Arlington, VA — To continue to achieve nationwide excellence in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education and workforce development, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has invested $61 million in new awards.
The awards, made through the NSF Education and Human Resources Directorate (EHR) Core Research Program (ECR), focus on projects that help the educational community understand, explain and address challenges in STEM learning and participation. EHR funded a total of 67 projects through ECR awards in Fiscal Year (FY) 2016, with the goal of accelerating the directorate's efforts to strategically and broadly improve STEM teaching and learning.
"STEM education is essential for the future of U.S. science and engineering, and for ensuring the workforce is ready for the challenges and opportunities of tomorrow," said Evan Heit, NSF division director for EHR's Division of Research on Learning.
"More effective STEM education requires a deeper understanding of how people learn, from childhood to adulthood -- and that's exactly the kind of research knowledge base ECR awards help expand."
The new awards fund projects aimed at generating foundational knowledge in:
The awards, made through the NSF Education and Human Resources Directorate (EHR) Core Research Program (ECR), focus on projects that help the educational community understand, explain and address challenges in STEM learning and participation. EHR funded a total of 67 projects through ECR awards in Fiscal Year (FY) 2016, with the goal of accelerating the directorate's efforts to strategically and broadly improve STEM teaching and learning.
"STEM education is essential for the future of U.S. science and engineering, and for ensuring the workforce is ready for the challenges and opportunities of tomorrow," said Evan Heit, NSF division director for EHR's Division of Research on Learning.
"More effective STEM education requires a deeper understanding of how people learn, from childhood to adulthood -- and that's exactly the kind of research knowledge base ECR awards help expand."
The new awards fund projects aimed at generating foundational knowledge in:
- Improving and advancing STEM learning and learning environments for students, parents, teachers and the general population in all settings, from formal and informal education to technological learning environments.
- Supporting and preparing a STEM professional workforce that is ready to capitalize on unprecedented advances in technology and science and address current and future global, social and economic challenges.
- Diversifying and increasing participation in STEM, effectively building institutional capacity and informal learning environments that foster the untapped potential of underrepresented groups in STEM fields.
Below are just a few of the ECR projects NSF funded in FY 2016. For the complete list of ECR projects and their abstracts, click here.
- Algebra Instruction at Community Colleges: An Exploration of its Relationship with Student Success
- The Role of Mechanistic Explanations in Learning about Science and Technology
- Operationalizing Students' Textbook Annotations to Improve Comprehension and Long-Term Retention
- Career Commitment and Retention in STEM: The Intersection of Professional Identity and Career Management Skills in Minority and Women STEM Students
- An Examination of Grit in Relation to Diverse High School Students' STEM Motivation, Self-Regulation, and Outcomes: A Longitudinal Validation Study
- Women's Engineering Participation in the US: What can the US Learn from Women's Decisions to Pursue Engineering in Diverse Cultural Contexts?
- Neurocognitive Underpinnings of Dyslexia and Dyscalculia
- The Role of Executive Function in Mathematics and Science Learning Difficulties of Students with Disabilities
- Assessment Literacy for the Development of Teacher Understanding with the Next Generation Science Standards
- Exploring factors that Shape Education & Workplace Training on Essential 21st Century Competencies
- Partnership for Building Capacity for Improvement in State Science Education
- Measuring Collaboration in Complex Computerized Performance Assessments
- ArguLex -- Applying Automated Analysis to a Learning Progression for Argumentation
