• Write my thesis
  • Thesis writers
  • Buy thesis papers
  • Bachelor thesis
  • Master's thesis
  • Thesis editing services
  • Thesis proofreading services
  • Buy a thesis online
  • Write my dissertation
  • Dissertation proposal help
  • Pay for dissertation
  • Custom dissertation
  • Dissertation help online
  • Buy dissertation online
  • Cheap dissertation
  • Dissertation editing services
  • Write my research paper
  • Buy research paper online
  • Pay for research paper
  • Research paper help
  • Order research paper
  • Custom research paper
  • Cheap research paper
  • Research papers for sale
  • Thesis subjects
  • How It Works

55 Brilliant Research Topics For STEM Students

Research Topics For STEM Students

Primarily, STEM is an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. It’s a study program that weaves all four disciplines for cross-disciplinary knowledge to solve scientific problems. STEM touches across a broad array of subjects as STEM students are required to gain mastery of four disciplines.

As a project-based discipline, STEM has different stages of learning. The program operates like other disciplines, and as such, STEM students embrace knowledge depending on their level. Since it’s a discipline centered around innovation, students undertake projects regularly. As a STEM student, your project could either be to build or write on a subject. Your first plan of action is choosing a topic if it’s written. After selecting a topic, you’ll need to determine how long a thesis statement should be .

Given that topic is essential to writing any project, this article focuses on research topics for STEM students. So, if you’re writing a STEM research paper or write my research paper , below are some of the best research topics for STEM students.

List of Research Topics For STEM Students

Quantitative research topics for stem students, qualitative research topics for stem students, what are the best experimental research topics for stem students, non-experimental research topics for stem students, capstone research topics for stem students, correlational research topics for stem students, scientific research topics for stem students, simple research topics for stem students, top 10 research topics for stem students, experimental research topics for stem students about plants, research topics for grade 11 stem students, research topics for grade 12 stem students, quantitative research topics for stem high school students, survey research topics for stem students, interesting and informative research topics for senior high school stem students.

Several research topics can be formulated in this field. They cut across STEM science, engineering, technology, and math. Here is a list of good research topics for STEM students.

  • The effectiveness of online learning over physical learning
  • The rise of metabolic diseases and their relationship to increased consumption
  • How immunotherapy can improve prognosis in Covid-19 progression

For your quantitative research in STEM, you’ll need to learn how to cite a thesis MLA for the topic you’re choosing. Below are some of the best quantitative research topics for STEM students.

  • A study of the effect of digital technology on millennials
  • A futuristic study of a world ruled by robotics
  • A critical evaluation of the future demand in artificial intelligence

There are several practical research topics for STEM students. However, if you’re looking for qualitative research topics for STEM students, here are topics to explore.

  • An exploration into how microbial factories result in the cause shortage in raw metals
  • An experimental study on the possibility of older-aged men passing genetic abnormalities to children
  • A critical evaluation of how genetics could be used to help humans live healthier and longer.
Experimental research in STEM is a scientific research methodology that uses two sets of variables. They are dependent and independent variables that are studied under experimental research. Experimental research topics in STEM look into areas of science that use data to derive results.

Below are easy experimental research topics for STEM students.

  • A study of nuclear fusion and fission
  • An evaluation of the major drawbacks of Biotechnology in the pharmaceutical industry
  • A study of single-cell organisms and how they’re capable of becoming an intermediary host for diseases causing bacteria

Unlike experimental research, non-experimental research lacks the interference of an independent variable. Non-experimental research instead measures variables as they naturally occur. Below are some non-experimental quantitative research topics for STEM students.

  • Impacts of alcohol addiction on the psychological life of humans
  • The popularity of depression and schizophrenia amongst the pediatric population
  • The impact of breastfeeding on the child’s health and development

STEM learning and knowledge grow in stages. The older students get, the more stringent requirements are for their STEM research topic. There are several capstone topics for research for STEM students .

Below are some simple quantitative research topics for stem students.

  • How population impacts energy-saving strategies
  • The application of an Excel table processor capabilities for cost calculation
  •  A study of the essence of science as a sphere of human activity

Correlations research is research where the researcher measures two continuous variables. This is done with little or no attempt to control extraneous variables but to assess the relationship. Here are some sample research topics for STEM students to look into bearing in mind how to cite a thesis APA style for your project.

  • Can pancreatic gland transplantation cure diabetes?
  • A study of improved living conditions and obesity
  • An evaluation of the digital currency as a valid form of payment and its impact on banking and economy

There are several science research topics for STEM students. Below are some possible quantitative research topics for STEM students.

  • A study of protease inhibitor and how it operates
  • A study of how men’s exercise impacts DNA traits passed to children
  • A study of the future of commercial space flight

If you’re looking for a simple research topic, below are easy research topics for STEM students.

  • How can the problem of Space junk be solved?
  • Can meteorites change our view of the universe?
  • Can private space flight companies change the future of space exploration?

For your top 10 research topics for STEM students, here are interesting topics for STEM students to consider.

  • A comparative study of social media addiction and adverse depression
  • The human effect of the illegal use of formalin in milk and food preservation
  • An evaluation of the human impact on the biosphere and its results
  • A study of how fungus affects plant growth
  • A comparative study of antiviral drugs and vaccine
  • A study of the ways technology has improved medicine and life science
  • The effectiveness of Vitamin D among older adults for disease prevention
  • What is the possibility of life on other planets?
  • Effects of Hubble Space Telescope on the universe
  • A study of important trends in medicinal chemistry research

Below are possible research topics for STEM students about plants:

  • How do magnetic fields impact plant growth?
  • Do the different colors of light impact the rate of photosynthesis?
  • How can fertilizer extend plant life during a drought?

Below are some examples of quantitative research topics for STEM students in grade 11.

  • A study of how plants conduct electricity
  • How does water salinity affect plant growth?
  • A study of soil pH levels on plants

Here are some of the best qualitative research topics for STEM students in grade 12.

  • An evaluation of artificial gravity and how it impacts seed germination
  • An exploration of the steps taken to develop the Covid-19 vaccine
  • Personalized medicine and the wave of the future

Here are topics to consider for your STEM-related research topics for high school students.

  • A study of stem cell treatment
  • How can molecular biological research of rare genetic disorders help understand cancer?
  • How Covid-19 affects people with digestive problems

Below are some survey topics for qualitative research for stem students.

  • How does Covid-19 impact immune-compromised people?
  • Soil temperature and how it affects root growth
  • Burned soil and how it affects seed germination

Here are some descriptive research topics for STEM students in senior high.

  • The scientific information concept and its role in conducting scientific research
  • The role of mathematical statistics in scientific research
  • A study of the natural resources contained in oceans

Final Words About Research Topics For STEM Students

STEM topics cover areas in various scientific fields, mathematics, engineering, and technology. While it can be tasking, reducing the task starts with choosing a favorable topic. If you require external assistance in writing your STEM research, you can seek professional help from our experts.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

  • Open access
  • Published: 10 March 2020

Research and trends in STEM education: a systematic review of journal publications

  • Yeping Li 1 ,
  • Ke Wang 2 ,
  • Yu Xiao 1 &
  • Jeffrey E. Froyd 3  

International Journal of STEM Education volume  7 , Article number:  11 ( 2020 ) Cite this article

172k Accesses

168 Citations

5 Altmetric

Metrics details

With the rapid increase in the number of scholarly publications on STEM education in recent years, reviews of the status and trends in STEM education research internationally support the development of the field. For this review, we conducted a systematic analysis of 798 articles in STEM education published between 2000 and the end of 2018 in 36 journals to get an overview about developments in STEM education scholarship. We examined those selected journal publications both quantitatively and qualitatively, including the number of articles published, journals in which the articles were published, authorship nationality, and research topic and methods over the years. The results show that research in STEM education is increasing in importance internationally and that the identity of STEM education journals is becoming clearer over time.

Introduction

A recent review of 144 publications in the International Journal of STEM Education ( IJ - STEM ) showed how scholarship in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education developed between August 2014 and the end of 2018 through the lens of one journal (Li, Froyd, & Wang, 2019 ). The review of articles published in only one journal over a short period of time prompted the need to review the status and trends in STEM education research internationally by analyzing articles published in a wider range of journals over a longer period of time.

With global recognition of the growing importance of STEM education, we have witnessed the urgent need to support research and scholarship in STEM education (Li, 2014 , 2018a ). Researchers and educators have responded to this on-going call and published their scholarly work through many different publication outlets including journals, books, and conference proceedings. A simple Google search with the term “STEM,” “STEM education,” or “STEM education research” all returned more than 450,000,000 items. Such voluminous information shows the rapidly evolving and vibrant field of STEM education and sheds light on the volume of STEM education research. In any field, it is important to know and understand the status and trends in scholarship for the field to develop and be appropriately supported. This applies to STEM education.

Conducting systematic reviews to explore the status and trends in specific disciplines is common in educational research. For example, researchers surveyed the historical development of research in mathematics education (Kilpatrick, 1992 ) and studied patterns in technology usage in mathematics education (Bray & Tangney, 2017 ; Sokolowski, Li, & Willson, 2015 ). In science education, Tsai and his colleagues have conducted a sequence of reviews of journal articles to synthesize research trends in every 5 years since 1998 (i.e., 1998–2002, 2003–2007, 2008–2012, and 2013–2017), based on publications in three main science education journals including, Science Education , the International Journal of Science Education , and the Journal of Research in Science Teaching (e.g., Lin, Lin, Potvin, & Tsai, 2019 ; Tsai & Wen, 2005 ). Erduran, Ozdem, and Park ( 2015 ) reviewed argumentation in science education research from 1998 to 2014 and Minner, Levy, and Century ( 2010 ) reviewed inquiry-based science instruction between 1984 and 2002. There are also many literature reviews and syntheses in engineering and technology education (e.g., Borrego, Foster, & Froyd, 2015 ; Xu, Williams, Gu, & Zhang, 2019 ). All of these reviews have been well received in different fields of traditional disciplinary education as they critically appraise and summarize the state-of-art of relevant research in a field in general or with a specific focus. Both types of reviews have been conducted with different methods for identifying, collecting, and analyzing relevant publications, and they differ in terms of review aim and topic scope, time period, and ways of literature selection. In this review, we systematically analyze journal publications in STEM education research to overview STEM education scholarship development broadly and globally.

The complexity and ambiguity of examining the status and trends in STEM education research

A review of research development in a field is relatively straight forward, when the field is mature and its scope can be well defined. Unlike discipline-based education research (DBER, National Research Council, 2012 ), STEM education is not a well-defined field. Conducting a comprehensive literature review of STEM education research require careful thought and clearly specified scope to tackle the complexity naturally associated with STEM education. In the following sub-sections, we provide some further discussion.

Diverse perspectives about STEM and STEM education

STEM education as explicated by the term does not have a long history. The interest in helping students learn across STEM fields can be traced back to the 1990s when the US National Science Foundation (NSF) formally included engineering and technology with science and mathematics in undergraduate and K-12 school education (e.g., National Science Foundation, 1998 ). It coined the acronym SMET (science, mathematics, engineering, and technology) that was subsequently used by other agencies including the US Congress (e.g., United States Congress House Committee on Science, 1998 ). NSF also coined the acronym STEM to replace SMET (e.g., Christenson, 2011 ; Chute, 2009 ) and it has become the acronym of choice. However, a consensus has not been reached on the disciplines included within STEM.

To clarify its intent, NSF published a list of approved fields it considered under the umbrella of STEM (see http://bit.ly/2Bk1Yp5 ). The list not only includes disciplines widely considered under the STEM tent (called “core” disciplines, such as physics, chemistry, and materials research), but also includes disciplines in psychology and social sciences (e.g., political science, economics). However, NSF’s list of STEM fields is inconsistent with other federal agencies. Gonzalez and Kuenzi ( 2012 ) noted that at least two US agencies, the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, use a narrower definition that excludes social sciences. Researchers also view integration across different disciplines of STEM differently using various terms such as, multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary (Vasquez, Sneider, & Comer, 2013 ). These are only two examples of the ambiguity and complexity in describing and specifying what constitutes STEM.

Multiple perspectives about the meaning of STEM education adds further complexity to determining the extent to which scholarly activity can be categorized as STEM education. For example, STEM education can be viewed with a broad and inclusive perspective to include education in the individual disciplines of STEM, i.e., science education, technology education, engineering education, and mathematics education, as well as interdisciplinary or cross-disciplinary combinations of the individual STEM disciplines (English, 2016 ; Li, 2014 ). On the other hand, STEM education can be viewed by others as referring only to interdisciplinary or cross-disciplinary combinations of the individual STEM disciplines (Honey, Pearson, & Schweingruber, 2014 ; Johnson, Peters-Burton, & Moore, 2015 ; Kelley & Knowles, 2016 ; Li, 2018a ). These multiple perspectives allow scholars to publish articles in a vast array and diverse journals, as long as journals are willing to take the position as connected with STEM education. At the same time, however, the situation presents considerable challenges for researchers intending to locate, identify, and classify publications as STEM education research. To tackle such challenges, we tried to find out what we can learn from prior reviews related to STEM education.

Guidance from prior reviews related to STEM education

A search for reviews of STEM education research found multiple reviews that could suggest approaches for identifying publications (e.g., Brown, 2012 ; Henderson, Beach, & Finkelstein, 2011 ; Kim, Sinatra, & Seyranian, 2018 ; Margot & Kettler, 2019 ; Minichiello, Hood, & Harkness, 2018 ; Mizell & Brown, 2016 ; Thibaut et al., 2018 ; Wu & Rau, 2019 ). The review conducted by Brown ( 2012 ) examined the research base of STEM education. He addressed the complexity and ambiguity by confining the review with publications in eight journals, two in each individual discipline, one academic research journal (e.g., the Journal of Research in Science Teaching ) and one practitioner journal (e.g., Science Teacher ). Journals were selected based on suggestions from some faculty members and K-12 teachers. Out of 1100 articles published in these eight journals from January 1, 2007, to October 1, 2010, Brown located 60 articles that authors self-identified as connected to STEM education. He found that the vast majority of these 60 articles focused on issues beyond an individual discipline and there was a research base forming for STEM education. In a follow-up study, Mizell and Brown ( 2016 ) reviewed articles published from January 2013 to October 2015 in the same eight journals plus two additional journals. Mizell and Brown used the same criteria to identify and include articles that authors self-identified as connected to STEM education, i.e., if the authors included STEM in the title or author-supplied keywords. In comparison to Brown’s findings, they found that many more STEM articles were published in a shorter time period and by scholars from many more different academic institutions. Taking together, both Brown ( 2012 ) and Mizell and Brown ( 2016 ) tended to suggest that STEM education mainly consists of interdisciplinary or cross-disciplinary combinations of the individual STEM disciplines, but their approach consisted of selecting a limited number of individual discipline-based journals and then selecting articles that authors self-identified as connected to STEM education.

In contrast to reviews on STEM education, in general, other reviews focused on specific issues in STEM education (e.g., Henderson et al., 2011 ; Kim et al., 2018 ; Margot & Kettler, 2019 ; Minichiello et al., 2018 ; Schreffler, Vasquez III, Chini, & James, 2019 ; Thibaut et al., 2018 ; Wu & Rau, 2019 ). For example, the review by Henderson et al. ( 2011 ) focused on instructional change in undergraduate STEM courses based on 191 conceptual and empirical journal articles published between 1995 and 2008. Margot and Kettler ( 2019 ) focused on what is known about teachers’ values, beliefs, perceived barriers, and needed support related to STEM education based on 25 empirical journal articles published between 2000 and 2016. The focus of these reviews allowed the researchers to limit the number of articles considered, and they typically used keyword searches of selected databases to identify articles on STEM education. Some researchers used this approach to identify publications from journals only (e.g., Henderson et al., 2011 ; Margot & Kettler, 2019 ; Schreffler et al., 2019 ), and others selected and reviewed publications beyond journals (e.g., Minichiello et al., 2018 ; Thibaut et al., 2018 ; Wu & Rau, 2019 ).

The discussion in this section suggests possible reasons contributing to the absence of a general literature review of STEM education research and development: (1) diverse perspectives in existence about STEM and STEM education that contribute to the difficulty of specifying a scope of literature review, (2) its short but rapid development history in comparison to other discipline-based education (e.g., science education), and (3) difficulties in deciding how to establish the scope of the literature review. With respect to the third reason, prior reviews have used one of two approaches to identify and select articles: (a) identifying specific journals first and then searching and selecting specific articles from these journals (e.g., Brown, 2012 ; Erduran et al., 2015 ; Mizell & Brown, 2016 ) and (b) conducting selected database searches with keywords based on a specific focus (e.g., Margot & Kettler, 2019 ; Thibaut et al., 2018 ). However, neither the first approach of selecting a limited number of individual discipline-based journals nor the second approach of selecting a specific focus for the review leads to an approach that provides a general overview of STEM education scholarship development based on existing journal publications.

Current review

Two issues were identified in setting the scope for this review.

What time period should be considered?

What publications will be selected for review?

Time period

We start with the easy one first. As discussed above, the acronym STEM did exist until the early 2000s. Although the existence of the acronym does not generate scholarship on student learning in STEM disciplines, it is symbolic and helps focus attention to efforts in STEM education. Since we want to examine the status and trends in STEM education, it is reasonable to start with the year 2000. Then, we can use the acronym of STEM as an identifier in locating specific research articles in a way as done by others (e.g., Brown, 2012 ; Mizell & Brown, 2016 ). We chose the end of 2018 as the end of the time period for our review that began during 2019.

