Effective: 2015-2023

Funding Type: CAREER

Principal Investigator: Mary C Murphy

Institution: Indiana University

The Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) program is a National Science Foundation (NSF)-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. Why do women thrive in some STEM classrooms and drop out of others, and how does this impact whether they will continue on in a STEM major? While...

Effective: 2015-2022

Funding Type: CAREER

Principal Investigator: Megan Wawro

Institution: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Title:CAREER: An Interdisciplinary Study Of Learning: Student Understanding Of Linear Algebra In PhysicsConsistent with the national charge for the advancement of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines, the National Research Council's (NRC's) report (2012) "Discipline-Based Education Research: Understanding and Improving Learning in Undergraduate Science and Engineering" describes a need for interdisciplinary studies regarding learning and the transfer of knowledge...

Effective: 2015-2022

Funding Type: CAREER

Principal Investigator: Sarah Ovink

Institution: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

The Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) program is a National Science Foundation (NSF)-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. In a post-recession context of rising income inequality, the importance of a college degree to the attainment of financial stability remains...

Effective: 2015-2021

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Amy E Booth

Institutions: Vanderbilt University, University of Texas at Austin

It has been increasingly recognized that promoting scientific literacy must begin early while foundational attitudes, knowledge and skills are taking shape. This project, conducted by researchers at the University of Texas and Loyola University of Chicago, will explore preschoolers' attunement to causal information -- referred to as their causal stance -- as a key component of this foundation. For example, the researchers are interested in the degree to which children seek out information about...

Effective: 2015-2021

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Mark Warschauer

Institution: University of California-Irvine

The multi-year project will study 50 flipped, hybrid, and online courses offered in the three major STEM Schools at the University of California, Irvine (UCI). Higher education institutions are increasing the number of courses they offer that use elements of virtual instruction in the belief that these courses will lead to better learning, lower costs, greater access, and higher graduation rates. However, recent meta-analyses of virtual learning in higher education all conclude that there is a...

Effective: 2015-2021

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Kimberlee Shauman

Institution: University of California-Davis

This proposal was submitted in response to EHR Core Research (ECR) program announcement NSF 15-509. As part of ECR, this project is funded by the Research on Gender in Science and Engineering (GSE) program. GSE seeks to understand and address gender-based differences in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education and workforce participation through education and implementation research that will lead to a larger and more diverse domestic STEM workforce. This study will...

Effective: 2015-2021

Funding Type: CAREER

Principal Investigator: Elizabeth A Gunderson

Institution: Temple University

Spatial skills strongly predict STEM achievement in children and adults. This project, led by a researcher at Temple University, aims to understand the relationship between spatial and numerical skills at a more fine-grained level, among pre-k through 4th graders, with the ultimate goal of harnessing this relationship to improve math achievement. This project (1) investigates how, when, and why spatial skills influence numerical skills; (2) examines how spatial and numerical skills develop...

Effective: 2015-2021

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigators: Lance C Perez, Sheryl A Sorby

Institutions: University of Nebraska-Lincoln, University of Cincinnati Main Campus, Ohio State University

Engineers are known problem-solvers and the engineer of the future will be tasked with solving traditional problems as well as the ill-defined interdisciplinary problems faced by our society. Engineers will need to be able to think holistically about a myriad of factors and visualize a solution that solves the technical problem while satisfying cultural, environmental, societal, and economic constraints. Spatial visualization skills have been linked to success in engineering and mathematics as...

Effective: 2015-2021

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Chad E Forbes

Institution: University of Delaware

This proposal was submitted in response to EHR Core Research (ECR) program announcement NSF 15-509. As part of ECR, this project is funded by the Research on Gender in Science and Engineering (GSE) program. GSE seeks to understand and address gender-based differences in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education and workforce participation through education and implementation research that will lead to a larger and more diverse domestic STEM workforce. This project will...

Effective: 2015-2020

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Peter Youngs

Institution: University of Virginia Main Campus

Preparing large numbers of elementary teachers to enact high-quality or ambitious mathematics instruction is a central policy challenge in the U.S. While several studies have tried to identify linkages between features of teacher preparation and student achievement outcomes, few large-scale studies have addressed the relationship between teacher preparation and ambitious mathematics instruction, a more proximal outcome. To meet the need for ambitious mathematics instruction, a more robust...

