Effective: 2022-2025

Funding Type: BCSER IID

Principal Investigator: Julianne Wenner

Institution: Clemson University

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

Effective: 2022-2025

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigators: Ryan Baker, Nicole Else-Quest, Bruce M McLaren, Timothy J Nokes-Malach, Jon R Star

Institutions: University of Pennsylvania, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Carnegie-Mellon University, University of Pittsburgh, Harvard University

Despite evidence that gender differences in math achievement have narrowed or disappeared in recent decades, stereotypes about men being better than women at math emerge early in childhood and persist through adulthood. These perceptions appear to influence female students’ interest and performance in math, as well as their pursuit of STEM careers. Given the potential motivational benefits of digital learning games, games might provide a pathway for reducing math anxiety for female students...

Effective: 2022-2025

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Jacob Kirksey

Institution: Texas Tech University

The project aims to serve the national need to develop a diverse workforce in STEM careers. To address this need, institutions have developed course-based undergraduate research experiences in STEM to attract students to STEM careers. These research activities will produce evidence and insights about how course-based undergraduate research experiences in STEM are related to post-graduate workforce outcomes. Additionally, the research will identify pre-college student characteristics that...

Effective: 2022-2025

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigators: Lauren Barth-Cohen, Sarah Braden

Institutions: University of Utah, Utah State University

Scientific observation is a ubiquitous discipline-specific skill that has been overlooked in contemporary science instruction. Instructional materials often treat scientific observation as a simple skill or a minor pedagogical challenge to be overcome. For secondary science teachers, challenges compound as they themselves are often emergent learners of this skill. Furthermore, the field has yet to develop explanatory frameworks for the development of expertise in observation. Existing research...

Effective: 2022-2025

Funding Type: BCSER IID

Principal Investigator: Ryan Stowe

Institution: University of Wisconsin-Madison

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

Effective: 2022-2025

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigators: James C Anglum, Tuan D Nguyen

Institutions: Saint Louis University, Kansas State University

This project aims to identify trends in the demographics and turnover behavior of the STEM teacher workforce. It focuses on specific remedies and investments needed to retain prospective teachers in high-need schools, especially rural communities, and to improve outcomes for their students. The project includes two complementary studies, one using the National Teacher and Principal Survey (an update from the earlier Schools and Staffing Survey) and a second, using longitudinal administrative...

Effective: 2022-2025

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Julie J Park

Institution: University of Maryland, College Park

This project will explore how Black undergraduate and graduate students in STEM view the relationship between religion and science, and the implications for their persistence in STEM. The project is of significance because religion and religious communities were recently identified as a vital source of support for many of Black students, although for STEM students the dichotomy between science and religion can be challenging. While numerous studies document perceived tensions between religion...

Effective: 2022-2025

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Lucas C Parra

Institution: CUNY City College

Education is moving online. During the global pandemic, this ongoing process accelerated and educators increasingly leveraged existing online video content to supplement synchronous remote instruction. One problem with this approach is that passive viewing of video content is not a particularly effective form of instruction. Many students struggle to sustain their attention to online video, and this is reflected in poor performance in subsequent tests of learning. This project will explore a...

Effective: 2022-2025

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigators: Tamara Pearson, Rebecca Zarch

Institutions: Spelman College, SageFox Consulting Group, LLC

This research project seeks to examine longstanding inequities in access to and participation in computer science (CS) education. Decades of research have shown that certain subgroups (e.g., women, students with disabilities, underrepresented minority students) tend to face substantial barriers to participating in CS courses and programs. As computing education continues to expand in K-12 education systems, it is important to understand how early experiences in computing education relate to...

Effective: 2022-2025

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Lynn Stephens

Institution: Concord Consortium

It is increasingly vital that people be able to make sense of scientific data and extract information from public datasets in order to inform their decisions about everything from ballot initiatives on climate policy to personal choices about vaccines. The project has a long-term goal of broadening participation in STEM by making data literacy attainable by more students. The project will develop instructional design supports for high school students that build on their novice intuitions for...