Focusing on publications beyond individual discipline-based journals

As mentioned before, scholars responded to the call for scholarship development in STEM education with publications that appeared in various outlets and diverse languages, including journals, books, and conference proceedings. However, journal publications are typically credited and valued as one of the most important outlets for research exchange (e.g., Erduran et al., 2015 ; Henderson et al., 2011 ; Lin et al., 2019 ; Xu et al., 2019 ). Thus, in this review, we will also focus on articles published in journals in English.

The discourse above on the complexity and ambiguity regarding STEM education suggests that scholars may publish their research in a wide range of journals beyond individual discipline-based journals. To search and select articles from a wide range of journals, we thought about the approach of searching selected databases with keywords as other scholars used in reviewing STEM education with a specific focus. However, existing journals in STEM education do not have a long history. In fact, IJ-STEM is the first journal in STEM education that has just been accepted into the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) (Li, 2019a ). Publications in many STEM education journals are practically not available in several important and popular databases, such as the Web of Science and Scopus. Moreover, some journals in STEM education were not normalized due to a journal’s name change or irregular publication schedule. For example, the Journal of STEM Education was named as Journal of SMET Education when it started in 2000 in a print format, and the journal’s name was not changed until 2003, Vol 4 (3 and 4), and also went fully on-line starting 2004 (Raju & Sankar, 2003 ). A simple Google Scholar search with keywords will not be able to provide accurate information, unless you visit the journal’s website to check all publications over the years. Those added complexities prevented us from taking the database search as a viable approach. Thus, we decided to identify journals first and then search and select articles from these journals. Further details about the approach are provided in the “ Method ” section.

Research questions

Given a broader range of journals and a longer period of time to be covered in this review, we can examine some of the same questions as the IJ-STEM review (Li, Froyd, & Wang, 2019 ), but we do not have access to data on readership, articles accessed, or articles cited for the other journals selected for this review. Specifically, we are interested in addressing the following six research questions:

What were the status and trends in STEM education research from 2000 to the end of 2018 based on journal publications?

What were the patterns of publications in STEM education research across different journals?

Which countries or regions, based on the countries or regions in which authors were located, contributed to journal publications in STEM education?

What were the patterns of single-author and multiple-author publications in STEM education?

What main topics had emerged in STEM education research based on the journal publications?

What research methods did authors tend to use in conducting STEM education research?

Based on the above discussion, we developed the methods for this literature review to follow careful sequential steps to identify journals first and then identify and select STEM education research articles published in these journals from January 2000 to the end of 2018. The methods should allow us to obtain a comprehensive overview about the status and trends of STEM education research based on a systematic analysis of related publications from a broad range of journals and over a longer period of time.

Identifying journals

We used the following three steps to search and identify journals for inclusion:

We assumed articles on research in STEM education have been published in journals that involve more than one traditional discipline. Thus, we used Google to search and identify all education journals with their titles containing either two, three, or all four disciplines of STEM. For example, we did Google search of all the different combinations of three areas of science, mathematics, technology Footnote 1 , and engineering as contained in a journal’s title. In addition, we also searched possible journals containing the word STEAM in the title.

Since STEM education may be viewed as encompassing discipline-based education research, articles on STEM education research may have been published in traditional discipline-based education journals, such as the Journal of Research in Science Teaching . However, there are too many such journals. Yale’s Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning has listed 16 journals that publish articles spanning across undergraduate STEM education disciplines (see https://poorvucenter.yale.edu/FacultyResources/STEMjournals ). Thus, we selected from the list some individual discipline-based education research journals, and also added a few more common ones such as the Journal of Engineering Education .

Since articles on research in STEM education have appeared in some general education research journals, especially those well-established ones. Thus, we identified and selected a few of those journals that we noticed some publications in STEM education research.

Following the above three steps, we identified 45 journals (see Table  1 ).

Identifying articles

In this review, we will not discuss or define the meaning of STEM education. We used the acronym STEM (or STEAM, or written as the phrase of “science, technology, engineering, and mathematics”) as a term in our search of publication titles and/or abstracts. To identify and select articles for review, we searched all items published in those 45 journals and selected only those articles that author(s) self-identified with the acronym STEM (or STEAM, or written as the phrase of “science, technology, engineering, and mathematics”) in the title and/or abstract. We excluded publications in the sections of practices, letters to editors, corrections, and (guest) editorials. Our search found 798 publications that authors self-identified as in STEM education, identified from 36 journals. The remaining 9 journals either did not have publications that met our search terms or published in another language other than English (see the two separate lists in Table 1 ).

Data analysis

To address research question 3, we analyzed authorship to examine which countries/regions contributed to STEM education research over the years. Because each publication may have either one or multiple authors, we used two different methods to analyze authorship nationality that have been recognized as valuable from our review of IJ-STEM publications (Li, Froyd, & Wang, 2019 ). The first method considers only the corresponding author’s (or the first author, if no specific indication is given about the corresponding author) nationality and his/her first institution affiliation, if multiple institution affiliations are listed. Method 2 considers every author of a publication, using the following formula (Howard, Cole, & Maxwell, 1987 ) to quantitatively assign and estimate each author’s contribution to a publication (and thus associated institution’s productivity), when multiple authors are included in a publication. As an example, each publication is given one credit point. For the publication co-authored by two, the first author would be given 0.6 and the second author 0.4 credit point. For an article contributed jointly by three authors, the three authors would be credited with scores of 0.47, 0.32, and 0.21, respectively.

After calculating all the scores for each author of each paper, we added all the credit scores together in terms of each author’s country/region. For brevity, we present only the top 10 countries/regions in terms of their total credit scores calculated using these two different methods, respectively.

To address research question 5, we used the same seven topic categories identified and used in our review of IJ-STEM publications (Li, Froyd, & Wang, 2019 ). We tested coding 100 articles first to ensure the feasibility. Through test-coding and discussions, we found seven topic categories could be used to examine and classify all 798 items.

K-12 teaching, teacher, and teacher education in STEM (including both pre-service and in-service teacher education)

Post-secondary teacher and teaching in STEM (including faculty development, etc.)

K-12 STEM learner, learning, and learning environment

Post-secondary STEM learner, learning, and learning environments (excluding pre-service teacher education)

Policy, curriculum, evaluation, and assessment in STEM (including literature review about a field in general)

Culture and social and gender issues in STEM education

History, epistemology, and perspectives about STEM and STEM education

To address research question 6, we coded all 798 publications in terms of (1) qualitative methods, (2) quantitative methods, (3) mixed methods, and (4) non-empirical studies (including theoretical or conceptual papers, and literature reviews). We assigned each publication to only one research topic and one method, following the process used in the IJ-STEM review (Li, Froyd, & Wang, 2019 ). When there was more than one topic or method that could have been used for a publication, a decision was made in choosing and assigning a topic or a method. The agreement between two coders for all 798 publications was 89.5%. When topic and method coding discrepancies occurred, a final decision was reached after discussion.

Results and discussion

In the following sections, we report findings as corresponding to each of the six research questions.

The status and trends of journal publications in STEM education research from 2000 to 2018

Figure  1 shows the number of publications per year. As Fig.  1 shows, the number of publications increased each year beginning in 2010. There are noticeable jumps from 2015 to 2016 and from 2017 to 2018. The result shows that research in STEM education had grown significantly since 2010, and the most recent large number of STEM education publications also suggests that STEM education research gained its own recognition by many different journals for publication as a hot and important topic area.

figure 1

The distribution of STEM education publications over the years

Among the 798 articles, there were 549 articles with the word “STEM” (or STEAM, or written with the phrase of “science, technology, engineering, and mathematics”) included in the article’s title or both title and abstract and 249 articles without such identifiers included in the title but abstract only. The results suggest that many scholars tended to include STEM in the publications’ titles to highlight their research in or about STEM education. Figure  2 shows the number of publications per year where publications are distinguished depending on whether they used the term STEM in the title or only in the abstract. The number of publications in both categories had significant increases since 2010. Use of the acronym STEM in the title was growing at a faster rate than using the acronym only in the abstract.

figure 2

The trends of STEM education publications with vs. without STEM included in the title

Not all the publications that used the acronym STEM in the title and/or abstract reported on a study involving all four STEM areas. For each publication, we further examined the number of the four areas involved in the reported study.

Figure  3 presents the number of publications categorized by the number of the four areas involved in the study, breaking down the distribution of these 798 publications in terms of the content scope being focused on. Studies involving all four STEM areas are the most numerous with 488 (61.2%) publications, followed by involving one area (141, 17.7%), then studies involving both STEM and non-STEM (84, 10.5%), and finally studies involving two or three areas of STEM (72, 9%; 13, 1.6%; respectively). Publications that used the acronym STEAM in either the title or abstract were classified as involving both STEM and non-STEM. For example, both of the following publications were included in this category.

Dika and D’Amico ( 2016 ). “Early experiences and integration in the persistence of first-generation college students in STEM and non-STEM majors.” Journal of Research in Science Teaching , 53 (3), 368–383. (Note: this article focused on early experience in both STEM and Non-STEM majors.)

Sochacka, Guyotte, and Walther ( 2016 ). “Learning together: A collaborative autoethnographic exploration of STEAM (STEM+ the Arts) education.” Journal of Engineering Education , 105 (1), 15–42. (Note: this article focused on STEAM (both STEM and Arts).)

figure 3

Publication distribution in terms of content scope being focused on. (Note: 1=single subject of STEM, 2=two subjects of STEM, 3=three subjects of STEM, 4=four subjects of STEM, 5=topics related to both STEM and non-STEM)

Figure  4 presents the number of publications per year in each of the five categories described earlier (category 1, one area of STEM; category 2, two areas of STEM; category 3, three areas of STEM; category 4, four areas of STEM; category 5, STEM and non-STEM). The category that had grown most rapidly since 2010 is the one involving all four areas. Recent growth in the number of publications in category 1 likely reflected growing interest of traditional individual disciplinary based educators in developing and sharing multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary scholarship in STEM education, as what was noted recently by Li and Schoenfeld ( 2019 ) with publications in IJ-STEM.

figure 4

Publication distribution in terms of content scope being focused on over the years

Patterns of publications across different journals

Among the 36 journals that published STEM education articles, two are general education research journals (referred to as “subject-0”), 12 with their titles containing one discipline of STEM (“subject-1”), eight with journal’s titles covering two disciplines of STEM (“subject-2”), six covering three disciplines of STEM (“subject-3”), seven containing the word STEM (“subject-4”), and one in STEAM education (“subject-5”).

Table  2 shows that both subject-0 and subject-1 journals were usually mature journals with a long history, and they were all traditional subscription-based journals, except the Journal of Pre - College Engineering Education Research , a subject-1 journal established in 2011 that provided open access (OA). In comparison to subject-0 and subject-1 journals, subject-2 and subject-3 journals were relatively newer but still had quite many years of history on average. There are also some more journals in these two categories that provided OA. Subject-4 and subject-5 journals had a short history, and most provided OA. The results show that well-established journals had tended to focus on individual disciplines or education research in general. Multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary education journals were started some years later, followed by the recent establishment of several STEM or STEAM journals.

Table 2 also shows that subject-1, subject-2, and subject-4 journals published approximately a quarter each of the publications. The number of publications in subject-1 journals is interested, because we selected a relatively limited number of journals in this category. There are many other journals in the subject-1 category (as well as subject-0 journals) that we did not select, and thus it is very likely that we did not include some STEM education articles published in subject-0 or subject-1 journals that we did not include in our study.

Figure  5 shows the number of publications per year in each of the five categories described earlier (subject-0 through subject-5). The number of publications per year in subject-5 and subject-0 journals did not change much over the time period of the study. On the other hand, the number of publications per year in subject-4 (all 4 areas), subject-1 (single area), and subject-2 journals were all over 40 by the end of the study period. The number of publications per year in subject-3 journals increased but remained less than 30. At first sight, it may be a bit surprising that the number of publications in STEM education per year in subject-1 journals increased much faster than those in subject-2 journals over the past few years. However, as Table 2 indicates these journals had long been established with great reputations, and scholars would like to publish their research in such journals. In contrast to the trend in subject-1 journals, the trend in subject-4 journals suggests that STEM education journals collectively started to gain its own identity for publishing and sharing STEM education research.

figure 5

STEM education publication distribution across different journal categories over the years. (Note: 0=subject-0; 1=subject-1; 2=subject-2; 3=subject-3; 4=subject-4; 5=subject-5)

Figure  6 shows the number of STEM education publications in each journal where the bars are color-coded (yellow, subject-0; light blue, subject-1; green, subject-2; purple, subject-3; dark blue, subject-4; and black, subject-5). There is no clear pattern shown in terms of the overall number of STEM education publications across categories or journals, but very much individual journal-based performance. The result indicates that the number of STEM education publications might heavily rely on the individual journal’s willingness and capability of attracting STEM education research work and thus suggests the potential value of examining individual journal’s performance.

figure 6

Publication distribution across all 36 individual journals across different categories with the same color-coded for journals in the same subject category

The top five journals in terms of the number of STEM education publications are Journal of Science Education and Technology (80 publications, journal number 25 in Fig.  6 ), Journal of STEM Education (65 publications, journal number 26), International Journal of STEM Education (64 publications, journal number 17), International Journal of Engineering Education (54 publications, journal number 12), and School Science and Mathematics (41 publications, journal number 31). Among these five journals, two journals are specifically on STEM education (J26, J17), two on two subjects of STEM (J25, J31), and one on one subject of STEM (J12).

Figure  7 shows the number of STEM education publications per year in each of these top five journals. As expected, based on earlier trends, the number of publications per year increased over the study period. The largest increase was in the International Journal of STEM Education (J17) that was established in 2014. As the other four journals were all established in or before 2000, J17’s short history further suggests its outstanding performance in attracting and publishing STEM education articles since 2014 (Li, 2018b ; Li, Froyd, & Wang, 2019 ). The increase was consistent with the journal’s recognition as the first STEM education journal for inclusion in SSCI starting in 2019 (Li, 2019a ).

figure 7

Publication distribution of selected five journals over the years. (Note: J12: International Journal of Engineering Education; J17: International Journal of STEM Education; J25: Journal of Science Education and Technology; J26: Journal of STEM Education; J31: School Science and Mathematics)

Top 10 countries/regions where scholars contributed journal publications in STEM education

Table  3 shows top countries/regions in terms of the number of publications, where the country/region was established by the authorship using the two different methods presented above. About 75% (depending on the method) of contributions were made by authors from the USA, followed by Australia, Canada, Taiwan, and UK. Only Africa as a continent was not represented among the top 10 countries/regions. The results are relatively consistent with patterns reported in the IJ-STEM study (Li, Froyd, & Wang, 2019 )

Further examination of Table 3 reveals that the two methods provide not only fairly consistent results but also yield some differences. For example, Israel and Germany had more publication credit if only the corresponding author was considered, but South Korea and Turkey had more publication credit when co-authors were considered. The results in Table 3 show that each method has value when analyzing and comparing publications by country/region or institution based on authorship.

Recognizing that, as shown in Fig. 1 , the number of publications per year increased rapidly since 2010, Table  4 shows the number of publications by country/region over a 10-year period (2009–2018) and Table 5 shows the number of publications by country/region over a 5-year period (2014–2018). The ranks in Tables  3 , 4 , and 5 are fairly consistent, but that would be expected since the larger numbers of publications in STEM education had occurred in recent years. At the same time, it is interesting to note in Table 5 some changes over the recent several years with Malaysia, but not Israel, entering the top 10 list when either method was used to calculate author's credit.

Patterns of single-author and multiple-author publications in STEM education

Since STEM education differs from traditional individual disciplinary education, we are interested in determining how common joint co-authorship with collaborations was in STEM education articles. Figure  8 shows that joint co-authorship was very common among these 798 STEM education publications, with 83.7% publications with two or more co-authors. Publications with two, three, or at least five co-authors were highest, with 204, 181, and 157 publications, respectively.

figure 8

Number of publications with single or different joint authorship. (Note: 1=single author; 2=two co-authors; 3=three co-authors; 4=four co-authors; 5=five or more co-authors)

Figure  9 shows the number of publications per year using the joint authorship categories in Fig.  8 . Each category shows an increase consistent with the increase shown in Fig. 1 for all 798 publications. By the end of the time period, the number of publications with two, three, or at least five co-authors was the largest, which might suggest an increase in collaborations in STEM education research.

figure 9

Publication distribution with single or different joint authorship over the years. (Note: 1=single author; 2=two co-authors; 3=three co-authors; 4=four co-authors; 5=five or more co-authors)

Co-authors can be from the same or different countries/regions. Figure  10 shows the number of publications per year by single authors (no collaboration), co-authors from the same country (collaboration in a country/region), and co-authors from different countries (collaboration across countries/regions). Each year the largest number of publications was by co-authors from the same country, and the number increased dramatically during the period of the study. Although the number of publications in the other two categories increased, the numbers of publications were noticeably fewer than the number of publications by co-authors from the same country.

figure 10

Publication distribution in authorship across different categories in terms of collaboration over the years

Published articles by research topics

Figure  11 shows the number of publications in each of the seven topic categories. The topic category of goals, policy, curriculum, evaluation, and assessment had almost half of publications (375, 47%). Literature reviews were included in this topic category, as providing an overview assessment of education and research development in a topic area or a field. Sample publications included in this category are listed as follows:

DeCoito ( 2016 ). “STEM education in Canada: A knowledge synthesis.” Canadian Journal of Science , Mathematics and Technology Education , 16 (2), 114–128. (Note: this article provides a national overview of STEM initiatives and programs, including success, criteria for effective programs and current research in STEM education.)

