golan Duncan

Institutions: Indiana University, Rutgers University New Brunswick

The goal of this project is to help students learn to use different kinds of evidence in thinking about and creating models of complex systems. Thinking about systems is increasingly important for students to understand complex topics in science and engineering. Building models based on evidence is important for helping students think critically in general, and about complex systems ideas in particular. To support students in these efforts, the project develops an easy-to-use software modeling...

Effective: 2018-2023

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: James C Lester

Institution: North Carolina State University

This project is supported by the Education and Human Resources Core Research (ECR) program, which supports fundamental research in STEM learning and learning environments. Self-regulated learning requires learners to set learning goals, plan how to achieve them, monitor the success of their plans, and make needed changes. Critical gaps exist in our understanding of how and to what extent middle school students can engage in self-regulated learning during science inquiry activities. Analogous...

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: Martha W Alibali

Institution: University of Wisconsin-Madison

Biological variation is among the most important ideas in modern science. Variability among members of a species provides the foundation for theories of genetics, natural selection, and evolution. However, people typically underestimate the amount of variability that occurs within a species over the life span of animals and from one generation to the next. Children especially seem to have cognitive biases that members of a species are largely identical. To improve children's learning about...

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: David F Feldon

Institution: Utah State University

The proposed project will examine the linkage between graduate skill development and postgraduate career outcomes by (1) identifying the ways in which the development of research skills and professional goals during graduate training may predict postdoctoral career attainment and trajectories, (2) examining the capacity of postdoctoral research positions to serve as inflection points in early career researchers' career trajectories, and (3) characterizing the extent to which demographic...

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: 2018-2023

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Paul Morgan

Institution: Pennsylvania State Univ University Park

Oral vocabulary difficulties before or soon after kindergarten are thought to result in reading difficulties during the primary grades, which in turn are thought to result in mathematics and science difficulties during the later elementary grades. To date, however, most empirical studies investigating the theorized inter-relations between oral vocabulary, reading, and mathematics and science difficulties have used small clinical or convenience samples of limited generalizability, included...

Effective: 2018-2023

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigators: Andrew S Hanks, Kevin M Kniffin

Institutions: Ohio State University, Cornell University

Researchers at Cornell and Ohio State Universities will apply an economic framework to examine the risks, rewards, and benefits of the choice to pursue interdisciplinary dissertation research among early, mid- and later career Ph.D. students and degree holders. Using data from the Survey of Earned Doctorates, Survey of Doctorate Recipients, and the Institute for Research on Innovation & Science, they will compare competing definitions of interdisciplinary research and analyze and map trends...

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: Thomas Cook

Institution: George Washington University

This proposal was submitted in response to EHR Core Research (ECR) program announcement NSF 15-509. The ECR program of fundamental research in STEM education provides funding in critical research areas that are essential, broad and enduring. EHR seeks proposals that will 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...

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: Lois Joy

Institution: Jobs for the Future, Inc.

Jobs for the Future is conducting a research project in collaboration with Wested that will examine the impact of STEM work-based-learning (WBL) in community colleges. The researchers will use social cognitive career theory (SCCT) as a framework and mixed-methods design to investigate research questions regarding (1) differences in student participants and motivation to participate in community college STEM work-based-learning, (2) structures of community college STEM WBL opportunities and...

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 Investigators: Julia I Lane, Jason Owen-Smith, Bruce A Weinberg

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

The project is a collaborative effort involving researchers from New York University, Ohio State University, and University of Michigan Ann Arbor who are extending work on a previous project that links multiple data sets to conduct longitudinal analyses of STEM student outcomes. The current project leverages the research infrastructure that was supported by prior awards to examine how peer effects, network connections, and employer demand shape career outcomes for doctoral students. It...

Effective: 2018-2022

Funding Type: Conference

Principal Investigator: Sarah J Fick

Institutions: University of Virginia Main Campus, Washington State University

This project will convene a group of scholars in K-12 science education for a workshop that will lay fundamental conceptual groundwork for research on how crosscutting concepts (CCCs) can inform science teaching and learning. CCCs, along with disciplinary core ideas and scientific practices, reflect a new vision of science proficiency expressed in recent national and state science education frameworks and standards. This vision integrates the "knowing" and "doing" of authentic science and...

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: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Daniel Kuehn

Institution: Urban Institute

The Urban Institute will conduct an exploratory mixed method study of STEM apprenticeship programs to provide a foundational understanding of the characteristics and performance of STEM apprentices, including the experiences of underrepresented minorities in STEM apprenticeship programs. The proposed research also will investigate the program-level determinants of success, including program design elements that lead to higher completion rates and wage growth for apprentices. Elements of...

Effective: 2018-2019

Funding Type: Conference

Principal Investigator: Mary Helen Immordino-Yang

Institution: University of Southern California

This award to the University of Southern California will provide partial support for the International, Mind, Brain, and Education Society (IMBES) conference to be held in Los Angeles in September 2018. It is a unique opportunity for a broad range of researchers and educators with interest in educational neuroscience to engage with other communities, affording researchers the opportunity to learn nuances of translating their work for other researchers and practitioners, and for educational...

Effective: 2018-2019

Funding Type: Conference

Principal Investigator: Julie A Luft

Institution: University of Georgia Research Foundation Inc

This two-day conference addresses a thorny issue in K-12 education, out-of-field science teaching, or the reality that science teachers regularly find themselves responsible for teaching content or in contexts that are outside their area of expertise. For example, teachers who have expertise working with students in the upper elementary grades might find themselves responsible for teaching first grade or kindergarten. Or, teachers with expertise in one area of science might find themselves...

Effective: 2018-2019

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Thomas B Hoffer

Institution: National Opinion Research Center

The National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago will conduct a spring 2019 conference and related preparatory tasks focused on how doctoral-granting universities and their doctoral programs can collect and utilize data on STEM PhD career pathways. The overarching objective of the project is to help develop widely-shared standards for the kind of career outcomes that should be measured; the methods for collecting the data; and the ways in which data should be analyzed...

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: Other

Principal Investigator: Felice J Levine

Institution: American Educational Research Association

This project was submitted in response to EHR Core Research (ECR) program announcement NSF 15-509. The ECR program of fundamental research in STEM education provides funding in critical research areas that are essential, broad and enduring. EHR seeks proposals that will 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...

Effective: 2017-2023

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigators: Victoria M Hand, Elizabeth A Van Es

Institutions: University of Colorado at Boulder, University of California-Irvine

The project will examine how teachers can engage a broad range of learners in rigorous mathematical activity. A significant component of this work is designing and investigating a process of mathematics teachers' learning to attend to students' mathematical reasoning and participation in their learning. A particular focus of the work will be investigating how teachers' pay attention to student engagement in their classrooms from an equity perspective. The three goals of the project include...

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...