Effective: 2015-2020

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Jennifer Wiley

Institution: University of Illinois at Chicago

A majority of people experience illusions of understanding when reading explanations of scientific phenomena. That is, people generally think they understood what they read better than they actually did. This self-assessment skill (referred to as monitoring) is critical in order for students to regulate their own learning and tailor their study behaviors so that they develop deep understanding of science topics. Interestingly, a number of recent studies have demonstrated that illusions of...

Effective: 2015-2020

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Robert M Nosofsky

Institution: Indiana University

A ubiquitous component of science education is learning the key categories of each target domain. This project, a multidisciplinary collaboration of cognitive scientists, geologists, and science education researchers at Indiana University and Washington University, will take basic research findings on human learning and attempt to develop diagnostic tools that can be matched with instructional technique to facilitate the learning of scientific classifications. Rock categorization will be used...

Effective: 2015-2020

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigators: Andrew M Brantlinger, Laurel A Cooley

Institutions: University of Maryland, College Park, CUNY Brooklyn College

The goal of the research project is to describe the features of selective alternative teacher certification programs (ATCPs) that affect selective route mathematics teachers' (SRMT) professional pathways and to make informed recommendations to decrease the current high teacher turnover. While selective ATCPs are intended to address issues of teacher staffing and quality by recruiting high achieving graduates of the nation's most competitive colleges and career changers with impressive resumes,...

Effective: 2015-2020

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Jacquelynne Eccles

Institution: University of California-Irvine

The study, conducted by researchers at the University of California-Irvine, and the University of Michigan, will examine the underrepresentation of Hispanics in STEM fields. Hispanic youth, the largest minority and fastest growing demographic group, are the most likely to drop out of the STEM pipeline before college and are the least likely to complete college STEM training. Understanding the psychosocial non-cognitive influences on Hispanic youth's educational and occupational decisions is...

Effective: 2015-2020

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigators: Cheryl Cass, Adam Kirn

Institutions: North Carolina State University, Board of Regents, NSHE, obo University of Nevada, Reno

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

Effective: 2015-2020

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigators: Jodie D Novak, Michael C Oehrtman

Institutions: University of Northern Colorado, Oklahoma State University

The goal of the project is to understand expert secondary mathematics teachers' knowledge for teaching exponential functions. In particular, the study examines how mathematics knowledge for teaching is used by teachers as they are teaching students' and the factors that influence their interactions with students. The project is recruiting teachers in order to observe their teaching of exponential functions units in Algebra II, Pre-Calculus, and College Algebra courses in high schools. They will...

Effective: 2015-2020

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Tim Boerst

Institution: Regents of the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

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: 2015-2020

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: John D Coley

Institution: Northeastern University

The ECR program emphasizes fundamental STEM education research that will generate foundational knowledge in the field. Investments are made in critical areas that are essential, broad and enduring: STEM learning and STEM learning environments, broadening participation in STEM, and STEM workforce development. This project will integrate research on STEM learning in developmental cognitive science and science education to investigate how cognitive aspects of informal biology facilitate or impede...

Effective: 2015-2020

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigators: Ryan Baker, Neil T Heffernan, Philip Vahey

Institutions: Teachers College, Columbia University, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, SRI International

The project researches persistence in mathematics learning in a computer-based learning environment (CBLE). The research investigates how a CBLE can provide the supportive help and promote the self-regulatory strategies necessary for students to be not just persistent, but productively persistent math learners. The project will focus on the middle school years, an important and vulnerable point in the school trajectory, as mathematical concepts become increasingly difficult and abstract in the...

Effective: 2015-2020

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Julie C Libarkin

Institution: Michigan State University

Researchers at Michigan State University will investigate the relationship between mentoring and career development in Earth System Science (ESS) with a particular focus on diverse populations. The researchers argue that increasing diversity in ESS can be addressed through 1) an exploration of how relationship development during mentoring impacts career satisfaction and sense of belonging, 2) an analysis of how different groups respond to mentoring, and 3) a synthesis of research findings into...

Effective: 2015-2020

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Ebony O McGee

Institution: Vanderbilt University

The ECR program emphasizes fundamental STEM education research that will generate foundational knowledge in the field. Investments are made in critical areas that are essential, broad and enduring: STEM learning and STEM learning environments, broadening participation in STEM, and STEM workforce development. As part of ECR, this project is funded by the Research on Gender in Science and Engineering (GSE) program. GSE seeks to understand and address gender-based differences in science,...