Ring-Whalen, Dare, Roehrig, Titu, and Crotty ( 2018 ). “From conception to curricula: The role of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics in integrated STEM units.” International Journal of Education in Mathematics Science and Technology , 6 (4), 343–362. (Note: this article investigates the conceptions of integrated STEM education held by in-service science teachers through the use of photo-elicitation interviews and examines how those conceptions were reflected in teacher-created integrated STEM curricula.)

Schwab et al. ( 2018 ). “A summer STEM outreach program run by graduate students: Successes, challenges, and recommendations for implementation.” Journal of Research in STEM Education , 4 (2), 117–129. (Note: the article details the organization and scope of the Foundation in Science and Mathematics Program and evaluates this program.)

figure 11

Frequencies of publications’ research topic distributions. (Note: 1=K-12 teaching, teacher and teacher education; 2=Post-secondary teacher and teaching; 3=K-12 STEM learner, learning, and learning environment; 4=Post-secondary STEM learner, learning, and learning environments; 5=Goals and policy, curriculum, evaluation, and assessment (including literature review); 6=Culture, social, and gender issues; 7=History, philosophy, Epistemology, and nature of STEM and STEM education)

The topic with the second most publications was “K-12 teaching, teacher and teacher education” (103, 12.9%), followed closely by “K-12 learner, learning, and learning environment” (97, 12.2%). The results likely suggest the research community had a broad interest in both teaching and learning in K-12 STEM education. The top three topics were the same in the IJ-STEM review (Li, Froyd, & Wang, 2019 ).

Figure  11 also shows there was a virtual tie between two topics with the fourth most cumulative publications, “post-secondary STEM learner & learning” (76, 9.5%) and “culture, social, and gender issues in STEM” (78, 9.8%), such as STEM identity, students’ career choices in STEM, and inclusion. This result is different from the IJ-STEM review (Li, Froyd, & Wang, 2019 ), where “post-secondary STEM teacher & teaching” and “post-secondary STEM learner & learning” were tied as the fourth most common topics. This difference is likely due to the scope of journals and the length of the time period being reviewed.

Figure  12 shows the number of publications per year in each topic category. As expected from the results in Fig.  11 the number of publications in topic category 5 (goals, policy, curriculum, evaluation, and assessment) was the largest each year. The numbers of publications in topic category 3 (K-12 learner, learning, and learning environment), 1 (K-12 teaching, teacher, and teacher education), 6 (culture, social, and gender issues in STEM), and 4 (post-secondary STEM learner and learning) were also increasing. Although Fig.  11 shows the number of publications in topic category 1 was slightly more than the number of publications in topic category 3 (see Fig.  11 ), the number of publications in topic category 3 was increasing more rapidly in recent years than its counterpart in topic category 1. This may suggest a more rapidly growing interest in K-12 STEM learner, learning, and learning environment. The numbers of publications in topic categories 2 and 7 were not increasing, but the number of publications in IJ-STEM in topic category 2 was notable (Li, Froyd, & Wang, 2019 ). It will be interesting to follow trends in the seven topic categories in the future.

figure 12

Publication distributions in terms of research topics over the years

Published articles by research methods

Figure  13 shows the number of publications per year by research methods in empirical studies. Publications with non-empirical studies are shown in a separate category. Although the number of publications in each of the four categories increased during the study period, there were many more publications presenting empirical studies than those without. For those with empirical studies, the number of publications using quantitative methods increased most rapidly in recent years, followed by qualitative and then mixed methods. Although there were quite many publications with non-empirical studies (e.g., theoretical or conceptual papers, literature reviews) during the study period, the increase of the number of publications in this category was noticeably less than empirical studies.

figure 13

Publication distributions in terms of research methods over the years. (Note: 1=qualitative, 2=quantitative, 3=mixed, 4=Non-empirical)

Concluding remarks

The systematic analysis of publications that were considered to be in STEM education in 36 selected journals shows tremendous growth in scholarship in this field from 2000 to 2018, especially over the past 10 years. Our analysis indicates that STEM education research has been increasingly recognized as an important topic area and studies were being published across many different journals. Scholars still hold diverse perspectives about how research is designated as STEM education; however, authors have been increasingly distinguishing their articles with STEM, STEAM, or related words in the titles, abstracts, and lists of keywords during the past 10 years. Moreover, our systematic analysis shows a dramatic increase in the number of publications in STEM education journals in recent years, which indicates that these journals have been collectively developing their own professional identity. In addition, the International Journal of STEM Education has become the first STEM education journal to be accepted in SSCI in 2019 (Li, 2019a ). The achievement may mark an important milestone as STEM education journals develop their own identity for publishing and sharing STEM education research.

Consistent with our previous reviews (Li, Froyd, & Wang, 2019 ; Li, Wang, & Xiao, 2019 ), the vast majority of publications in STEM education research were contributed by authors from the USA, where STEM and STEAM education originated, followed by Australia, Canada, and Taiwan. At the same time, authors in some countries/regions in Asia were becoming very active in the field over the past several years. This trend is consistent with findings from the IJ-STEM review (Li, Froyd, & Wang, 2019 ). We certainly hope that STEM education scholarship continues its development across all five continents to support educational initiatives and programs in STEM worldwide.

Our analysis has shown that collaboration, as indicated by publications with multiple authors, has been very common among STEM education scholars, as that is often how STEM education distinguishes itself from the traditional individual disciplinary based education. Currently, most collaborations occurred among authors from the same country/region, although collaborations across cross-countries/regions were slowly increasing.

With the rapid changes in STEM education internationally (Li, 2019b ), it is often difficult for researchers to get an overall sense about possible hot topics in STEM education especially when STEM education publications appeared in a vast array of journals across different fields. Our systematic analysis of publications has shown that studies in the topic category of goals, policy, curriculum, evaluation, and assessment have been the most prevalent, by far. Our analysis also suggests that the research community had a broad interest in both teaching and learning in K-12 STEM education. These top three topic categories are the same as in the IJ-STEM review (Li, Froyd, & Wang, 2019 ). Work in STEM education will continue to evolve and it will be interesting to review the trends in another 5 years.

Encouraged by our recent IJ-STEM review, we began this review with an ambitious goal to provide an overview of the status and trends of STEM education research. In a way, this systematic review allowed us to achieve our initial goal with a larger scope of journal selection over a much longer period of publication time. At the same time, there are still limitations, such as the decision to limit the number of journals from which we would identify publications for analysis. We understand that there are many publications on STEM education research that were not included in our review. Also, we only identified publications in journals. Although this is one of the most important outlets for scholars to share their research work, future reviews could examine publications on STEM education research in other venues such as books, conference proceedings, and grant proposals.

Availability of data and materials

The data and materials used and analyzed for the report are publicly available at the various journal websites.

Journals containing the word "computers" or "ICT" appeared automatically when searching with the word "technology". Thus, the word of "computers" or "ICT" was taken as equivalent to "technology" if appeared in a journal's name.

Abbreviations

Information and Communications Technology

International Journal of STEM Education

Kindergarten–Grade 12

Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and Technology

Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics

Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics

Borrego, M., Foster, M. J., & Froyd, J. E. (2015). What is the state of the art of systematic review in engineering education? Journal of Engineering Education, 104 (2), 212–242. https://doi.org/10.1002/jee.20069 .

Article   Google Scholar  

Bray, A., & Tangney, B. (2017). Technology usage in mathematics education research – a systematic review of recent trends. Computers & Education, 114 , 255–273.

Brown, J. (2012). The current status of STEM education research. Journal of STEM Education: Innovations & Research, 13 (5), 7–11.

Google Scholar  

Christenson, J. (2011). Ramaley coined STEM term now used nationwide . Winona Daily News Retrieved from http://www.winonadailynews.com/news/local/article_457afe3e-0db3-11e1-abe0-001cc4c03286.html Accessed on 16 Jan 2018.

Chute, E. (2009). STEM education is branching out . Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Feb 9, 2009. https://www.post-gazette.com/news/education/2009/02/10/STEM-education-is-branching-out/stories/200902100165 Accessed on 2 Jan 2020.

DeCoito, I. (2016). STEM education in Canada: A knowledge synthesis. Canadian Journal of Science, Mathematics and Technology Education, 16 (2), 114–128.

Dika, S. L., & D'Amico, M. M. (2016). Early experiences and integration in the persistence of first-generation college students in STEM and non-STEM majors. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 53 (3), 368–383.

English, L. D. (2016). STEM education K-12: Perspectives on integration. International Journal of STEM Education, 3 , 3. https://doi.org/10.1186/s4059%204-016-0036-1 .

Erduran, S., Ozdem, Y., & Park, J.-Y. (2015). Research trends on argumentation in science education: A journal content analysis from 1998-2014. International Journal of STEM Education, 2 , 5. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40594-015-0020-1 .

Gonzalez, H. B. & Kuenzi, J. J. (2012). Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education: A primer. CRS report for congress, R42642, https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R42642.pdf Accessed on 2 Jan 2020.

Henderson, C., Beach, A., & Finkelstein, N. (2011). Facilitating change in undergraduate STEM instructional practices: An analytic review of the literature. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 48 (8), 952–984.

Honey, M., Pearson, G., & Schweingruber, A. (2014). STEM integration in K-12 education: Status, prospects, and an agenda for research . Washington: National Academies Press.

Howard, G. S., Cole, D. A., & Maxwell, S. E. (1987). Research productivity in psychology based on publication in the journals of the American Psychological Association. American Psychologist, 42 (11), 975–986.

Johnson, C. C., Peters-Burton, E. E., & Moore, T. J. (2015). STEM roadmap: A framework for integration . London: Taylor & Francis.

Book   Google Scholar  

Kelley, T. R., & Knowles, J. G. (2016). A conceptual framework for integrated STEM education. International Journal of STEM Education, 3 , 11. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40594-016-0046-z .

Kilpatrick, J. (1992). A history of research in mathematics education. In D. A. Grouws (Ed.), Handbook of research on mathematics teaching and learning (pp. 3–38). New York: Macmillan.

Kim, A. Y., Sinatra, G. M., & Seyranian, V. (2018). Developing a STEM identity among young women: A social identity perspective. Review of Educational Research, 88 (4), 589–625.

Li, Y. (2014). International journal of STEM education – a platform to promote STEM education and research worldwide. International Journal of STEM Education, 1 , 1. https://doi.org/10.1186/2196-7822-1-1 .

Li, Y. (2018a). Journal for STEM education research – promoting the development of interdisciplinary research in STEM education. Journal for STEM Education Research, 1 (1–2), 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41979-018-0009-z .

Li, Y. (2018b). Four years of development as a gathering place for international researchers and readers in STEM education. International Journal of STEM Education, 5 , 54. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40594-018-0153-0 .

Li, Y. (2019a). Five years of development in pursuing excellence in quality and global impact to become the first journal in STEM education covered in SSCI. International Journal of STEM Education, 6 , 42. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40594-019-0198-8 .

Li, Y. (2019b). STEM education research and development as a rapidly evolving and international field. 数学教育学报(Journal of Mathematics Education), 28 (3), 42–44.

Li, Y., Froyd, J. E., & Wang, K. (2019). Learning about research and readership development in STEM education: A systematic analysis of the journal’s publications from 2014 to 2018. International Journal of STEM Education, 6 , 19. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40594-019-0176-1 .

Li, Y., & Schoenfeld, A. H. (2019). Problematizing teaching and learning mathematics as ‘given’ in STEM education. International Journal of STEM Education, 6 , 44. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40594-019-0197-9 .

Li, Y., Wang, K., & Xiao, Y. (2019). Exploring the status and development trends of STEM education research: A review of research articles in selected journals published between 2000 and 2018. 数学教育学报(Journal of Mathematics Education), 28 (3), 45–52.

Lin, T.-J., Lin, T.-C., Potvin, P., & Tsai, C.-C. (2019). Research trends in science education from 2013 to 2017: A systematic content analysis of publications in selected journals. International Journal of Science Education, 41 (3), 367–387.

Margot, K. C., & Kettler, T. (2019). Teachers’ perception of STEM integration and education: A systematic literature review. International Journal of STEM Education, 6 , 2. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40594-018-0151-2 .

Minichiello, A., Hood, J. R., & Harkness, D. S. (2018). Bring user experience design to bear on STEM education: A narrative literature review. Journal for STEM Education Research, 1 (1–2), 7–33.

Minner, D. D., Levy, A. J., & Century, J. (2010). Inquiry-based science instruction – what is it and does it matter? Results from a research synthesis years 1984 to 2002. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 47 (4), 474–496.

Mizell, S., & Brown, S. (2016). The current status of STEM education research 2013-2015. Journal of STEM Education: Innovations & Research, 17 (4), 52–56.

National Research Council. (2012). Discipline-based education research: Understanding and improving learning in undergraduate science and engineering . Washington DC: National Academies Press.

National Science Foundation (1998). Information technology: Its impact on undergraduate education in science, mathematics, engineering, and technology. (NSF 98–82), April 18–20, 1996. http://www.nsf.gov/cgi-bin/getpub?nsf9882 Accessed 16 Jan 2018.

Raju, P. K., & Sankar, C. S. (2003). Editorial. Journal of STEM Education: Innovations & Research, 4 (3&4), 2.

Ring-Whalen, E., Dare, E., Roehrig, G., Titu, P., & Crotty, E. (2018). From conception to curricula: The role of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics in integrated STEM units. International Journal of Education in Mathematics, Science and Technology, 6 (4), 343–362.

Schreffler, J., Vasquez III, E., Chini, J., & James, W. (2019). Universal design for learning in postsecondary STEM education for students with disabilities: A systematic literature review. International Journal of STEM Education, 6 , 8. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40594-019-0161-8 .

Schwab, D. B., Cole, L. W., Desai, K. M., Hemann, J., Hummels, K. R., & Maltese, A. V. (2018). A summer STEM outreach program run by graduate students: Successes, challenges, and recommendations for implementation. Journal of Research in STEM Education, 4 (2), 117–129.

Sochacka, N. W., Guyotte, K. W., & Walther, J. (2016). Learning together: A collaborative autoethnographic exploration of STEAM (STEM+ the Arts) education. Journal of Engineering Education, 105 (1), 15–42.

Sokolowski, A., Li, Y., & Willson, V. (2015). The effects of using exploratory computerized environments in grades 1 to 8 mathematics: A meta-analysis of research. International Journal of STEM Education, 2 , 8. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40594-015-0022-z .

Thibaut, L., Ceuppens, S., De Loof, H., De Meester, J., Goovaerts, L., Struyf, A., Pauw, J. B., Dehaene, W., Deprez, J., De Cock, M., Hellinckx, L., Knipprath, H., Langie, G., Struyven, K., Van de Velde, D., Van Petegem, P., & Depaepe, F. (2018). Integrated STEM education: A systematic review of instructional practices in secondary education. European Journal of STEM Education, 3 (1), 2.

Tsai, C. C., & Wen, L. M. C. (2005). Research and trends in science education from 1998 to 2002: A content analysis of publication in selected journals. International Journal of Science Education, 27 (1), 3–14.

United States Congress House Committee on Science. (1998). The state of science, math, engineering, and technology (SMET) education in America, parts I-IV, including the results of the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS): hearings before the Committee on Science, U.S. House of Representatives, One Hundred Fifth Congress, first session, July 23, September 24, October 8 and 29, 1997. Washington: U.S. G.P.O.

Vasquez, J., Sneider, C., & Comer, M. (2013). STEM lesson essentials, grades 3–8: Integrating science, technology, engineering, and mathematics . Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Wu, S. P. W., & Rau, M. A. (2019). How students learn content in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) through drawing activities. Educational Psychology Review . https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-019-09467-3 .

Xu, M., Williams, P. J., Gu, J., & Zhang, H. (2019). Hotspots and trends of technology education in the International Journal of Technology and Design Education: 2000-2018. International Journal of Technology and Design Education . https://doi.org/10.1007/s10798-019-09508-6 .

Download references

Not applicable

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, 77843-4232, USA

Yeping Li & Yu Xiao

Nicholls State University, Thibodaux, LA, 70310, USA

Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, 43210, USA

Jeffrey E. Froyd

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Contributions

YL conceptualized the study and drafted the manuscript. KW and YX contributed with data collection, coding, and analyses. JEF reviewed drafts and contributed to manuscript revisions. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yeping Li .

Ethics declarations

Competing interests.

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Additional information

Publisher’s note.

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article.

Li, Y., Wang, K., Xiao, Y. et al. Research and trends in STEM education: a systematic review of journal publications. IJ STEM Ed 7 , 11 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40594-020-00207-6

Download citation

Received : 10 February 2020

Accepted : 12 February 2020

Published : 10 March 2020

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1186/s40594-020-00207-6

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

  • Journal publication
  • Literature review
  • STEM education research

research topics for stem students 2022

research topics for stem students 2022

  • 2023 AERA in the News
  • 2022 AERA in the News
  • 2021 AERA In the News
  • 2020 AERA In the News
  • 2019 AERA In the News
  • 2018 AERA In the News
  • 2017 AERA In the News
  • 2016 AERA In the News
  • 2015 AERA In the News
  • 2014 AERA In the News
  • 2013 AERA In the News
  • AERA Speaking Out on Major Issues
  • 2023 AERA News Releases
  • 2022 AERA News Releases
  • 2021 AERA News Releases
  • 2020 AERA News Releases
  • 2019 AERA News Releases
  • 2018 AERA News Releases
  • 2017 AERA News Releases
  • 2016 AERA News Releases
  • 2015 AERA News Releases
  • 2014 AERA News Releases
  • 2013 AERA News Releases
  • 2012 AERA News Releases
  • 2011 News Releases
  • 2010 News Releases
  • 2009 News Releases
  • 2008 News Releases
  • 2007 News Releases
  • 2006 News Releases
  • 2005 News Releases
  • 2004 News Releases
  • AERA Research Archive
  • Trending Topic Research Files
  • Communication Resources for Researchers
  • AERA Highlights Archival Issues
  • AERA Video Gallery

research topics for stem students 2022

Share 

 
STEM

Science, Technology Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) is one of the most talked about topics in education, emphasizing research, problem solving, critical thinking, and creativity.