Effective: 2022-2025

Funding Type: BCSER IID

Principal Investigator: Mohammad Amin Alipour

Institution: University of Houston

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

Effective: 2022-2025

Funding Type: BCSER IID

Principal Investigator: Sara Hooshangi

Institution: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

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

Effective: 2022-2025

Funding Type: BCSER IID

Principal Investigator: Fashina Alade

Institution: Michigan State University

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

Effective: 2022-2025

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigators: Roger E Beaty, Mark Fuge, Dan R Johnson

Institutions: Pennsylvania State Univ University Park, University of Maryland, College Park, Washington and Lee University

This collaborative project from research teams at Pennsylvania State University, University of Maryland, and Washington and Lee University focuses on measuring creativity in undergraduate engineering education. The ability to think creatively is essential for success in STEM fields, particularly engineering, which requires designing solutions to complex problems that often have no single or "correct" solution. The Next Generation Science Standards identify creative thinking skills, such as...

Effective: 2022-2024

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigators: Kristen N Bieda, Megan E Staples

Institutions: Michigan State University, University of Connecticut

Creating and justifying mathematical claims is an essential learning goal and valued outcome of a mathematics education. To advance equitable learning outcomes, it is essential that teachers pursue this goal in ways that ensure every student has opportunities to develop and share justifications in their classrooms. The intended outcomes of this pilot study are: (1) practice-grounded, foundational knowledge about how students’ participation in mathematical justification can advance equity...

Effective: 2022-2024

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: James R Neumeister

Institution: National Opinion Research Center

This research project focuses on understanding the experiences and perspectives of marginalized groups in STEM fields. Three aims frame the project team's research plan. First is to examine factors that influence and predict career trajectories of subgroups of STEM doctoral students and graduates based on their career motivations and aspirations. Second is to develop and integrate culturally responsive student and context-level measures to investigate the career pathways of STEM PhD students....

Effective: 2022-2024

Funding Type: BCSER IID

Principal Investigator: Christopher A Randles

Institution: The University of Central Florida Board of Trustees

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

Effective: 2022-2024

Funding Type: BCSER IID

Principal Investigator: Tim McEldowney

Institution: West Virginia University Research Corporation

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

Effective: 2022-2024

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Adrianna Kezar

Institution: University of Southern California

This project addresses the fundamentally important question of who the faculty in the United States are, and how they advance knowledge and prepare the future workforce in STEM. Faculty are central to the success of higher education, and through teaching, research, and service, faculty contribute to the education of the future workforce in STEM, the advancement of knowledge, and the success of the higher education enterprise. Since 2004, when data was last collected for the National Study of...

Effective: 2022-2023

Funding Type: Conference

Principal Investigator: Erin Lynch

Institution: Winston-Salem State University

Pipelines to Pathways: Humanizing Diversity in STEM, is proposed to improve mentorship and training in emerging research designed to improve STEM student outcomes, particularly for those students coming from underserved and underrepresented populations in STEM. This two-day workshop is designed to attract STEM faculty, both K-12 and post-secondary, and research scholars in STEM teaching and student learning to present and learn about evidence-based practices and methodology design to implement...

Effective: 2022-2022

Funding Type: CAREER

Principal Investigator: Lori Andersen

Institution: University of Hawaii

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2), and by the EHR Core Research program. The project will investigate the use of science curriculum features to develop culturally diverse fifth-grade students’ abilities to use scientific thinking tools. Thinking tools will include crosscutting concepts such as systems and system models, patterns, and cause and effect, as well as cultural concepts, such as reciprocity, human-nature relations,...

Effective: 2021-2026

Funding Type: CAREER

Principal Investigator: Kerrie G Wilkins-Yel

Institution: University of Massachusetts Boston

The Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program is a National Science Foundation-wide activity that offers awards in support of early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education, and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization. This project aims to serve the national interest by addressing the inequitable representation of graduate Women of Color (WoC) (i.e., Black/African American, Latina, Indigenous, and Asian...