Effective: 2015-2019

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Claire W Wladis

Institution: CUNY Borough of Manhattan Community College

The EHR Core Research Program funds proposals that will help synthesize, build and/or expand research foundations in the following areas of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) Education: STEM learning, STEM learning environments, STEM workforce development, and broadening participation in STEM. The STEM education pipeline narrows significantly in college. Community colleges serve some of the most diverse audiences, and are increasingly using online learning as a cheaper way...

Effective: 2015-2019

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigators: Tracy Noble, Philip Vahey

Institutions: TERC Inc, SRI International

The goal of the project is to bring together research about English-language learners with the use of dynamic representational technology for middle school quantitative reasoning. Dynamic representation technology allows learners to work with multiple representations of a problem simultaneously. These representations include, for example, graphs of an equation, a table of values and a simulation of the real-world phenomenon to understand concepts such as linear functions and rates of change...

Effective: 2015-2019

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Timothy J Nokes-Malach

Institution: University of Pittsburgh

A critical problem in science education is to understand how students transfer their prior knowledge and experience acquired in one situation to solve novel problems in another. Not only do students struggle with conceptual understanding and transfer, but they also show declines in motivation for science during the middle school years. Prior research suggests there is great potential and opportunity to address these challenges by integrating past work on cognitive and motivational approaches to...

Effective: 2015-2019

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Christopher S Hulleman

Institution: University of Virginia Main Campus

The EHR Core Research (ECR) program emphasizes fundamental STEM education research that generates foundational knowledge in the field. Investments are made in critical areas that are essential, broad and enduring: STEM learning and STEM learning environments, broadening participation in STEM, and STEM workforce development. This study extends prior theoretical and empirical work on STEM learning and STEM learning environments into community college classrooms in developmental mathematics....

Effective: 2015-2019

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Russell M Gersten

Institution: RG Research Group

Learning of fractions is a significant barrier for many in further study of mathematics and thus other science, technology, and engineering disciplines. Many students identified as struggling learners of mathematics are provided with interventions that focus on simplifying the complexity and breaking up the task into small discrete pieces, which is counter to the recommendations on supporting students in learning mathematics from the mathematics education community. The rigorous, large-scale...

Effective: 2015-2019

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Melissa E Libertus

Institution: University of Pittsburgh

Current research suggests a relationship between the development of approximate number system (ANS) cognition in children and later mathematics achievement on standardized tests. However, little is known about the role parent-child interactions play with respect to the ANS. This study allows the field to better understand the transmission of cognitive skills like the ANS across generations. It also allows for the exploration of the potential for training for both parents and children to impact...

Effective: 2015-2019

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Richard M Ingersoll

Institution: University of Pennsylvania

The attrition of teachers from teaching is a major public policy issue. Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) teachers, in particular, leave the profession even when they are making progress toward becoming excellent teachers. The project will identify both causes of teacher attrition and practices that support new teachers and contribute to persistence in the profession. The project will analyze data from the newly released nationally representative large-scale, longitudinal...

Effective: 2015-2019

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Steven T Kalinowski

Institution: Montana State University

Understanding conceptual change in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education is critical for helping students develop deep understandings of complex ideas and models, and thus, for supporting undergraduate students' success and persistence in STEM fields. This EHR Core Research (ECR) project in the area of STEM learning will explore how multiple factors influence college biology students' conceptual change regarding evolution by natural selection. The project team will...

Effective: 2015-2018

Funding Type: RAPID/EAGER

Principal Investigator: Alex J Bowers

Institution: Teachers College, Columbia University

BIGDATA: Using Big Data to Investigate Longitudinal Education Outcomes through Visual AnalyticsData science techniques have revolutionized many academic fields and led to terrific gains in the commercial sector. They have to date been underutilized in solving critical problems in the US educational system, particularly in understanding Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) learning and learning environments, broadening participation in STEM, and increasing retention for...

Effective: 2015-2017

Funding Type: CAREER

Principal Investigator: Patrick Shafto

Institution: Rutgers University Newark

Research has shown that both children and adults differentiate between pedagogical and non-pedagogical situations, that pedagogical inferences override factual information and impede discovery learning in children, and that pedagogical demonstrations lead to predictable patterns of inferences in undergraduates. The purpose of this CAREER project is to explore the extent to which social-pedagogical context affects learning with preschool students and undergraduates. The project will contrast...