The following compendium of open-access articles are inclusive of all substantive AERA journal content regarding STEM published since 1969. This page will be updated as new articles are published. 


Jason Jabbari, Yung Chun, Wenrui Huang, Stephen Roll
October 2023
Researchers found that program acceptance was significantly associated with increased earnings and probabilities of working in a science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) profession.


Robert R. Martinez, Jr., James M. Ellis
September 2023
Researchers found that STEM-CR involves four related yet distinct dimensions of Think, Know, Act, and Go. Results also demonstrated soundness of these STEM-CR dimensions by race and gender (key learning skills and techniques/Act).


Rosemary J. Perez, Rudisang Motshubi, Sarah L. Rodriguez
April 2023
Researchers found that because participants did not attend to how racism and White supremacy fostered negative climate, their strategies (e.g., increased recruitment, committees, workshops) left systemic racism intact and (un)intentionally amplified labor for racially minoritized graduate students and faculty champions who often led change efforts with little support.


Kathleen Lynch, Lily An, Zid Mancenido
, July 2022
Researchers found an average weighted impact estimate of +0.10 standard deviations on mathematics achievement outcomes.


Luis A. Leyva, R. Taylor McNeill, B R. Balmer, Brittany L. Marshall, V. Elizabeth King, Zander D. Alley
, May 2022
Researchers address this research gap by exploring four Black queer students’ experiences of oppression and agency in navigating invisibility as STEM majors.


Angela Starrett, Matthew J. Irvin, Christine Lotter, Jan A. Yow
, May 2022
Researchers found that the more place-based workforce development adolescents reported, the higher their expectancy beliefs, STEM career interest, and rural community aspirations.


Matthew H. Rafalow, Cassidy Puckett
May 2022
Researchers found that educational resources, like digital technologies, are also sorted by schools.


Pamela Burnard, Laura Colucci-Gray, Carolyn Cooke
 April 2022
This article makes a case for repositioning STEAM education as democratized enactments of transdisciplinary education, where arts and sciences are not separate or even separable endeavors.


Salome Wörner, Jochen Kuhn, Katharina Scheiter
, April 2022
Researchers conclude that for combining real and virtual experiments, apart from the individual affordances and the learning objectives of the different experiment types, especially their specific function for the learning task must be considered.


Seung-hyun Han, Eunjung Grace Oh, Sun “Pil” Kang
April 2022
Researchers found that the knowledge sharing mechanism and student learning outcomes can be explained in terms of their social capital within social networks.


Barbara Schneider, Joseph Krajcik, Jari Lavonen, Katariina Salmela-Aro, Christopher Klager, Lydia Bradford, I-Chien Chen, Quinton Baker, Israel Touitou, Deborah Peek-Brown, Rachel Marias Dezendorf, Sarah Maestrales, Kayla Bartz
March 2022 
Researchers found that improving secondary school science learning is achievable with a coherent system comprising teacher and student learning experiences, professional learning, and formative unit assessments that support students in “doing” science.


Paulo Tan, Alexis Padilla, Rachel Lambert
, March 2022
Researchers found that studies continue to avoid meaningful intersectional considerations of race and disability.


Ta-yang Hsieh, Sandra D. Simpkins
March 2022
Researchers found patterns with overall high/low beliefs, patterns with varying levels of motivational beliefs, and patterns characterized by domain differentiation.


Jonté A. Myers, Bradley S. Witzel, Sarah R. Powell, Hongli Li, Terri D. Pigott, Yan Ping Xin, Elizabeth M. Hughes
, February 2022
Findings of meta-regression analyses showed several moderators, such as sample composition, group size, intervention dosage, group assignment approach, interventionist, year of publication, and dependent measure type, significantly explained heterogeneity in effects across studies.


Grace A. Chen, Ilana S. Horn
, January 2022
The findings from this review highlight the interconnectedness of structures and individual lives, of the material and ideological elements of marginalization, of intersectionality and within-group heterogeneity, and of histories and institutions.


Victor R. Lee, Michelle Hoda Wilkerson, Kathryn Lanouette
December 2021
Researchers offer an interdisciplinary framework based on literature from multiple bodies of educational research to inform design, teaching and research for more effective, responsible, and inclusive student learning experiences with and about data.


Ido Davidesco, Camillia Matuk, Dana Bevilacqua, David Poeppel, Suzanne Dikker
December 2021
This essay critically evaluates the value added by portable brain technologies in education research and outlines a proposed research agenda, centered around questions related to student engagement, cognitive load, and self-regulation.


Guan K. Saw, Charlotte A. Agger
December 2021
Researchers found that during high school rural and small-town students shifted away from STEM fields and that geographic disparities in postsecondary STEM participation were largely explained by students’ demographics and precollege STEM career aspirations and academic preparation.


Kyle M. Whitcomb, Sonja Cwik, Chandralekha Singh
November 2021
Researchers found that on average across all years of study, underrepresented minority (URM) students experience a larger penalty to their mean overall and STEM GPA than even the most disadvantaged non-URM students.


Lana M. Minshew, Amanda A. Olsen, Jacqueline E. McLaughlin
, October 2021
Researchers found that the CA framework is a useful and effective model for supporting faculty in cultivating rich learning opportunities for STEM graduate students.


Xin Lin, Sarah R. Powell
, October 2021
Findings suggested fluency in both mathematics and reading, as well as working memory, yielded greater impacts on subsequent mathematics performance.


Christine L. Bae, Daphne C. Mills, Fa Zhang, Martinique Sealy, Lauren Cabrera, Marquita Sea
, September 2021
This systematic literature review is guided by a complex systems framework to organize and synthesize empirical studies of science talk in urban classrooms across individual (student or teacher), collective (interpersonal), and contextual (sociocultural, historical) planes.


Toya Jones Frank, Marvin G. Powell, Jenice L. View, Christina Lee, Jay A. Bradley, Asia Williams
 August/September 2021
Researchers found that teachers’ experiences of microaggressions accounted for most of the variance in our modeling of teachers’ thoughts of leaving the profession.


Ebony McGee, Yuan Fang, Yibin (Amanda) Ni, Thema Monroe-White
August 2021
Researchers found that 40.7% of the respondents reported that their career plans have been affected by Trump’s antiscience policies, 54.5% by the COVID-19 pandemic.


Martha Cecilia Bottia, Roslyn Arlin Mickelson, Cayce Jamil, Kyleigh Moniz, Leanne Barry
, May 2021
Consistent with cumulative disadvantage and critical race theories, findings reveal that the disproportionality of racially minoritized students in STEM is related to their inferior secondary school preparation; the presence of racialized lower quality educational contexts; reduced levels of psychosocial factors associated with STEM success; less exposure to inclusive and appealing curricula and instruction; lower levels of family social, cultural, and financial capital that foster academic outcomes; and fewer prospects for supplemental STEM learning opportunities. Policy implications of findings are discussed.


Iris Daruwala, Shani Bretas, Douglas D. Ready
 April 2021
Researchers describe how teachers, school leaders, and program staff navigated institutional pressures to improve state grade-level standardized test scores while implementing tasks and technologies designed to personalize student learning.


Michael A. Gottfried, Jay Plasman, Jennifer A. Freeman, Shaun Dougherty
March 2021
Researchers found that students with learning disabilities were more likely to earn more units in CTE courses compared with students without disabilities.


Ebony Omotola McGee
 December 2020
This manuscript also discusses how universities institutionalize diversity mentoring programs designed mostly to fix (read “assimilate”) underrepresented students of color while ignoring or minimizing the role of the STEM departments in creating racially hostile work and educational spaces.


Miray Tekkumru-Kisa, Mary Kay Stein, Walter Doyle
 November 2020
The purpose of this article is to revisit theory and research on tasks, a construct introduced by Walter Doyle nearly 40 years ago.


Elizabeth S. Park, Federick Ngo
November 2020
Researchers found that lower math placement may have supported women, and to a lesser extent URM students, in completing transferable STEM credits.


Karisma Morton, Catherine Riegle-Crumb
 August/September 2020
Results of regression analyses reveal that, net of school, teacher, and student characteristics, the time that teachers report spending on algebra and more advanced content in eighth grade algebra classes is significantly lower in schools that are predominantly Black compared to those that are not predominantly minority. Implications for future research are discussed.


Qi Zhang, Jessaca Spybrook, Fatih Unlu
, July 2020
Researchers consider strategies to maximize the efficiency of the study design when both student and teacher effects are of primary interest.


Jennifer Lin Russell, Richard Correnti, Mary Kay Stein, Ally Thomas, Victoria Bill, Laurie Speranzo
, July 20, 2020
Analysis of videotaped coaching conversations and teaching events suggests that model-trained coaches improved their capacity to use a high-leverage coaching practice—deep and specific prelesson planning conversations—and that growth in this practice predicted teaching improvement, specifically increased opportunities for students to engage in conceptual thinking.


Maithreyi Gopalan, Kelly Rosinger, Jee Bin Ahn
, April 21, 2020
The overarching purpose of this chapter is to explore and document the growth, applicability, promise, and limitations of quasi-experimental research designs in education research.


Thomas M. Philip, Ayush Gupta
, April 21, 2020
By bringing this collection of articles together, this chapter provides collective epistemic and empirical weight to claims of power and learning as co-constituted and co-constructed through interactional, microgenetic, and structural dynamics.


Steve Graham, Sharlene A. Kiuhara, Meade MacKay
, March 19, 2020
This meta-analysis examined if students writing about content material in science, social studies, and mathematics facilitated learning.


Janina Roloff, Uta Klusmann, Oliver Lüdtke, Ulrich Trautwein
, January 2020 
Multilevel regression analyses revealed that agreeableness, high school GPA, and the second state examination grade predicted teachers’ instructional quality.

: Contemporary Views on STEM Subjects and Language With English Learners
Okhee Lee, Amy Stephens
, 2020 
With the release of the consensus report , the authors highlight foundational constructs and perspectives associated with STEM subjects and language with English learners that frame the report.


Angela Calabrese Barton and Edna Tan
, 2020 
This essay presents a rightful presence framework to guide the study of teaching and learning in justice-oriented ways.


Day Greenberg, Angela Calabrese Barton, Carmen Turner, Kelly Hardy, Akeya Roper, Candace Williams, Leslie Rupert Herrenkohl, Elizabeth A. Davis, Tammy Tasker
, 2020
Researchers  report on how one community builds capacity for disrupting injustice and supporting each other during the COVID-19 crisis.


Tatiana Melguizo, Federick Ngo
, 2020
This study explores the extent to which “college-ready” students, by high school standards, are assigned to remedial courses in college.


Karisma Morton and Catherine Riegle-Crumb
, 2020
Results of regression analyses reveal that, net of school, teacher, and student characteristics, the time that teachers report spending on algebra and more advanced content in eighth grade algebra classes is significantly lower in schools that are predominantly Black compared to those that are not predominantly minority. Implications for future research are discussed.


Jonathan D. Schweig, Julia H. Kaufman, and V. Darleen Opfer
, 2020
Researchers found that there are both substantial fluctuations in students’ engagement in these practices and reported cognitive demand from day to day, as well as large differences across teachers.


David Blazar and Casey Archer
, 2020
Researchers found that exposure to “ambitious” mathematics practices is more strongly associated with test score gains of English language learners compared to those of their peers in general education classrooms.


Megan Hopkins, Hayley Weddle, Maxie Gluckman, Leslie Gautsch
, December 2019 
Researchers show how both researchers and practitioners facilitated research use.


Adrianna Kezar, Samantha Bernstein-Sierra
, October 2019
Findings suggest that Association of American Universities’ influence was a powerful motivator for institutions to alter deeply ingrained perceptions and behaviors.


Denis Dumas, Daniel McNeish, Julie Sarama, Douglas Clements
, October 2019
While students who receive a short-term intervention in preschool may not differ from a control group in terms of their long-term mathematics outcomes at the end of elementary school, they do exhibit significantly steeper growth curves as they approach their eventual skill level.


Jessica Thompson, Jennifer Richards, Soo-Yean Shim, Karin Lohwasser, Kerry Soo Von Esch, Christine Chew, Bethany Sjoberg, Ann Morris
, September 2019
Researchers used data from professional learning communities to analyze pathways into improvement work and reflective data to understand practitioners’ perspectives.


Ross E. O’Hara, Betsy Sparrow
, September 2019
Results indicate that interventions that target psychosocial barriers experienced by community college STEM students can increase retention and should be considered alongside broader reforms.


Ran Liu, Andrea Alvarado-Urbina, Emily Hannum
, September 2019
Findings reveal disparate national patterns in gender gaps across the performance distribution.


Adam Kirk Edgerton
, September 2019 
Through an analysis of 52 interviews with state, regional, and district officials in California, Texas, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts, the author investigates the decline in the popularity of K–12 standards-based reform.


Amy Noelle Parks
, September 2019 
The study suggests that more research needs to represent mathematics lessons from the perspectives of children and youth, particularly those students who engage with teachers infrequently or in atypical ways.


Rajeev Darolia, Cory Koedel, Joyce B. Main, J. Felix Ndashimye, Junpeng Yan
, September 30, 2019
Researchers found that differential access to high school courses does not affect postsecondary STEM enrollment or degree attainment.


Laura A. Davis, Gregory C. Wolniak, Casey E. George, Glen R. Nelson
, August 2019
The findings point to variation in informational quality across dimensions ranging from clarity of language use and terminology, to consistency and coherence of visual displays, which accompany navigational challenges stemming from information fragmentation and discontinuity across pages.


Juan E. Saavedra, Emma Näslund-Hadley, Mariana Alfonso
, August 12, 2019
Researchers present results from the first randomized experiment of a remedial inquiry-based science education program for low-performing elementary students in a developing country.


F. Chris Curran, James Kitchin
, July 2019
Researchers found suggestive evidence in some models (student fixed effects and regression with observable controls) that time on science instruction is related to science achievement but little evidence that the number of science topics/skills covered are related to greater science achievement.


Kathleen Lynch, Heather C. Hill, Kathryn E. Gonzalez, Cynthia Pollard
, June 2019
Programs saw stronger outcomes when they helped teachers learn to use curriculum materials; focused on improving teachers’ content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, and/or understanding of how students learn; incorporated summer workshops; and included teacher meetings to troubleshoot and discuss classroom implementation. We discuss implications for policy and practice.


Elizabeth Stearns, Martha Cecilia Bottia, Jason Giersch, Roslyn Arlin Mickelson, Stephanie Moller, Nandan Jha, Melissa Dancy
, June 2019 
Researchers found that relative advantages in college academic performance in STEM versus non-STEM subjects do not contribute to the gender gap in STEM major declaration.


Nicole Shechtman, Jeremy Roschelle, Mingyu Feng, Corinne Singleton
, May 2019
As educational leaders throughout the United States adopt digital mathematics curricula and adaptive, blended approaches, the findings provide a relevant caution.


Colleen M. Ganley, Robert C. Schoen, Mark LaVenia, Amanda M. Tazaz
, March 2019
Factor analyses support a distinction between components of general math anxiety and anxiety about teaching math.


Felicia Moore Mensah
, February 2019 
The implications for practice in both teacher education and science education show that educational and emotional support for teachers of color throughout their educational and professional journey is imperative to increasing and sustaining Black teachers.


Herbert W. Marsh, Brooke Van Zanden, Philip D. Parker, Jiesi Guo, James Conigrave, Marjorie Seaton
, February 2019 
Researchers evaluated STEM coursework selection by women and men in senior high school and university, controlling achievement and expectancy-value variables.


Yasemin Copur-Gencturk, Debra Plowman, Haiyan Bai
, January 2019 
The results showed that a focus on curricular content knowledge and examining students’ work were significantly related to teachers’ learning.


Rebecca Colina Neri, Maritza Lozano, Louis M. Gomez
, 2019
Researchers found that teacher resistance to CRE as a multilevel learning problem stems from (a) limited understanding and belief in the efficacy of CRE and (b) a lack of know-how needed to execute it.


Russell T. Warne, Gerhard Sonnert, and Philip M. Sadler
, 2019
Researchers  investigated the relationship between participation in AP mathematics courses (AP Calculus and AP Statistics) and student career interest in STEM.


Catherine Riegle-Crumb, Barbara King, and Yasmiyn Irizarry
, 2019 
Results reveal evidence of persistent racial/ethnic inequality in STEM degree attainment not found in other fields.


Eben B. Witherspoon, Paulette Vincent-Ruz, and Christian D. Schunn
, 2019 
Researchers found that high-performing women often graduate with lower paying, lower status degrees.


Bruce Fuller, Yoonjeon Kim, Claudia Galindo, Shruti Bathia, Margaret Bridges, Greg J. Duncan, and Isabel García Valdivia
, 2019
This article details the growing share of Latino children from low-income families populating schools, 1998 to 2010.


Rebekka Darner
, 2019
Drawing from motivated reasoning and self-determination theories, this essay builds a theoretical model of how negative emotions, thwarting of basic psychological needs, and the backfire effect interact to undermine critical evaluation of evidence, leading to science denial.