Effective: 2021-2026

Funding Type: CAREER

Principal Investigator: Ginger Shultz

Institution: Regents of the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

This project aims to increase the support students from non-dominant groups receive in schools by understanding better how teacher training and curricular resources can make curricula relevant and compelling to those students. Culturally relevant education makes visible the value of students’ diverse perspectives and experiences and may better support underserved students in STEM. While culturally relevant educational approaches are powerful, they rely on the teachers' competence in the...

Effective: 2021-2026

Funding Type: CAREER

Principal Investigator: Fatma Baytar

Institution: Cornell University

The loss of U.S. apparel production jobs overseas and a subsequent decline in manufacturing infrastructure after the 1980s was highlighted during the COVID-19 pandemic, when demand for domestically produced personal protective equipment could not be met. In order to address this deficit, the U.S. textile industry requires the physical and human resources to update, upskill, and accelerate manufacturing. At the core of this transformation are 2D/3D digital technologies, which enable instant...

Effective: 2021-2026

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigators: Higinio Dominguez, Gladys H Krause, Carlos A LopezLeiva

Institutions: Michigan State University, College of William and Mary, University of New Mexico

This project will advance theory for understanding teacher learning as it relates to mathematics teacher knowledge and student knowledge. The research team theorizes that teacher knowledge and student knowledge are not distinct. Specifically, this work challenges the longstanding idea in teacher education that a knowledge base for teaching pre-exists as a static body of knowledge awaiting to be discovered by teachers. Instead, this project examines what happens when teacher and student...

Effective: 2021-2026

Funding Type: CAREER

Principal Investigator: Shetay Ashford-Hanserd

Institution: Texas State University - San Marcos

The Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) program is a National Science Foundation-wide activity that offers awards in support of early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education, to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization, and to build a foundation for a lifetime of leadership in integrating education and research. This project will examine the effects of community cultural wealth on the persistence of Black and...

Effective: 2021-2026

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigators: Kevin M Kniffin, Stasa Milojevic, Bruce A Weinberg

Institutions: Cornell University, Indiana University, Ohio State University

This collaborative project with Ohio State University as the lead institution and Indiana University and Cornell University as partners examines the career outcomes across employment sectors of interdisciplinary graduate students, the environments in which they are trained, and how those environments relate to career outcomes. The investigators will use and expand an emerging infrastructure of data and measures to conduct a rich, multilevel analysis of individual career paths in the transition...

Effective: 2021-2026

Funding Type: CAREER

Principal Investigator: Bryce Hughes

Institution: Montana 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 has the goal to examine the participation of LGBTQ students in undergraduate STEM programs to understand how...

Effective: 2021-2026

Funding Type: CAREER

Principal Investigator: Valerie J Taylor

Institution: Lehigh 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 CAREER award supports experimental and longitudinal studies that aim to increase diversity and inclusion in higher education STEM culture. The...

Effective: 2021-2026

Funding Type: CAREER

Principal Investigator: Allyson Mackey

Institution: University of Pennsylvania

It is critically important that all U.S. children, regardless of socioeconomic background, are prepared to join the scientific workforce of the future. Prior research shows that having a strong early start in science and math is crucial to later academic success. This study combines innovative approaches in neuroscience, psychology, and education to predict and improve science learning in early elementary school, when foundational scientific knowledge and skills are beginning to be built. This...

Effective: 2021-2026

Funding Type: CAREER

Principal Investigator: Kirstin C Busch

Institution: North Carolina State University

Developing solutions to large-scale collective problems -- such as resilience to environmental challenges -- requires scientifically literate communities. However, the predominant conception of scientific literacy has focused on individuals, and there is not consensus as to what community level scientific literacy is or how to measure it. Thus, a 2016 National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine report, “Science Literacy: Concepts, Contexts, and Consequences,” stated that...

Effective: 2021-2026

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Preeti Gupta

Institution: American Museum Natural History

The American Museum of Natural History plans to investigate the relationship between mentored research and youths’ STEM trajectory from high school to early college. The study builds on a previously funded project that examined the experiences of 733 high school youth who participated in an out-of-school, in-depth science research and mentoring program through the New York City Science Research Mentoring Consortium. The current study will examine how 380 of the initial participants navigate...