Effective: 2015-2017

Funding Type: RAPID/EAGER

Principal Investigator: Erin M Furtak

Institution: University of Colorado at Boulder

Classroom assessment remains a significant challenge to most school districts that decide to implement the practice standards set forth by the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). The Aurora Public School (APS) district is facing this challenge head-on by engaging in a research-practice partnership (RPP) with researchers at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Through this RPP entitled ASPiRe, the two partners will engage in a long-term collaboration that is intentionally organized to...

Effective: 2015-2017

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Jody Bintz

Institution: BSCS Science Learning

This ECR synthesis project will build consensus on the key attributes of high-quality math/science teacher leadership development programs. The ECR program emphasizes fundamental STEM education research that generates foundational knowledge in the field. Investments are made in critical areas that are essential, broad and enduring: STEM learning and STEM learning environments, broadening participation in STEM, and STEM workforce development. The program supports the accumulation of robust...

Effective: 2015-2017

Funding Type: RAPID/EAGER

Principal Investigators: David A Barner, Michael C Frank

Institutions: University of California-San Diego, Stanford University

Mental Abacus is a popular mathematics technique practices primarily in Asian countries in elementary school contexts. Mental abacus students begin by learning to make rapid arithmetic computations on a physical abacus and then learn to imagine moving the beads without the physical device. Young children can then rapidly add, subtract, multiply and divide large numbers. This project will compare mental abacus teaching to two other teaching methods in order to understand how it helps first and...

Effective: 2015-2017

Funding Type: RAPID/EAGER

Principal Investigator: Zoran Popovic

Institution: University of Washington

This award is supported by the EHR Core Research (ECR) program. 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 distinguished by its emphasis on the...

Effective: 2015-2017

Funding Type: Conference

Principal Investigator: Andrew Bernat

Institution: Computing Research Association

While data analytics for business and entertainment have become well established, the application of data analytics to education needs research and development. Educational innovation does not have the driving force of economics generating evolutionary responses to societal and technological change, yet data-informed instructional methods offer tremendous promise for transforming American teaching, learning, and schooling. Beyond the potential to enhance student outcomes through just-in-time,...

Effective: 2015-2016

Funding Type: Conference

Principal Investigator: Stephen M Fiore

Institution: The University of Central Florida Board of Trustees

This award is for a workshop to take place just prior to the Science of Team Science annual meeting in 2015. The workshop, led by a team from the University of Central Florida, is to serve as a high-level review of the state of this interdisciplinary area of study. A synthesis of the field especially important given the advances currently being made. The interdisciplinary nature of the field is both an advantage and a challenge, for work is currently being conducted in a range of different...

Effective: 2015-2016

Funding Type: Conference

Principal Investigator: Suzanne T Ortega

Institution: Council of Graduate Schools

The Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) will plan and host an intensive workshop to design an instrument for universities to be able to collect and disaggregate information on the career pathways of STEM PhD students and alumni. The project includes two preparatory meetings with key stakeholders (one focused on disciplinary societies and the other focused on graduate deans and provosts), and a workshop where participants will develop a survey instrument and a framework document to guide...

Effective: 2014-2022

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Elizabeth S Spelke

Institution: Harvard University

Although human infants readily develop some capacities for representing number and geometry, children's thinking extends far beyond these capacities when they learn school mathematics. The basic concepts and skills of arithmetic and geometry that children learn in elementary school are critical for all subsequent learning and practicing of mathematics and science, but their acquisition, in relation to younger children's preexisting numerical and geometrical concepts, is not well understood. The...

Effective: 2014-2021

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Nilanjana Dasgupta

Institution: University of Massachusetts Amherst

In the past thirty years a national debate has been brewing about the scarcity of women and racial/ethnic minorities in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), and its grave implications for the American workforce in the 21st century. From middle school through college, girls and women have performed less well on standardized tests in science and mathematics than their male peers and express less confidence and aspirations in these fields. Similar findings emerge for Black and...

Effective: 2014-2021

Funding Type: CAREER

Principal Investigator: Paula P Lemons

Institution: University of Georgia Research Foundation Inc

This CAREER project focuses on understanding problem-solving skills among biology undergraduates. The goals are to: (1) Investigate the problem solving steps of beginning and advanced biology students in the domains of protein structure and function and metabolism; (2) Determine the extent to which the use of particular problem-solving steps by biology students predicts their success and persistence in science; and (3) Apply the findings to enhance problem solving skills.Longitudinal data are...