Okhee Lee
, 2019
As the fast-growing population of English learners (ELs) is expected to meet college- and career-ready content standards, the purpose of this article is to highlight key issues in aligning ELP standards with content standards.


Mark C. Long, Dylan Conger, and Raymond McGhee, Jr.
, 2019
The authors offer the first model of the components inherent in a well-implemented AP science course and the first evaluation of AP implementation with a focus on public schools newly offering the inquiry-based version of AP Biology and Chemistry courses.


Yasemin Copur-Gencturk, Joseph R. Cimpian, Sarah Theule Lubienski, and Ian Thacker
, 2019
Results indicate that teachers are not free of bias, and that teachers from marginalized groups may be susceptible to bias that favors stereotype-advantaged groups.


Geoffrey B. Saxe and Joshua Sussman
, 2019 
Multilevel analysis of longitudinal data on a specialized integers and fractions assessment, as well as a California state mathematics assessment, revealed that the ELs in LMR classrooms showed greater gains than comparison ELs and gained at similar rates to their EP peers in LMR classrooms.


Jordan Rickles, Jessica B. Heppen, Elaine Allensworth, Nicholas Sorensen, and Kirk Walters
, 2019 
The authors discuss whether it would have been appropriate to test for nominally equivalent outcomes, given that the study was initially conceived and designed to test for significant differences, and that the conclusion of no difference was not solely based on a null hypothesis test.


Soobin Kim, Gregory Wallsworth, Ran Xu, Barbara Schneider, Kenneth Frank, Brian Jacob, Susan Dynarski
, 2019
Using detailed Michigan high school transcript data, this article examines the effect of the MMC on various students’ course-taking and achievement outcomes.


Dario Sansone
, December 2018
Researchers found that students were less likely to believe that men were better than women in math or science when assigned to female teachers or to teachers who valued and listened to ideas from their students.


Ebony McGee
, December 2018
The authors argues that both racial groups endure emotional distress because each group responds to its marginalization with an unrelenting motivation to succeed that imposes significant costs.


Barbara Means, Haiwen Wang, Xin Wei, Emi Iwatani, Vanessa Peters
, November 2018
Students overall and from under-represented groups who had attended inclusive STEM high schools were significantly more likely to be in a STEM bachelor’s degree program two years after high school graduation.


Paulo Tan, Kathleen King Thorius
, November 2018 
Results indicate identity and power tensions that worked against equitable practices.


Caesar R. Jackson
, November 2018
This study investigated the validity and reliability of the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) for minority students enrolled in STEM courses at a historically black college/university (HBCU).


Tuan D. Nguyen, Christopher Redding
, September 2018
The results highlight the importance of recruiting qualified STEM teachers to work in high-poverty schools and providing supports to help them thrive and remain in the classroom.


Joseph A. Taylor, Susan M. Kowalski, Joshua R. Polanin, Karen Askinas, Molly A. M. Stuhlsatz, Christopher D. Wilson, Elizabeth Tipton, Sandra Jo Wilson
, August 2018
The meta-analysis examines the relationship between science education intervention effect sizes and a host of study characteristics, allowing primary researchers to access better estimates of effect sizes for a priori power analyses. The results of this meta-analysis also support programmatic decisions by setting realistic expectations about the typical magnitude of impacts for science education interventions.


Brian A. Burt, Krystal L. Williams, Gordon J. M. Palmer
, August 2018
Three factors are identified as helping them persist from year to year, and in many cases through completion of the doctorate: the role of family, spirituality and faith-based community, and undergraduate mentors.


Anna-Lena Rottweiler, Jamie L. Taxer, Ulrike E. Nett
, June 2018
Suppression improved mood in exam-related anxiety, while distraction improved mood only in non-exam-related anxiety.


Gabriel Estrella, Jacky Au, Susanne M. Jaeggi, Penelope Collins
, April 2018
Although an analysis of 26 articles confirmed that inquiry instruction produced significantly greater impacts on measures of science achievement for ELLs compared to direct instruction, there was still a differential learning effect suggesting greater efficacy for non-ELLs compared to ELLs.


Heather C. Hill, Mark Chin
, April 2018
In this article, evidence from 284 teachers suggests that accuracy can be adequately measured and relates to instruction and student outcomes.


Darrell M. Hull, Krystal M. Hinerman, Sarah L. Ferguson, Qi Chen, Emma I. Näslund-Hadley
, April 20, 2018
Both quantitative and qualitative evidence suggest students within this culture respond well to this relatively simple and inexpensive intervention that departs from traditional, expository math instruction in many developing countries.


Erika C. Bullock
, April 2018
The author reviews CME studies that employ intersectionality as a way of analyzing the complexities of oppression.


Angela Calabrese Barton, Edna Tan
, March 2018 
Building a conceptual argument for an equity-oriented culture of making, the authors discuss the ways in which making with and in community opened opportunities for youth to project their communities’ rich culture knowledge and wisdom onto their making while also troubling and negotiating the historicized injustices they experience.


Sabrina M. Solanki, Di Xu
, March 2018 
Researchers found that having a female instructor narrows the gender gap in terms of engagement and interest; further, both female and male students tend to respond to instructor gender.


Susanne M. Jaeggi, Priti Shah
, February 2018
These articles provide excellent examples for how neuroscientific approaches can complement behavioral work, and they demonstrate how understanding the neural level can help researchers develop richer models of learning and development.


Danyelle T. Ireland, Kimberley Edelin Freeman, Cynthia E. Winston-Proctor, Kendra D. DeLaine, Stacey McDonald Lowe, Kamilah M. Woodson
, 2018
Researchers found that (1) identity; (2) STEM interest, confidence, and persistence; (3) achievement, ability perceptions, and attributions; and (4) socializers and support systems are key themes within the experiences of Black women and girls in STEM education.


Ann Y. Kim, Gale M. Sinatra, Viviane Seyranian
, 2018
Findings indicate that young women experience challenges to their participation and inclusion when they are in STEM settings.


Guan Saw, Chi-Ning Chang, and Hsun-Yu Chan
, 2018 
Results indicated that female, Black, Hispanic, and low SES students were less likely to show, maintain, and develop an interest in STEM careers during high school years.


Di Xu, Sabrina Solanki, Peter McPartlan, and Brian Sato
, 2018
This paper estimates the causal effects of a first-year STEM learning communities program on both cognitive and noncognitive outcomes at a large public 4-year institution.


Christina S. Chhin, Katherine A. Taylor, and Wendy S. Wei
, 2018
Data showed that IES has not funded any direct replications that duplicate all aspects of the original study, but almost half of the funded grant applications can be considered conceptual replications that vary one or more dimensions of a prior study.


Okhee Lee
, 2018
As federal legislation requires that English language proficiency (ELP) standards are aligned with content standards, this article addresses issues and concerns in aligning ELP standards with content standards in English language arts, mathematics, and science.


Jordan Rickles, Jessica B. Heppen, Elaine Allensworth, Nicholas Sorensen, and Kirk Walters
, 2018
Researchers found no statistically significant differences in longer term outcomes between students in the online and face-to-face courses. Implications of these null findings are discussed.


Colleen M. Ganley, Casey E. George, Joseph R. Cimpian, Martha B. Makowski
, December 2017 
Researchers found that perceived gender bias against women emerges as the dominant predictor of the gender balance in college majors.


James P. Spillane, Megan Hopkins, Tracy M. Sweet
, December 2017
This article examines the relationship between teachers’ instructional ties and their beliefs about mathematics instruction in one school district working to transform its approach to elementary mathematics education. 


Susan A. Yoon, Sao-Ee Goh, Miyoung Park
, December 6, 2017
Results revealed needs in five areas of research: a need to diversify the knowledge domains within which research is conducted, more research on learning about system states, agreement on the essential features of complex systems content, greater focus on contextual factors that support learning including teacher learning, and a need for more comparative research.


Candace Walkington, Virginia Clinton, Pooja Shivraj
, November 2017 
Textual features that make problems more difficult to process appear to differentially negatively impact struggling students, while features that make language easier to process appear to differentially positively impact struggling students.


Rebecca L. Matz, Benjamin P. Koester, Stefano Fiorini, Galina Grom, Linda Shepard, Charles G. Stangor, Brad Weiner, Timothy A. McKay
, November 2017
Biology, chemistry, physics, accounting, and economics lecture courses regularly exhibit gendered performance differences that are statistically and materially significant, whereas lab courses in the same subjects do not.


Adam V. Maltese, Christina S. Cooper
, August 2017
The results reveal that although there is no singular pathway into STEM fields, self-driven interest is a large factor in persistence, especially for males, and females rely more heavily on support from others.


Brian R. Belland, Andrew E. Walker, Nam Ju Kim
, August 2017
Scaffolding has a consistently strong effect across student populations, STEM disciplines, and assessment levels, and a strong effect when used with most problem-centered instructional and educational levels.


Di Xu, Shanna Smith Jaggars
, July 2017
The findings indicate a robust negative impact of online course taking for both subjects.


Maisie L. Gholson, Charles E. Wilkes
, June 2017
This chapter reviews two strands of identity-based research in mathematics education related to Black children, exemplified by Martin (2000) and Nasir (2002).


Sarah Theule Lubienski, Emily K. Miller, and Evthokia Stephanie Saclarides
, November 2017 
Using data from a survey of doctoral students at one large institution, this study finds that men submitted and published more scholarly works than women across many fields, with differences largest in natural/biological sciences and engineering. 


David Blazar, Cynthia Pollard
, October 2017
Drawing on classroom observations and teacher surveys, researchers find that test preparation activities predict lower quality and less ambitious mathematics instruction in upper-elementary classrooms.


Nicole M. Joseph, Meseret Hailu, Denise Boston
, June 2017
This integrative review used critical race theory (CRT) and Black feminism as interpretive frames to explore factors that contribute to Black women’s and girls’ persistence in the mathematics pipeline and the role these factors play in shaping their academic outcomes.


Benjamin L. Wiggins, Sarah L. Eddy, Daniel Z. Grunspan, Alison J. Crowe
, May 2017
Researchers describe the results of a quasi-experimental study to test the apex of the ICAP framework (interactive, constructive, active, and passive) in this ecological classroom environment.


Sean Gehrke, Adrianna Kezar
, May 2017 
This study examines how involvement in four cross-institutional STEM faculty communities of practice is associated with local departmental and institutional change for faculty members belonging to these communities.


Lawrence Ingvarson, Glenn Rowley
, May 2017
This study investigated the relationship between policies related to the recruitment, selection, preparation, and certification of new teachers and (a) the quality of future teachers as measured by their mathematics content and pedagogy content knowledge and (b) student achievement in mathematics at the national level. 


Will Tyson, Josipa Roksa
, April 2017
This study examines how course grades and course rigor are associated with math attainment among students with similar eighth-grade standardized math test scores. 


Anne K. Morris, James Hiebert
, March 2017
Researchers investigated whether the content pre-service teachers studied in elementary teacher preparation mathematics courses was related to their performance on a mathematics lesson planning task 2 and 3 years after graduation. 


Laura M. Desimone, Kirsten Lee Hill
, March 2017
Researchers use data from a randomized controlled trial of a middle school science intervention to explore the causal mechanisms by which the intervention produced previously documented gains in student achievement.


Okhee Lee
, March 2017
This article focuses on how the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) treat “argument,” especially in Grades K–5, and the extent to which each set of standards is grounded in research literature, as claimed.


Cory Koedel, Diyi Li, Morgan S. Polikoff, Tenice Hardaway, Stephani L. Wrabel
, February 2017
Researchers estimate relative achievement effects of the four most commonly adopted elementary mathematics textbooks in the fall of 2008 and fall of 2009 in California.


Mary Kay Stein, Richard Correnti, Debra Moore, Jennifer Lin Russell, Katelynn Kelly
, January 2017
Researchers argue that large-scale, standards-based improvements in the teaching and learning of mathematics necessitate advances in theories regarding how teaching affects student learning and progress in how to measure instruction.


Alan H. Schoenfeld
, December 2016
The author begins by tracing the growth and change in research in mathematics education and its interdependence with research in education in general over much of the 20th century, with an emphasis on changes in research perspectives and methods and the philosophical/empirical/disciplinary approaches that underpin them. 


Marcia C. Linn, Libby Gerard, Camillia Matuk, Kevin W. McElhaney
, December 2016
This chapter focuses on how investigators from varied fields of inquiry who initially worked separately began to interact, eventually formed partnerships, and recently integrated their perspectives to strengthen science education.

: Are Teachers’ Implicit Cognitions Another Piece of the Puzzle?
Almut E. Thomas
, December 2016
Drawing on expectancy-value theory, this study investigated whether teachers’ implicit science-is-male stereotypes predict between-teacher variation in males’ and females’ motivational beliefs regarding physical science. 

: A By-Product of STEM College Culture?
Ebony O. McGee
, December 2016 
The researcher found that the 38 high-achieving Black and Latino/a STEM study participants, who attended institutions with racially hostile academic spaces, deployed an arsenal of strategies (e.g., stereotype management) to deflect stereotyping and other racial assaults (e.g., racial microaggressions), which are particularly prevalent in STEM fields. 


James Cowan, Dan Goldhaber, Kyle Hayes, Roddy Theobald
, November 2016
Researchers discuss public policies that contribute to teacher shortages in specific subjects (e.g., STEM and special education) and specific types of schools (e.g., disadvantaged) as well as potential solutions.

: A Sociological Analysis of Multimethod Data From Young Women Aged 10–16 to Explore Gendered Patterns of Post-16 Participation
Louise Archer, Julie Moote, Becky Francis, Jennifer DeWitt, Lucy Yeomans
, November 2016
Researchers draw on survey data from more than 13,000 year 11 (age 15/16) students and interviews with 70 students (who had been tracked from age 10 to 16), focusing in particular on seven girls who aspired to continue with physics post-16, discussing how the cultural arbitrary of physics requires these girls to be highly “exceptional,” undertaking considerable identity work and deployment of capital in order to “possibilize” a physics identity—an endeavor in which some girls are better positioned to be successful than others.


Jeremy Roschelle, Mingyu Feng, Robert F. Murphy, Craig A. Mason
, October 2016
In a randomized field trial with 2,850 seventh-grade mathematics students, researchers evaluated whether an educational technology intervention increased mathematics learning.

: Making Research Participation Instructionally Effective
Sherry A. Southerland, Ellen M. Granger, Roxanne Hughes, Patrick Enderle, Fengfeng Ke, Katrina Roseler, Yavuz Saka, Miray Tekkumru-Kisa
, October 2016
As current reform efforts in science place a premium on student sense making and participation in the practices of science, researchers use a close examination of 106 science teachers participating in Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) to identify, through structural equation modeling, the essential features in supporting teacher learning from these experiences.


Brian R. Belland, Andrew E. Walker, Nam Ju Kim, Mason Lefler
, October 2016
This review addresses the need for a comprehensive meta-analysis of research on scaffolding in STEM education by synthesizing the results of 144 experimental studies (333 outcomes) on the effects of computer-based scaffolding designed to assist the full range of STEM learners (primary through adult education) as they navigated ill-structured, problem-centered curricula.


Vaughan Prain, Brian Hand
, October 2016
Researchers claim that there are strong evidence-based reasons for viewing writing as a central but not sole resource for learning, drawing on both past and current research on writing as an epistemological tool and on their professional background in science education research, acknowledging its distinctive take on the use of writing for learning. 


June Ahn, Austin Beck, John Rice, Michelle Foster
, September 2016
Researchers present analyses from a researcher-practitioner partnership in the District of Columbia Public Schools, where the researchers are exploring the impact of educational software on students’ academic achievement.


Barbara King
, September 2016
This study uses nationally representative data from a recent cohort of college students to investigate thoroughly gender differences in STEM persistence. 


Ryan C. Svoboda, Christopher S. Rozek, Janet S. Hyde, Judith M. Harackiewicz, Mesmin Destin
, August 2016
This longitudinal study draws on identity-based and expectancy-value theories of motivation to explain the socioeconomic status (SES) and mathematics and science course-taking relationship. 

Mathematics Course Placements in California Middle Schools, 2003–2013
Thurston Domina, Paul Hanselman, NaYoung Hwang, Andrew McEachin
, July 2016 
Researchers consider the organizational processes that accompanied the curricular intensification of the proportion of California eighth graders enrolled in algebra or a more advanced course nearly doubling to 65% between 2003 and 2013.


Lina Shanley
, July 2016
Using a nationally representative longitudinal data set, this study compared various models of mathematics achievement growth on the basis of both practical utility and optimal statistical fit and explored relationships within and between early and later mathematics growth parameters. 


Mimi Engel, Amy Claessens, Tyler Watts, George Farkas
, June 2016
Analyzing data from two nationally representative kindergarten cohorts, researchers examine the mathematics content teachers cover in kindergarten.


F. Chris Curran, Ann T. Kellogg
, June 2016
Researchers present findings from the recently released Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2010–2011 that demonstrate significant gaps in science achievement in kindergarten and first grade by race/ethnicity.


Rachel Garrett, Guanglei Hong
, June 2016
Analyzing the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study–Kindergarten cohort data, researchers find that heterogeneous grouping or a combination of heterogeneous and homogeneous grouping under relatively adequate time allocation is optimal for enhancing teacher ratings of language minority kindergartners’ math performance, while using homogeneous grouping only is detrimental. 


Jennifer Gnagey, Stéphane Lavertu
, May 2016
This study is one of the first to estimate the impact of “inclusive” science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) high schools using student-level data. 