Effective: 2021-2026

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: David W Shaffer

Institution: University of Wisconsin-Madison

This project will advance research in an important area needed for contributing to the national need for well-educated scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technicians through the creation and validation of a process designed to effectively and fairly code educational data. Over its five-year duration, this project will develop and test an approach to coding data on learning in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). It will do so in a manner that takes into account...

Effective: 2021-2026

Funding Type: CAREER

Principal Investigator: Ian M Lyons

Institution: Georgetown University

Numeracy and math skills among adults and children in the United States routinely rank poorly relative to those from comparable nations. Progress in mathematics education can be facilitated by identification and removal of factors that impede math engagement and learning. One such factor is anxiety about mathematics. Math anxiety predicts avoidance of math and poor math achievement, and disproportionately affects individuals with math learning disabilities, women, minorities, and those from...

Effective: 2021-2026

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Susan J Goldin-Meadow

Institution: University of Chicago

All speakers gesture when they talk. Gestures are a type of action––an action done in the air that does not directly affect objects. Both gestures and actions-on-objects can promote learning, but having gesture as part of a math lesson makes it easier to remember and extend that lesson than having action as part of the lesson. This program of research uses neural data to figure out why. Two hypotheses, both of which might be correct, are possible: (1) Gesture promotes learning by helping...

Effective: 2021-2025

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Sandra L Laursen

Institution: University of Colorado at Boulder

ADVANCE and Beyond: Understanding Processes of Institutional Change to Promote STEM Equity and EducationThis research has significance in seeking to provide evidence-based support to scholars and practitioners who are working to promote systemic institutional change in STEM higher education. To solve stubborn problems that lead to inequitable outcomes, such as biased faculty tenure and promotion processes, uneven leadership opportunities, and hostile departmental climates, requires more than a...

Effective: 2021-2025

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Marcia Barnes

Institution: Vanderbilt University

Low math skills significantly limit access to post-secondary education, employment, and lifetime earnings. Because math difficulties can be detected early in schooling, early intervention is key for preventing the negative consequences of persistent low math achievement. Kindergarten is a particularly important developmental time-window within which to intervene given that children who enter and exit kindergarten with low math knowledge are at high risk for having long-term difficulties in...

Effective: 2021-2024

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Logan Fiorella

Institution: University of Georgia Research Foundation Inc

With support from NSF’s EHR Core Research (ECR) program, this project seeks to serve the national interest by identifying effective instructional methods to support student understanding of core science concepts. This project will study learning in the biological sciences among introductory and advanced undergraduates. Science educators and policy makers aim to facilitate students’ development of deep conceptual understanding and the ability to solve novel problems in the classroom and the...

Effective: 2021-2024

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigators: Jonathan T Eckhardt, Brent D Goldfarb

Institutions: University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Maryland, College Park

This is a collaborative project, with the University of Wisconsin-Madison as the lead institution and the University of Maryland as the partnering institution, to explore the entrepreneurial proclivity of undergraduate women majoring in STEM fields. The researchers propose a multi-method approach led by an interdisciplinary team to (1) identify factors that influence entrepreneurial proclivity and (2) develop and test interventions related to closing gender disparities in STEM entrepreneurship....

Effective: 2021-2024

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigators: Jonathan E Cook, Ciara Smalls Glover

Institutions: Pennsylvania State Univ University Park, Georgia State University Research Foundation, Inc.

Understanding the impact of adversity experiences on STEM persistence and performance is significant to broaden participation of individuals from groups that have been traditionally underrepresented. Researchers at Georgia State University and Pennsylvania State University aim to study the effects of adversity experiences on student motivation to pursue STEM majors and student persistence and performance in STEM degree programs. The project aims to develop and use a model that predicts how...

Effective: 2021-2024

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Dustin B Thoman

Institution: San Diego State University Foundation

It is critically important that the United States create and maintain a thriving scientific workforce that propels future discoveries and innovations. The academic research laboratory is an essential context where students learn what science is, what is expected of a scientist, and decide whether they will pursue or persist within the scientific community. This project investigates the transmission of norms, expectations, and values between and among scientists, their students, and their...