Effective: 2014-2020

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigators: Lisa Y Flores, Rachel L Navarro

Institutions: University of Missouri-Columbia, University of North Dakota Main Campus

The project aims to investigate the longitudinal effects of social cognitive, cultural, personality and contextual factors on engineering students and workers satisfaction, engagement, and persistence as posited by Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT). The longstanding underrepresentation of White women and Latina/os in engineering majors and jobs provides the rationale for this investigation of psychological factors leading to their academic and career satisfaction, engagement, and...

Effective: 2014-2020

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Maria Araceli Ruiz-Primo

Institutions: University of Colorado at Denver-Downtown Campus, Stanford University

AbstractThis collaborative project involving the University of Colorado at Denver and the University of Washington at Seattle in conjunction with Facet Innovations, will build a framework for addressing the use of contextualized items in the assessment of STEM learning. The primary goal is to systematically investigate the effects of characteristics of contextualized items on student performance to strengthen practices in science assessments, ensure fairness in science testing, and increase...

Effective: 2014-2020

Funding Type: CAREER

Principal Investigator: Ying Cheng

Institution: University of Notre Dame

This project, carried out by the University of Notre Dame, seeks to contribute to statistics education by developing improved methods for computerized adaptive testing. These methods use modern versions of item response theory, going beyond older versions that are commonly used in adaptive tests. Hence, the project has the potential to lead to tests that more successfully measure student knowledge and provide diagnostic feedback, as computerized testing increasing comes into wide use.The...

Effective: 2014-2020

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Joseph S Krajcik

Institution: Michigan State University

Energy is a critical concept in every branch of science, yet relatively little is known about how to best build students conceptions of energy over time so that their understanding becomes more integrated and more useful for making sense of phenomena. Some of the most pressing social and environmental issues that face the nation (e.g., energy conservation, climate change, biodiversity loss, and natural resource economics) are fundamentally related to energy. Recent work has shown that effective...

Effective: 2014-2020

Funding Type: CAREER

Principal Investigator: Jamaal S Matthews

Institution: Montclair State University

In this CAREER award, the investigator will study how African American and Latino middle and high school students construct their sense of self-identity with and in mathematics and the role that teachers play in helping to shape those self-opinions. This is important because many students, particularly in urban settings, have a poor sense of their own potential in mathematics learning which restricts their attainment in high school and future college studies. If researchers can better...

Effective: 2014-2020

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigators: Jill V Hamm, Daniel J Heck

Institutions: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Horizon Research Inc

Ongoing efforts to strengthen mathematics education in the United States have emphasized the need for students to engage and persevere with meaningful and challenging mathematics problems, and to take active and collaborative roles in problem solving. Teachers often use small group instruction to work toward these goals: small group work occurs in 70% of middle grades mathematics classrooms at least once a week, and on average, accounts for 25% of instructional time in middle grades mathematics...

Effective: 2014-2020

Funding Type: CAREER

Principal Investigator: Aroutis N Foster

Institution: Drexel University

AbstractEducation stakeholders from advocates to developers are increasingly recognizing the potential of science games in advancing student academic motivation for and interest in science and science careers. To maximize this potential, the project will use science games (e.g. Land Science, River City, and EcoMUVE), shown to be enjoyable to students and proven to promote student learning in science at the middle school level. Through a two-phase process, games will be used as vehicles for...

Effective: 2014-2020

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Sadhana Puntambekar

Institution: University of Wisconsin-Madison

Both physical labs and virtual labs are often used in science teaching, and both have their advantages and disadvantages. With each providing different affordances for learning, it is often feasible to combine the two in a multitude of ways. This project will conduct a series of studies to: (1) Uncover the differential benefits of physical versus virtual labs, for learners with a range of abilities and prior knowledge, and for content of different difficulty levels; (2) Understand the...

Effective: 2014-2019

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Steven A Schneider

Institution: WestEd

WestEd proposes to study the Technical Education and Literacy in Schools (TEALS) program. TEALS, a pioneering work-place intervention of the non-profit Microsoft YouthSpark program, provides multi-year, on-the-job computer science education professional development to high school teachers. The project will identify an effective learning model to prepare in-service teachers to teach computer science. To ensure the model meets workplace requirements, all research will take place in an authentic...