Hanna Gaspard, Anna-Lena Dicke, Barbara Flunger, Isabelle Häfner, Brigitte M. Brisson, Ulrich Trautwein, Benjamin Nagengast
, May 2016 
Through data from a cluster-randomized study in which a value intervention was successfully implemented in 82 ninth-grade math classrooms, researchers address how interventions on students’ STEM motivation in school affect motivation in subjects not targeted by the intervention.


Rebecca M. Callahan, Melissa H. Humphries
, April 2016 
Researchers employ multivariate methods to investigate immigrant college going by linguistic status using the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002.


Federick Ngo, Tatiana Melguizo
, March 2016
Researchers take advantage of heterogeneous placement policy in a large urban community college district in California to compare the effects of math remediation under different policy contexts.

: An Analysis of German Fourth- and Sixth-Grade Classrooms
Steffen Tröbst, Thilo Kleickmann, Kim Lange-Schubert, Anne Rothkopf, Kornelia Möller
, February 2016 
Researchers examined if changes in instructional practices accounted for differences in situational interest in science instruction and enduring individual interest in science between elementary and secondary school classrooms.

: A Mixed-Methods Study
David F. Feldon, Michelle A. Maher, Josipa Roksa, James Peugh
, February 2016 
Researchers offer evidence of a similar phenomenon to cumulative advantage, accounting for differential patterns of research skill development in graduate students over an academic year and explore differences in socialization that accompany diverging developmental trajectories. 

 : The Influence of Time, Peers, and Place
Luke Dauter, Bruce Fuller
, February 2016 
Researchers hypothesize that pupil mobility stems from the (a) student’s time in school and grade; (b) student’s race, class, and achievement relative to peers; (c) quality of schooling relative to nearby alternatives; and (4) proximity, abundance, and diversity of local school options. 

: How Workload and Curricular Affordances Shape STEM Faculty Decisions About Teaching and Learning
Matthew T. Hora
, January 2016
In this study the idea of the “problem space” from cognitive science is used to examine how faculty construct mental representations for the task of planning undergraduate courses. 


Jessaca Spybrook, Carl D. Westine, Joseph A. Taylor
, January 2016
This article provides empirical estimates of design parameters necessary for planning adequately powered cluster randomized trials (CRTs) focused on science achievement. 


Paul L. Morgan, George Farkas, Marianne M. Hillemeier, Steve Maczuga
, January 2016
Researchers examined the age of onset, over-time dynamics, and mechanisms underlying science achievement gaps in U.S. elementary and middle schools. 

: Opportunity Structures and Outcomes in Inclusive STEM-Focused High Schools
Lois Weis, Margaret Eisenhart, Kristin Cipollone, Amy E. Stich, Andrea B. Nikischer, Jarrod Hanson, Sarah Ohle Leibrandt, Carrie D. Allen, Rachel Dominguez
, December 2015 
Researchers present findings from a three-year comparative longitudinal and ethnographic study of how schools in two cities, Buffalo and Denver, have taken up STEM education reform, including the idea of “inclusive STEM-focused schools,” to address weaknesses in urban high schools with majority low-income and minority students. 

: How Do They Interact in Promoting Science Understanding?
Jasmin Decristan, Eckhard Klieme, Mareike Kunter, Jan Hochweber, Gerhard Büttner, Benjamin Fauth, A. Lena Hondrich, Svenja Rieser, Silke Hertel, Ilonca Hardy
, December 2015
Researchers examine the interplay between curriculum-embedded formative assessment—a well-known teaching practice—and general features of classroom process quality (i.e., cognitive activation, supportive climate, classroom management) and their combined effect on elementary school students’ understanding of the scientific concepts of floating and sinking.

: An International Perspective
William H. Schmidt, Nathan A. Burroughs, Pablo Zoido, Richard T. Houang
, October 2015
In this paper, student-level indicators of opportunity to learn (OTL) included in the 2012 Programme for International Student Assessment are used to explore the joint relationship of OTL and socioeconomic status (SES) to student mathematics literacy. 


Xueli Wang
, September 2015
This study examines the effect of beginning at a community college on baccalaureate success in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. 

: Trends and Predictors
David M. Quinn, North Cooc
, August 2015
With research on science achievement disparities by gender and race/ethnicity often neglecting the beginning of the pipeline in the early grades, researchers address this limitation using nationally representative data following students from Grades 3 to 8. 


Shaun M. Dougherty, Joshua S. Goodman, Darryl V. Hill, Erica G. Litke, Lindsay C. Page
, May 2015
Researchers highlight a collaboration to investigate one district’s effort to increase middle school algebra course-taking.


David F. Feldon, Michelle A. Maher, Melissa Hurst, Briana Timmerman
, April 2015
This mixed-method study investigates agreement between student mentees’ and their faculty mentors’ perceptions of the students’ developing research knowledge and skills in STEM. 

: Reviving Science Education for Civic Ends
John L. Rudolph
, December 2014 
This article revisits John Dewey’s now-well-known address “Science as Subject-Matter and as Method” and examines the development of science education in the United States in the years since that address.


Dermot F. Donnelly, Marcia C. Linn Sten Ludvigsen
, December 2014
The National Science Foundation–sponsored report Fostering Learning in the Networked World called for “a common, open platform to support communities of developers and learners in ways that enable both to take advantage of advances in the learning sciences”; we review research on science inquiry learning environments (ILEs) to characterize current platforms. 

: A Longitudinal Case Study of America’s Chemistry Teachers
Gregory T. Rushton, Herman E. Ray, Brett A. Criswell, Samuel J. Polizzi, Clyde J. Bearss, Nicholas Levelsmier, Himanshu Chhita, Mary Kirchhoff
, November 2014 
Researchers perform a longitudinal case study of U.S. public school chemistry teachers to illustrate a diffusion of responsibility within the STEM community regarding who is responsible for the teacher workforce. 

: Relations Between Early Mathematics Knowledge and High School Achievement
Tyler W. Watts, Greg J. Duncan, Robert S. Siegler, Pamela E. Davis-Kean
, October 2014
Researchers find that preschool mathematics ability predicts mathematics achievement through age 15, even after accounting for early reading, cognitive skills, and family and child characteristics.


T. Jared Robinson, Lane Fischer, David Wiley, John Hilton, III
, October 2014
The purpose of this quantitative study is to analyze whether the adoption of open science textbooks significantly affects science learning outcomes for secondary students in earth systems, chemistry, and physics.

: 1968–2009
Robert N. Ronau, Christopher R. Rakes, Sarah B. Bush, Shannon O. Driskell, Margaret L. Niess, David K. Pugalee
, October 2014 
We examined 480 dissertations on the use of technology in mathematics education and developed a Quality Framework (QF) that provided structure to consistently define and measure quality.


Andrew D. Plunk, William F. Tate, Laura J. Bierut, Richard A. Grucza
, June 2014
Using logistic regression with Census and American Community Survey (ACS) data (  = 2,892,444), researchers modeled mathematics and science course graduation requirement (CGR) exposure on (a) high school dropout, (b) beginning college, and (c) obtaining any college degree. 


Corey Drake, Tonia J. Land, Andrew M. Tyminski
, April 2014
Building on the work of Ball and Cohen and that of Davis and Krajcik, as well as more recent research related to teacher learning from and about curriculum materials, researchers seek to answer the question, How can prospective teachers (PTs) learn to read and use educative curriculum materials in ways that support them in acquiring the knowledge needed for teaching?


Lorraine M. McDonnell, M. Stephen Weatherford
, December 2013
This article draws on theories of political and policy learning and interviews with major participants to examine the role that the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) supporters have played in developing and implementing the standards, supporters’ reasons for mobilizing, and the counterarguments and strategies of recently emerging opposition groups.

: Motivation, High School Learning, and Postsecondary Context of Support
Xueli Wang
, October 2013 
This study draws upon social cognitive career theory and higher education literature to test a conceptual framework for understanding the entrance into science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors by recent high school graduates attending 4-year institutions. 


Philip M. Sadler, Gerhard Sonnert, Harold P. Coyle, Nancy Cook-Smith, Jaimie L. Miller
, October 2013
This study examines the relationship between teacher knowledge and student learning for 9,556 students of 181 middle school physical science teachers.

: Teaching Critical Mathematics in a Remedial Secondary Classroom
Andrew Brantlinger
, October 2013 
The researcher presents results from a practitioner research study of his own teaching of critical mathematics (CM) to low-income students of color in a U.S. context. 


Jason G. Hill, Ben Dalton
, October 2013
This study investigates the distribution of math teachers with a major or certification in math using data from the National Center for Education Statistics’ High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:09).


Kristin F. Butcher, Mary G. Visher
, September 2013
This study uses random assignment to investigate the impact of a “light-touch” intervention, where an individual visited math classes a few times during the semester, for a few minutes each time, to inform students about available services.


Janet M. Dubinsky, Gillian Roehrig, Sashank Varma
, August 2013 
Researchers argue that the neurobiology of learning, and in particular the core concept of  , have the potential to directly transform teacher preparation and professional development, and ultimately to affect how students think about their own learning. 

: The Impact of Undergraduate Research Programs
M. Kevin Eagan, Jr., Sylvia Hurtado, Mitchell J. Chang, Gina A. Garcia, Felisha A. Herrera, Juan C. Garibay
, August 2013 
Researchers’ findings indicate that participation in an undergraduate research program significantly improved students’ probability of indicating plans to enroll in a STEM graduate program.


Okhee Lee, Helen Quinn, Guadalupe Valdés
, May 2013
This article addresses language demands and opportunities that are embedded in the science and engineering practices delineated in “A Framework for K–12 Science Education,” released by the National Research Council (2011).


Liliana M. Garces
, April 2013 
This study examines the effects of affirmative action bans in four states (California, Florida, Texas, and Washington) on the enrollment of underrepresented students of color within six different graduate fields of study: the natural sciences, engineering, social sciences, business, education, and humanities.

: Learning Lessons From Research on Diversity in STEM Fields
Shirley M. Malcom, Lindsey E. Malcom-Piqueux
, April 2013
Researchers argue that social scientists ought to look to the vast STEM education research literature to begin the task of empirically investigating the questions raised in the   case. 


Roslyn Arlin Mickelson, Martha Cecilia Bottia, Richard Lambert
, March 2013
This metaregression analysis reviewed the social science literature published in the past 20 years on the relationship between mathematics outcomes and the racial composition of the K–12 schools students attend. 


Jeffrey Grigg, Kimberle A. Kelly, Adam Gamoran, Geoffrey D. Borman
, March 2013
Researchers examine classroom observations from a 3-year large-scale randomized trial in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) to investigate the extent to which a professional development initiative in inquiry science influenced teaching practices in in 4th and 5th grade classrooms in 73 schools.


Angela Calabrese Barton, Hosun Kang, Edna Tan, Tara B. O’Neill, Juanita Bautista-Guerra, Caitlin Brecklin
, February 2013 
This longitudinal ethnographic study traces the identity work that girls from nondominant backgrounds do as they engage in science-related activities across school, club, and home during the middle school years. 

: A Review of the State of the Field
Shuchi Grover, Roy Pea
, January 2013 
This article frames the current state of discourse on computational thinking in K–12 education by examining mostly recently published academic literature that uses Jeannette Wing’s article as a springboard, identifies gaps in research, and articulates priorities for future inquiries.


Catherine Riegle-Crumb, Barbara King, Eric Grodsky, Chandra Muller
, December 2012 
This article investigates the empirical basis for often-repeated arguments that gender differences in entrance into science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors are largely explained by disparities in prior achievement. 


Richard M. Ingersoll, Henry May
, December 2012
This study examines the magnitude, destinations, and determinants of mathematics and science teacher turnover. 

: How Families Shape Children’s Engagement and Identification With Science
Louise Archer, Jennifer DeWitt, Jonathan Osborne, Justin Dillon, Beatrice Willis, Billy Wong
, October 2012 
Drawing on the conceptual framework of Bourdieu, this article explores how the interplay of family habitus and capital can make science aspirations more “thinkable” for some (notably middle-class) children than others.


Erin Marie Furtak, Tina Seidel, Heidi Iverson, Derek C. Briggs
, September 2012
This meta-analysis introduces a framework for inquiry-based teaching that distinguishes between cognitive features of the activity and degree of guidance given to students. 


Jaekyung Lee, Todd Reeves
, June 2012
This study examines the impact of high-stakes school accountability, capacity, and resources under NCLB on reading and math achievement outcomes through comparative interrupted time-series analyses of 1990–2009 NAEP state assessment data. 

: Toward a Theory of Teaching
Paola Sztajn, Jere Confrey, P. Holt Wilson, Cynthia Edgington
, June 2012
Researchers propose a theoretical connection between research on learning and research on teaching through recent research on students’ learning trajectories (LTs). 

: The Perspectives of Exemplary African American Teachers
Jianzhong Xu, Linda T. Coats, Mary L. Davidson
, February 2012 
Researchers argue both the urgency and the promise of establishing a constructive conversation among different bodies of research, including science interest, sociocultural studies in science education, and culturally relevant teaching. 


Rebecca M. Schneider, Kellie Plasman
, December 2011
This review examines the research on science teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) in order to refine ideas about science teacher learning progressions and how to support them. 


Brian A. Nosek, Frederick L. Smyth
, October 2011 
Researchers examined implicit math attitudes and stereotypes among a heterogeneous sample of 5,139 participants. 


Libby F. Gerard, Keisha Varma, Stephanie B. Corliss, Marcia C. Linn
, September 2011
Researchers’ findings suggest that professional development programs that engaged teachers in a comprehensive, constructivist-oriented learning process and were sustained beyond 1 year significantly improved students’ inquiry learning experiences in K–12 science classrooms. 

: Teaching and Learning Impacts of Reading Apprenticeship Professional Development
Cynthia L. Greenleaf, Cindy Litman, Thomas L. Hanson, Rachel Rosen, Christy K. Boscardin, Joan Herman, Steven A. Schneider, Sarah Madden, Barbara Jones
, June 2011 
This study examined the effects of professional development integrating academic literacy and biology instruction on science teachers’ instructional practices and students’ achievement in science and literacy. 


Paul Cobb, Kara Jackson
, May 2011
The authors comment on Porter, McMaken, Hwang, and Yang’s recent analysis of the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics by critiquing their measures of the focus of the standards and the absence of an assessment of coherence. 


P. Wesley Schultz, Paul R. Hernandez, Anna Woodcock, Mica Estrada, Randie C. Chance, Maria Aguilar, Richard T. Serpe
, March 2011
This study reports results from a longitudinal study of students supported by a national National Institutes of Health–funded minority training program, and a propensity score matched control. 

: Three Large-Scale Studies
Jeremy Roschelle, Nicole Shechtman, Deborah Tatar, Stephen Hegedus, Bill Hopkins, Susan Empson, Jennifer Knudsen, Lawrence P. Gallagher
, December 2010 
The authors present three studies (two randomized controlled experiments and one embedded quasi-experiment) designed to evaluate the impact of replacement units targeting student learning of advanced middle school mathematics. 

: Examining Disparities in College Major by Gender and Race/Ethnicity
Catherine Riegle-Crumb, Barbara King
, December 2010 
The authors analyze national data on recent college matriculants to investigate gender and racial/ethnic disparities in STEM fields, with an eye toward the role of academic preparation and attitudes in shaping such disparities. 


Mary Kay Stein, Julia H. Kaufman
, September 2010 
This article begins to unravel the question, “What curricular materials work best under what kinds of conditions?” The authors address this question from the point of view of teachers and their ability to implement mathematics curricula that place varying demands and provide varying levels of support for their learning. 


Andy R. Cavagnetto
, September 2010
This study of 54 articles from the research literature examines how argument interventions promote scientific literacy. 


Victoria M. Hand
, March 2010
The researcher examined how the teacher and students in a low-track mathematics classroom jointly constructed opposition through their classroom interactions.


Terrence E. Murphy, Monica Gaughan, Robert Hume, S. Gordon Moore, Jr.
, March 2010
Researchers evaluate the association of a summer bridge program with the graduation rate of underrepresented minority (URM) students at a selective technical university. 

Our websites may use cookies to personalize and enhance your experience. By continuing without changing your cookie settings, you agree to this collection. For more information, please see our University Websites Privacy Notice .

Office of Undergraduate Research

Stem seminar series.

STEM-Series

The Office of Undergraduate Research and the McNair Scholars Program have joined forces to organize a lunchtime STEM research seminar series, which enters its tenth academic year in 2022-23.

To maximize student access, the STEM Seminar Series will take place virtually during the Fall 2022 semester. Two virtual panel discussions are planned. We invite interested students to join us in learning about the breadth of research being conducted by outstanding faculty across many STEM disciplines.

STEM Research Presented by Undergraduate Researchers Wednesday, November 30, 2022 12:20 – 1:10pm (virtual presentation)

Kasidy Quiles ’23 (Allied Health Sciences, CAHNR) SCARF-1 Dysregulation Leads to the Development of Lupus Research Advisor: Zaida Ramirez-Ortiz, Assistant Professor, Medicine, UMass Chan Medical School

Fraser McGurk ’25 (Molecular & Cell Biology, CLAS) Role of CD13 in Macrophage Giant Cell Fusion Research Advisor: Mallika Ghosh, Assistant Professor, Cell Biology, UConn Health

WebEx link: https://uconn-cmr.webex.com/uconn-cmr/j.php?MTID=m09e3aaa0a9e30fcfdcdc3e638c9e188e Meeting number: 2624 697 8384 Password: jcE4m86hpcE Join by video system Dial [email protected] You can also dial 173.243.2.68 and enter your meeting number. Join by phone +1-415-655-0002 US Toll Access code: 2624 697 8384

The series is open to all undergraduate and graduate students and is designed especially for students conducting (or interested in conducting) undergraduate STEM research.