Effective: 2021-2024

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigators: Satabdi Basu, Gautam Biswas

Institutions: SRI International, Vanderbilt University

Computational Modeling for Integrating Science and Engineering Design (CMISE) will conduct a series of experiments to systematically compare different computational modeling activities on 5th and 6th grade students’ engineering design processes, their understanding of engineering, science and computational thinking concepts, as well as science teachers’ confidence and ability to implement integrated STEM and computing curricula. Computational modeling involves a high cognitive load, and...

Effective: 2021-2024

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Wes Maciejewski

Institution: San Jose State University Foundation

Investigating mathematical flexibility, where a user of mathematics recognizes that a problem can be solved in multiple ways and chooses an approach that is most appropriate to the given task, is the focus of this proposal. The importance of the mathematical sciences to the global economy has increased dramatically in recent years, due in part to the big data revolution and the continued rapid expansion of the Internet and related technologies. Flexible knowledge of mathematical procedures is...

Effective: 2021-2024

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigators: Amy J Ko, Mo Zhang

Institutions: University of Washington, Educational Testing Service

This project aims to promote equitable design of Computer Science (CS) assessment in secondary and post-secondary education in the United States and globally, increasing the diversity of students engaging in CS learning through reduced test bias. In this study, we aim to address difficulties in assessing computer programming by investigating critical characteristics of programming tasks using both response process and product data. Findings will have direct practical implications for developing...

Effective: 2021-2024

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: David S Knight

Institution: University of Washington

The University of Washington is conducting an interdisciplinary research project that analyzes math and science teacher career pathways using longitudinal statewide data from Washington and Texas and the Baccalaureate and Beyond (B&B) Longitudinal Study dataset. There are three project objectives: (1) To inform evidence-based policies and practices for improving the math and science teacher workforce by studying the long-term career paths of those who leave teaching, (2) To build an...

Effective: 2021-2024

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigators: Sara E Grineski, Danielle X Morales

Institutions: University of Utah, University of Texas at El Paso, Worcester State University

Understanding mentoring relationships is critical to increasing diversity in STEM fields. Researchers at the University of Texas at El Paso and the University of Utah propose to study the effects of mentor relationship mismatch on student outcomes during NSF Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) programs. This project aims to employ a novel approach to studying mentoring by examining multilevel mentoring and demographics of students and the mentor team. The project aims to collect data...

Effective: 2021-2024

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Heidi Schweingruber

Institution: National Academy of Sciences

Inequity in education is a critical issue in the United States with well-documented evidence that many students receive substantially lower quality educations due to structural inequity in public schooling. These inequities are particularly pronounced in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education where issues of access to high quality instruction and advanced coursework are intertwined with stereotypes and biases about which students can succeed in STEM. Using the...

Effective: 2021-2024

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Michelle Friend

Institution: University of Nebraska at Omaha

Researchers at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and Southern Methodist University will investigate the efficacy of a Work-Learn model for providing individuals experiencing homelessness with the skills and scaffolding that will enable them to enter the job market. The research team will examine the impact of integrating micro-internships with online courses targeting computer science skills for homeless adult learners and analyze the interaction among group dynamics and learner success and...

Effective: 2021-2024

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Juan M Madera

Institution: University of Houston

Promotion and tenure decisions at universities are of critical significance to the integrity of the research enterprise because they determine the career progression of scholars and scientists. Despite significant investments in pipeline interventions to diversify academia, faculty of color and women are underrepresented in tenured and tenure track positions. Underrepresentation has important implications for the nation's prospects of developing a diverse STEM workforce. For undergraduate and...

Effective: 2021-2024

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Daniel Klasik

Institution: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

While course grades are a primary way instructors communicate with students about their academic performance, there is less research on how grades are interpreted differently by college students. As a result, differential responses to grades may affect which students pursue STEM degrees and may therefore be an important contributing factor in the well documented gender and race/ethnicity gaps in STEM degrees. Prior studies examining this hypothesis, however, have been largely limited to...