If you require an accommodation to participate in a STEM Seminar event, please contact Jodi Eskin at 860-486-7939 or [email protected] at least 5 business days prior to the seminar.

For more information, contact:

Jodi Eskin
Program Administrator, Office of Undergraduate Research
(860) 486-7939 –
Renée Trueman, Ph.D.
Program Coordinator, McNair Programs
(860) 486-5146 –

Past STEM Seminars

Fall 2022 Exploring Interdisciplinary Research at the Eversource Energy Center Wednesday, September 28, 2022 12:20 – 1:10pm (virtual presentation)

Fei Miao, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Computer Science and Engineering

Anita Morzillo, Ph.D. Associate Professor, Natural Resources and the Environment

Malaquìas Peña Mendez, Ph.D. Associate Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering

Spring 2022 STEM Research Presented by Undergraduate Researchers Wednesday, April 13, 2022 12:20pm – 1:10pm (virtual presentations)

Bethlehem “Betty” Abebe ’22 (Structural Biology and Biophysics, CLAS) More Than Numbers: Understanding the Importance of Application-Based Research in Both Education and Medicinal Chemistry Undergraduate Researcher with Professor Marcy Balunas, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Division of Medicinal Chemistry Undergraduate Researcher with Professor Todd Campbell, Curriculum and Instruction

Lauren Rudin ’22 (Exercise Science, CAHNR) Content Analysis of Public Instagram Posts about Pelvic Floor Disorders and Pelvic Floor Muscle Training in Pregnancy Undergraduate Researcher with Professor Molly Waring, Allied Health Sciences

Exploring Physics Research Wednesday, February 16, 2022 12:20pm – 1:10pm (virtual panel discussion)

Daniel Anglés-Alcázar, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Physics & Associate Research Scientist, Flatiron Institute

Cara Battersby, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Physics

Menka Jain, Ph.D. Associate Professor, Physics & Institute of Materials Science

Fall 2021 Exploring Geoscience Research Wednesday, December 1, 2021 12:20pm – 1:10pm (virtual panel discussion)

Ran Feng, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Geosciences

Clay Tabor, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Geoscience

Interdisciplinary Engineering Research Wednesday, September 29, 2021 12:20pm – 1:10pm (virtual panel discussion)

Derek Aguiar, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Computer Science and Engineering

Necmi Biyikli, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering

Ramesh Malla, Ph.D. Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering

Spring 2021 Maximizing Research Experiences Wednesday, February 10, 2021 12:20pm – 1:10pm (virtual panel discussion)

Alfredo Angeles-Boza, Ph.D. Associate Professor, Chemistry

Kristen Govoni, Ph.D. Associate Professor, Animal Science Faculty Director, WiMSE Learning Community

Rob Huggins, Ph.D. Assistant Research Professor, Kinesiology President of Research & Athlete Performance and Safety, Korey Stringer Institute

Pathways Into STEM Research Wednesday, March 17, 2021 12:20pm – 1:10pm (virtual panel discussion)

Robert Bagchi, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Aoife Heaslip, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Molecular and Cell Biology

Till Frank, Ph.D. Associate Professor, Psychological Sciences

Fall 2020 Virtual Projects Across STEM  Wednesday, September 30, 2020 12:20pm – 1:10pm (virtual panel discussion)

Ann Bucklin, Ph.D. Professor, Marine Sciences

Benjamin Fuller, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Computer Science and Engineering

Jasna Jankovic, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Materials Science and Engineering

The Value of Virtual Research Experiences: A Conversation with UConn Undergrads  Tuesday, December 1, 2020 12:30pm – 1:30pm (virtual panel discussion)

Differential Gene Expression of the American Beech in Response to Toxic Soils Allyson Derry ’21 (Diagnostic Genetic Sciences, CAHNR) Undergraduate Researcher, Wegrzyn Lab , Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

When Problems Become Solutions: Adapting Acvr1 Mutant Fibro/adipogenic Progenitors (FAPs) to Repair Bone Fractures Mehreen Pasha ’22 (Molecular and Cell Biology, CLAS) Undergraduate Researcher, Goldhamer Lab, Molecular and Cell Biology

Mechanism Behind Apicoplast Inheritance in Human Pathogen Toxoplasma gondii Valeria Sarmiento, Dec. ’20 (Molecular and Cell Biology & IMJR: Global Health and Nutrition, CLAS) Undergraduate Researcher, Heaslip Lab , Molecular and Cell Biology

Spring 2020

Wednesday, February 12, 2020 Embodied Assessments and Interventions for Children with Developmental Disabilities Sudha Srinivasan, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Department of Kinesiology

Wednesday, March 11, 2020 Science behind Human Nutrition: Its Role in Metabolic Disease Prevention Ji-Young Lee, Ph.D. Department Head and Professor, Department of Nutritional Sciences

Wednesday, April 8, 2020 ( Cancelled due to COVID-19 ) Development of a DNA Crosslinked Nanocapsule for Sensing Applications Halle Barber ’20 (Chemistry & Molecular and Cell Biology) Undergraduate researcher, Rouge Lab , Chemistry

Behavioral and Electrophysiological Detection of Tinnitus in CBA/CaJ Mice Grace Nichols ’20 (Molecular and Cell Biology) Undergraduate researcher, Oliver Lab , UConn Health

Wednesday, September 18, 2019  Statistics – The Roots under the STEM: How Understanding Data Informs and Grows our Future Ofer Harel, Ph.D. Professor, Department of Statistics

Wednesday, October 9, 2019  Interaction Driven Molecule Discovery from Host-Microbe Symbioses Marcy J. Balunas, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Medicinal Chemistry, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences

Wednesday, November 6, 2019  Probing Biological Materials through Computation Anna Tarakanova, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Departments of Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering

Spring 2019

Wednesday, September 19, 2018  Vaccine Development: From Avian Influenza to Zika (and “Disease X”) Paulo H. Verardi, Ph.D. Associate Professor, Department of Pathobiology and Veterinary Science

Wednesday, March 6, 2019 Birds, Bacteria and Bioinformatics: Why Evolutionary Biology is the Best Sarah Hird, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Department of Molecular and Cell Biology

Wednesday, April 3, 2019 Biomaterials to Treat Growth Plate Injury Natasha Patel ’19 (Molecular and Cell Biology) Undergraduate researcher, Kuhn Lab , Biomedical Engineering Characterization of Hemocyte Membrane Proteins of the Hawaiian Bobtail Squid Sarah Beckett Cleveland ’19 (Biological Sciences) Undergraduate researcher, Nyholm Lab , Molecular and Cell Biology

Wednesday, September 19, 2018  From Antibiotics to CO 2 Reduction: The Pivotal Role of Chemistry in Our Lives Alfredo Angeles-Boza, Ph.D. Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry

Wednesday, October 10, 2018  Functional Materials: Physical Properties and Applications Menka Jain, Ph.D. Associate Professor, Department of Physics and Institute of Materials Science

Wednesday, November 7, 2018  Food Nanotechnology and Applications Yangchao Luo, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Department of Nutritional Sciences

Spring 2018

Wednesday, March 21, 2018 – Cancelled due to weather Food Nanotechnology and Applications Yangchao Luo, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Department of Nutritional Sciences Dietary Bioactives and Prevention of Chronic Metabolic Disorders

Christopher Blesso, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Department of Nutritional Sciences

Monday, March 26, 2018  Brownfield Redevelopment of Sustainable Urban Environment Maria Chrysochoou, Ph.D. Associate Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Wednesday, April 4, 2018 Bacteria as an Alternative Food Source for Termite Gut Protists Courtney Wallace ’18 (Molecular and Cell Biology) Undergraduate researcher, Gage Lab , Molecular and Cell Biology Illuminating New Approaches to the Synthesis of Fluorine Containing Compounds Vincent Pistritto ’18 (Chemistry & Music) Undergraduate researcher, Leadbeater Lab , Chemistry

Fall 2017 Monday, September 18, 2017 Tracing the cosmic shutdown of star formation in massive galaxies Katherine E. Whitaker, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Department of Physics

Monday, October 16, 2017 Exploring cell type diversity in embryonic development through single-cell analysis Matthew Eastman, Ph.D. Candidate Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Physiology and Neurobiology

Monday, November 13, 2017 Engineering solutions to community air pollution concerns Kristina M. Wagstrom, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

Spring 2017 Monday, February 6, 2017 Mechanical characterization of materials at small length scales Seok-Woo Lee, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Department of Materials Science and Engineering

Monday, March 6, 2017 Towards virtual cartilage and other life philosophies David M. Pierce, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Departments of Mechanical Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, and Mathematics

Monday, April 17, 2017 B-1 cell generation in transgenic mouse model of sickle cell disease Christina Cotte ’17 (Molecular and Cell Biology & Pathobiology) Undergraduate researcher, Szczepanek Lab, Pathobiology and Veterinary Science A better future in mind: Collybistin as a protein regulator of inhibitory postsynapse strength John Bear, Jr. ’17 (Physiology and Neurobiology & Molecular and Cell Biology; Applied Mathematics minor) Undergraduate researcher, de Blas Lab , Physiology and Neurobiology

Fall 2016 Monday, October 17, 2016 The microbiome in health and disease: Using a fly model to understand host-microbe interactions Nichole Broderick, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Department of Molecular and Cell Biology

Monday, November 14, 2016 (cancelled) Towards virtual cartilage and other life philosophies David M. Pierce, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Departments of Mechanical Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, and Mathematics

Spring 2016 Wednesday, February 17, 2016 Using mouse models to study genetic liver diseases Li Wang, Ph.D. Professor, Department of Physiology and Neurobiology

Wednesday, March 23, 2016 Health benefits of cranberries in human apolipoprotein AI transgenic mice on an atherogenic diet Christian Caceres ’17 (Nutritional Sciences) Undergraduate researcher, Lee Lab , Nutritional Sciences The Straw Sandals Project: Origins and exploration Allison Hillmon ’16 (Physiology and Neurobiology) Undergraduate researcher, Hightower Lab , Molecular and Cell Biology

Wednesday, April 20, 2016 Metal-semiconductor nanomaterials and their application as photocatalysts Gabriella Reggiano ’17 (Chemistry) Undergraduate researcher, Zhao Lab , Chemistry Tipping the scale: AK301’s effect on the mitosis to apoptosis transition Michael Bond ’16 (Molecular and Cell Biology & Chemical Biology) Undergraduate researcher, Giardina Lab , Molecular and Cell Biology

Fall 2015 Wednesday, September 16, 2015 Brain development and optimal outcomes from Autism Spectrum Disorder Inge-Marie Eigsti, Ph.D. Associate Professor, Department of Psychological Sciences

Wednesday, October 14, 2015 The evolutionary story of silent DNA in the centromeres of Peromyscus mice Brendan Smalec ’16 (Molecular and Cell Biology & Art History) Undergraduate researcher, O’Neill Lab , Molecular and Cell Biology Ensemble-based virtual screening of the human glycine receptor alpha-3 subtype: A predictive tool for discovering compounds that may elicit THC-like analgesic responses in vivo Andrew Maxwell ’17 (Structural Biology and Biophysics) Undergraduate researcher, Pei Tang Lab , Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics & Anesthesiology TECBio REU , University of Pittsburgh: Simulation and Visualization of Biological Systems at Multiple Scales

Wednesday, November 18, 2015 Monitoring markers of stress and performance in athletes Robert Huggins, Ph.D., ATC, LAT Postdoctoral Fellow Vice President of Research and Elite Athlete Health and Performance, Korey Stringer Institute

Summer 2015 Wednesday, June 10, 2015 Electronic transport phenomena in topological insulator nanomaterials Luis Jauregui, Ph.D. Departmental Fellow, Department of Physics, Harvard University

Wednesday, June 17, 2015 Lithiated mesoporous metal oxides as solid electrolytes in Lithium ion batteries Jacqueline Cloud, Ph.D. Postdoctoral Fellow, Institute of Materials Science (Suib research group)

Wednesday, June 24, 2015 Designing shape memory materials for damping, actuation, and energy applications [abstract] Ying Chen, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Wednesday, July 15, 2015 Improving proteomic technologies using motifs Sean Congdon Ph.D. student, Department of Physiology and Neurobiology ( Schwartz Lab )

Spring 2015 Thursday, January 29, 2015 The global cestode database: What’s in, what’s not, and what’s new Virgilio Lopez III ’16 (Molecular and Cell Biology) Nicholas Arisco ’16 (Biological Sciences) Undergraduate researchers, Caira Lab , Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Assessing antidepressants with animal models of effort-related motivation in depression Margaret Rowland ’15 (Psychology & Physiology and Neurobiology) Undergraduate researcher, Salamone Lab , Psychology

Thursday, February 26, 2015 Here’s looking at you, kid: What eye movements tell us about the language of children with autism Letitia Naigles, Ph.D. Professor, Department of Psychology

Thursday, March 26, 2014 Agrivida, Inc.: Biotechnology for feed, fuel, and industrial enzymes Kit Bonin, Ph.D. Senior Biochemist and Plant Analysis Lead, Agrivida, Inc. (A UConn Technology Incubator Program company)

Fall 2014 Wednesday, September 24, 2014 On fieldwork, frogs, and genomes John Malone, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Department of Molecular and Cell Biology

Wednesday, October 22, 2014 Choosing a career in engineering and academia Leila Ladani, Ph.D. Associate Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering

Wednesday, November 19, 2014 Research “motif”ations in the Schwartz lab Daniel Schwartz, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Department of Physiology and Neurobiology

Summer 2014 Wednesday, June 11, 2014 Transition metal catalyzed transformations of strained heterocycles Christian Malapit Ph.D. student, Department of Chemistry (Howell research group)

Wednesday, June 25, 2014 Cellular neurophysiology of hypothalamic neural circuits that govern sleeping and feeding Alexander Jackson, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Department of Physiology and Neurobiology

Wednesday, July 9, 2014 The neurobiological bases of language: Insights from molecular genetics and neurophysiology Sergey Kornilov Ph.D. student and IGERT associate, Department of Psychology

Language plasticity graduate training program (IGERT): Insights from a basic neuroscientist R. Holly Fitch, Ph.D. Professor, Department of Psychology

Wednesday, July 16, 2014 Spanning the boundary between science and policy: The role of boundary organizations Christine Kirchhoff, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Connecting basic and translational science – It’s a matter of good taste! Valerie Duffy, Ph.D. Professor, Departments of Allied Health Sciences and Nutritional Sciences

Spring 2014 Wednesday, February 12, 2014 Cell dynamics in genetic and infectious diseases Ken Campellone, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Department of Molecular and Cell Biology

Tuesday, March 4, 2014 Part 1: How the mother’s diet during gestation affects offspring growth Part 2: Mechanisms of Staphylococcus Aureus infection of the bovine mammary gland Kristen Govoni, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Department of Animal Science

Wednesday, April 2, 2014 Nanoscience: Little knowledge makes a BIG impact (in bio/pharm/medicine, computing, engineering, and our environment) Bryan Huey, Ph.D. Associate Professor, Department of Materials Science and Engineering

Functions of stem cells in the adult brain Joanne Conover, Ph.D. Associate Professor, Department of Physiology and Neurobiology

Fall 2013 Friday, October 4, 2013 EGFR signaling stimulates anabolic changes in articular cartilage J.B. Shepard Ph.D. student, Skeletal, Craniofacial, and Oral Biology, UConn Health Center (Dealy research group)

Wednesday, November 6, 2013 (Part A) Olefin cross-metathesis of α-alkylidene lactones for the rapid assembly of β-lactones as inhibitors of the Fatty Acid Synthase (FAS): lessons from nocardiolactone (Part B) Synthesis of sulfatides and examination of their roles in the NKT cells activation in immunomodulation Kaddy Camara Ph.D. student, Chemistry, UConn-Storrs (Howell research group)

Monday, December 2, 2013 Development of vitamin D3 analogues as selective hedgehog signaling inhibitors Albert DeBerardinis, Ph.D. Postdoctoral fellow, Pharmaceutical Sciences, UConn-Storrs (Hadden research group)

Summer 2013 Wednesday, June 12, 2013 Nanomaterials and technologies for lab-scale environmental applications Homer Genuino Ph.D. student, Department of Chemistry (Suib research group)

Wednesday, June 19, 2013 The lowdown on high temperature superconductivity Barrett Wells, Ph.D. Professor, Department of Physics

Wednesday, June 26, 2013 It’s easy being green: Clean, fast, easy approaches to preparative chemistry Nicholas Leadbeater, Ph.D. Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry

Wednesday, July 24, 2013 Modeling human genetic cartilage disorders using induced pluripotent stem cells Sara Patterson, Ph.D. Postdoctoral fellow, Reconstructive Sciences, UConn Health Center/Center for Regenerative Medicine and Skeletal Development

Get the Reddit app

For students from the Philippines, by students from the Philippines. For strand, course, and admission questions, please post on r/CollegeAdmissionsPH

NEED SUGGESTIONS!! RESEARCH TOPIC/QUESTION RELATED TO STEM/ONLINE CLASSES/STUDENTS <3

Hello po!! If you see this and you have suggestions po for research topic na related to STEM pls leave suggestions po! Thank you so much, I really need help since yung groupmates ko di nagrerespond SAKET so I'm really doing my best (and yes tatanggalin ko sila if wala silang ambag) and I'm in need po of more suggestions since imo yung mga naging ideas ko parang same din sa iba kaya need ko pa po ng help!!

Wish me luck din po! This is our first research and honestly hindi pa po ganon ka broad ang understanding ko when it comes to practical research so if you have advices po I am very grateful!!

Thank you again!! P.S. I'm not sure if need ko imention pero Qualitative po yung type of research namin!! Thank you so much!!

  • Request a Demo

Defined Learning (formerly Defined STEM) Homepage

Educators Blog

STEM Education

The Top 10 PBL & STEM Education News Articles of 2022

By Maggie O'Brien,

This year marked the first return to normal schooling since the pandemic with most districts back to in-person learning. It continued to be a challenging time for educators, but through those challenges, inspiration, and dedication prevailed. 

Below are the top news stories that highlight the exceptional work educators have done in Project-Based Learning (PBL) and STEM education this year. Topics range from PBL best practices to social-emotional learning, and equity in STEM education. 

These articles support Defined's mission of assisting students in developing the critical 21st-century skills they need to succeed in college, career, and life.       

Top 10 STEM Education & PBL News Stories:   

A Recipe for Interdisciplinary Project-Based Learning 

Edutopia 

Successfully integrating project-based learning across multiple classes requires careful coordination of learning outcomes and the teaching workload. Read more …

The Path to a Career Could Start in Middle School

Hechinger Report

A growing number of school districts are starting career education early, with the goal of widening kids’ horizons, not boxing them in. Read more...

How Systems And Regions Can Encourage More And Better Project-Based Learning

Four recent studies show that rigorous project-based learning has positive effects on student outcomes across grades and subjects and across racial and socioeconomic backgrounds and reading and language proficiency levels. Read more...

3 Reasons Why Performance Tasks are the Best School Activities

The Educators Blog

Before the new learning can begin, time must be taken to establish expectations, evaluate prior knowledge, and review content and concepts. Each of these activities serves an important purpose, but they are often conducted separately and without connection to one another.  Performance tasks are a great solution for integrating these important start-of-the-year activities into a cohesive, engaging experience for students. Read more...

Project-Based Learning is Great, But Students Still Need to Learn Something

Harvard Graduate School of Education

After studying hundreds of teachers from around the world who were using project-based learning (PBL) in their classrooms,  Zachary Herrmann , executive director of the Center for Professional Learning at the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education, learned a lot about what works and what doesn’t. Here are t hree ways that teachers manage to do both successfully. Read more...

The Biggest Problem with Mastery-Based Learning and How to Solve It  

ASCD | Jon Bergmann

Having Students Learn by Teaching

When high school students present a lesson, they actively engage in learning and grow their research, organizational, and speaking skills. Read more...

3 Ways to Make Sure Tomorrow’s Workforce is Future-Proof

Fast Company        

“Tomorrow’s workforce will have to continuously evolve to survive. It’s in our best interest if we do the work necessary to future-proof them today.” Read more...

The Benefits of Online vs In-Person Professional Learning

As we think about how to choose the best and most optimal types of professional learning in the future, We ought to consider deeply the type of learning we want and what approach is most appropriate. Read more...

Meeting SEL Through PBL 

There are many benefits for SEL when we have students engage in project-based learning. And not only is PBL an authentic, real-world learning experience, but it also creates more opportunities for students to develop SEL skills that are highly beneficial for their future. Read more...

Subscribe

Subscribe to the #1 PBL Blog!

Receive new articles in the world of Project Based Learning, STEM/STEAM, and College & Career Readiness. 

  • Project-Based Learning (368)
  • STEM/STEAM (170)
  • College and Career Readiness (54)
  • Professional Learning (52)
  • Career-Connected Learning (36)
  • Social and Emotional Learning (35)
  • Computer Science (16)
  • Assessment (6)
  • Highlights (1)

Subscribe to our blog

' class=

Learning Space

Teachable Moments

Stay Connected

twitter icon

Edu News | January 26, 2022

24 stem lessons you can quickly deploy in the classroom.

Collage of images representing lessons in the Quick and Easy collection.

Calling all teachers pressed for time, substitutes looking for classroom activities that don't require a lot of prep, and others hoping to keep students learning in especially chaotic times: We've got a new collection of lessons and activities that you can quickly deploy.

Read on to explore our collection of Quick and Easy STEM lessons and student activities , organized by grade band. Get everything you need to guide students through standards-aligned lessons featuring connections to real NASA missions and science as well as links to student projects, which can be led by teachers or assigned as independent activities.

Grades 9-12

Explore More

research topics for stem students 2022

Make a Paper Mars Helicopter

In this lesson, students build a paper helicopter, then improve the design and compare and measure performance.

Subject Engineering

Time 30-60 mins

Student Project: Make a Paper Mars Helicopter

Build a paper helicopter, then see if you can improve the design like NASA engineers did when making the first helicopter for Mars.

What Tools Would You Take to Mars?

Students decide what they want to learn from a robotic mission to Mars and what tools they will put on their robot to accomplish their goals.

Subject Science

research topics for stem students 2022

Rockets by Size

Students cut out, color and sequence paper rockets in a simple mathematics lesson on measurement.

Subject Math

research topics for stem students 2022

Rocket Math

Students use rocket manipulatives to help them develop number sense, counting, addition and subtraction skills.

research topics for stem students 2022

Tangram Rocket

Students use tangrams to create rockets while practicing shape recognition.

Time 1-2 hrs

research topics for stem students 2022

Student Project: Build a Rover and More With Shapes

Use geometric shapes called tangrams to build a rover and other space-themed designs!

Time Less than 30 mins

research topics for stem students 2022

Student Project: Build a Rocket and More With Shapes

Use geometric shapes called tangrams to build a rocket and other space-themed designs!

research topics for stem students 2022

Mineral Mystery Experiment

Students explore the science behind an intriguing planetary feature by creating saline solutions and then observing what happens when the solutions evaporate.

Grades 2-12

Time 2 sessions of 30-60 mins

research topics for stem students 2022

Student Project: Do a Mineral Mystery Experiment

Dissolve salts in water, then observe what happens when the water evaporates.

What Do You Know About Mars?

Students decide what they want to learn from a robotic mission to Mars.

research topics for stem students 2022

Melting Ice Experiment

Students make predictions and observations about how ice will melt in different conditions then compare their predictions to results as they make connections to melting glaciers.

research topics for stem students 2022

Parachute Design

Students design and test parachute landing systems to successfully land a probe on target.

research topics for stem students 2022

Planetary Poetry

In this cross-curricular STEM and language arts lesson, students learn about planets, stars and space missions and write STEM-inspired poetry to share their knowledge of or inspiration about these topics.

research topics for stem students 2022

Student Project: Write a Poem About Space

Are you a space poet, and you didn't even know it? Find out how to create your own poems inspired by space!

research topics for stem students 2022

Ocean World: Earth Globe Toss Game

Students use NASA images and a hands-on activity to compare the amounts of land and surface water on our planet.

Simple Rocket Science Continued

Students gather data on a balloon rocket launch, then create a simple graph to show the results of the tests.

research topics for stem students 2022

Spaghetti Anyone? Building with Pasta

Students use the engineering design process to build a structure to handle the greatest load and gain first-hand experience with compression and tension forces.

research topics for stem students 2022

Student Project: Building With Spaghetti

Use spaghetti to build a tower modeled after the giant structures NASA uses to talk to spacecraft.

Simple Rocket Science

Students perform a simple science experiment to learn how a rocket works and demonstrate Newton’s third law of motion.

Soda-Straw Rockets

Students study rocket stability as they design, construct and launch paper rockets using soda straws.

research topics for stem students 2022

Student Project: Make a Straw Rocket

Create a paper rocket that can be launched from a soda straw – then, modify the design to make the rocket fly farther!

research topics for stem students 2022

Rocket Activity: Heavy Lifting

Students construct balloon-powered rockets to launch the greatest payload possible to the classroom ceiling.

research topics for stem students 2022

Design a Robotic Insect

Students design a robotic insect for an extraterrestrial environment, then compare the process to how NASA engineers design robots for extreme environments like Mars.

research topics for stem students 2022

Student Project: Design a Robotic Insect

Design a robotic insect to go to an extreme environment. Then, compare the design process to what NASA engineers do when building robots for Mars!

research topics for stem students 2022

How Far Away Is Space?

Students use measurement skills to determine the scale distance to space on a map.

research topics for stem students 2022

Student Project: How Far Away Is Space?

Stack coins and use your measurement skills to figure out the scale distance from Earth's surface to space.

research topics for stem students 2022

Planetary Travel Time

Students will compute the approximate travel time to planets in the solar system using different modes of transportation.

research topics for stem students 2022

The Ring Wing Glider

In this simple engineering design lesson, students turn a piece of paper into an aircraft wing and then try to improve upon their design.

Student Project: Make a Paper Glider

Turn a piece of paper into a glider inspired by a NASA design.

research topics for stem students 2022

How Do We See Dark Matter?

Students will make observations of two containers and identify differences in content, justify their claims and make comparisons to dark matter observations.

Grades 6-12

Let's Go to Mars! Calculating Launch Windows

Students use advanced algebra concepts to determine the next opportunity to launch a spacecraft to Mars.

Find our full collection of more than 250 STEM educator guides and student activities in Teach and Learn .

For games, articles, and more activities from NASA for kids in upper-elementary grades, visit NASA Space Place and NASA Climate Kids .

Explore more educational resources and opportunities for students and educators from NASA STEM Engagement .

TAGS: Lessons , Teachers , Educators , Parents , Substitutes , Activities , Students , Science , Engineering , Quick and Easy

research topics for stem students 2022

Kim Orr , Web Producer, NASA-JPL Education Office

Kim Orr is a web and content producer for the Education Office at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Her pastimes are laughing and going on Indiana Jones style adventures.

  • Our Program Divisions
  • Our Three Academies
  • Government Affairs
  • Statement on Diversity and Inclusion
  • Our Study Process
  • Conflict of Interest Policies and Procedures
  • Project Comments and Information
  • Read Our Expert Reports and Published Proceedings
  • Explore PNAS, the Flagship Scientific Journal of NAS
  • Access Transportation Research Board Publications
  • Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)
  • Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
  • Economic Recovery
  • Fellowships and Grants
  • Publications by Division
  • Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education
  • Division on Earth and Life Studies
  • Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences
  • Gulf Research Program
  • Health and Medicine Division
  • Policy and Global Affairs Division
  • Transportation Research Board
  • National Academy of Sciences
  • National Academy of Engineering
  • National Academy of Medicine
  • Publications by Topic
  • Agriculture
  • Behavioral and Social Sciences
  • Biography and Autobiography
  • Biology and Life Sciences
  • Computers and Information Technology
  • Conflict and Security Issues
  • Earth Sciences
  • Energy and Energy Conservation
  • Engineering and Technology
  • Environment and Environmental Studies
  • Food and Nutrition
  • Health and Medicine
  • Industry and Labor
  • Math, Chemistry, and Physics
  • Policy for Science and Technology
  • Space and Aeronautics
  • Surveys and Statistics
  • Transportation and Infrastructure
  • Searchable Collections
  • New Releases

Undergraduate Research Experiences for STEM Students: Successes, Challenges, and Opportunities

VIEW LARGER COVER

Undergraduate Research Experiences for STEM Students

Successes, challenges, and opportunities.

Undergraduate research has a rich history, and many practicing researchers point to undergraduate research experiences (UREs) as crucial to their own career success. There are many ongoing efforts to improve undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education that focus on increasing the active engagement of students and decreasing traditional lecture-based teaching, and UREs have been proposed as a solution to these efforts and may be a key strategy for broadening participation in STEM. In light of the proposals questions have been asked about what is known about student participation in UREs, best practices in UREs design, and evidence of beneficial outcomes from UREs.

Undergraduate Research Experiences for STEM Students provides a comprehensive overview of and insights about the current and rapidly evolving types of UREs, in an effort to improve understanding of the complexity of UREs in terms of their content, their surrounding context, the diversity of the student participants, and the opportunities for learning provided by a research experience. This study analyzes UREs by considering them as part of a learning system that is shaped by forces related to national policy, institutional leadership, and departmental culture, as well as by the interactions among faculty, other mentors, and students. The report provides a set of questions to be considered by those implementing UREs as well as an agenda for future research that can help answer questions about how UREs work and which aspects of the experiences are most powerful.

RESOURCES AT A GLANCE

  • Press Release
  • Report Brief
  • Education — Higher Education
  • Education — Math and Science Education
  • Education — Policy, Reviews and Evaluations

Suggested Citation

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2017. Undergraduate Research Experiences for STEM Students: Successes, Challenges, and Opportunities . Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/24622. Import this citation to: Bibtex EndNote Reference Manager

Publication Info

  • Paperback:  978-0-309-45280-9
  • Ebook:  978-0-309-45283-0
Chapters skim
i-xx
1-10
11-32
33-68
69-96
97-128
129-146
147-162
163-180
181-210
211-232
233-236
237-248
249-258

What is skim?

The Chapter Skim search tool presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter. You may select key terms to highlight them within pages of each chapter.

Copyright Information

The National Academies Press (NAP) has partnered with Copyright Clearance Center's Marketplace service to offer you a variety of options for reusing NAP content. Through Marketplace, you may request permission to reprint NAP content in another publication, course pack, secure website, or other media. Marketplace allows you to instantly obtain permission, pay related fees, and print a license directly from the NAP website. The complete terms and conditions of your reuse license can be found in the license agreement that will be made available to you during the online order process. To request permission through Marketplace you are required to create an account by filling out a simple online form. The following list describes license reuses offered by the NAP through Marketplace:

  • Republish text, tables, figures, or images in print
  • Post on a secure Intranet/Extranet website
  • Use in a PowerPoint Presentation
  • Distribute via CD-ROM

Click here to obtain permission for the above reuses. If you have questions or comments concerning the Marketplace service, please contact:

Marketplace Support International +1.978.646.2600 US Toll Free +1.855.239.3415 E-mail: [email protected] marketplace.copyright.com

To request permission to distribute a PDF, please contact our Customer Service Department at [email protected] .

What is a prepublication?

What is a prepublication image

An uncorrected copy, or prepublication, is an uncorrected proof of the book. We publish prepublications to facilitate timely access to the committee's findings.

What happens when I pre-order?

The final version of this book has not been published yet. You can pre-order a copy of the book and we will send it to you when it becomes available. We will not charge you for the book until it ships. Pricing for a pre-ordered book is estimated and subject to change. All backorders will be released at the final established price. As a courtesy, if the price increases by more than $3.00 we will notify you. If the price decreases, we will simply charge the lower price. Applicable discounts will be extended.

Downloading and Using eBooks from NAP

What is an ebook.

An ebook is one of two file formats that are intended to be used with e-reader devices and apps such as Amazon Kindle or Apple iBooks.

Why is an eBook better than a PDF?

A PDF is a digital representation of the print book, so while it can be loaded into most e-reader programs, it doesn't allow for resizable text or advanced, interactive functionality. The eBook is optimized for e-reader devices and apps, which means that it offers a much better digital reading experience than a PDF, including resizable text and interactive features (when available).

Where do I get eBook files?

eBook files are now available for a large number of reports on the NAP.edu website. If an eBook is available, you'll see the option to purchase it on the book page.

View more FAQ's about Ebooks

Types of Publications

Consensus Study Report: Consensus Study Reports published by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine document the evidence-based consensus on the study’s statement of task by an authoring committee of experts. Reports typically include findings, conclusions, and recommendations based on information gathered by the committee and the committee’s deliberations. Each report has been subjected to a rigorous and independent peer-review process and it represents the position of the National Academies on the statement of task.

Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World

Read our research on:

Full Topic List

Regions & Countries

Publications

  • Our Methods
  • Short Reads
  • Tools & Resources

Read Our Research On:

STEM Education & Workforce

Most americans think u.s. k-12 stem education isn’t above average, but test results paint a mixed picture.

Just 28% of U.S. adults say America is the best in the world or above average in K-12 STEM education compared with other wealthy nations.

Which U.S. Workers Are More Exposed to AI on Their Jobs?

In 2022, 19% of American workers were in jobs that are the most exposed to artificial intelligence, in which the most important activities may be either replaced or assisted by AI. Women, Asian, college-educated and higher-paid workers have more exposure to AI, but workers in the most exposed industries are more likely to say AI will help more than hurt them personally.

Hispanic Americans’ Trust in and Engagement With Science

Increasing representation in science is seen as important for attracting more Hispanic people to science.

Black Americans’ Views of and Engagement With Science

Black Americans hold multifaceted views when it comes to trust in medical research scientists: Majorities hold largely positive views of their competence, but express concern about the potential for misconduct.

6 facts about America’s STEM workforce and those training for it

Black and Hispanic workers remain underrepresented in STEM jobs compared with their share of the U.S. workforce.

STEM Jobs See Uneven Progress in Increasing Gender, Racial and Ethnic Diversity

The higher education pipeline suggests a long path is ahead for increasing diversity, especially in fields like computing and engineering.

The share of immigrant workers in high-skill jobs is rising in the U.S.

The shift has been most notable in jobs that prioritize analytical skills, such as science and math, or fundamental skills, such as writing.

Women Make Gains in the Workplace Amid a Rising Demand for Skilled Workers

The gender wage gap narrows as women move into high-skill jobs and acquire more education. Women are now in the majority in jobs that draw most heavily on either social or fundamental skills.

It’s Pi Day – and there’s some good news for math teachers

March 14 is that special time of year people pay homage to the mathematical constant pi (π). A majority of U.S. adults enjoyed math classes in grades K-12, and most who liked them say the subject matter was the main reason.

Half of Americans think young people don’t pursue STEM because it is too hard

When Americans are asked why more students don’t pursue a degree in science, technology, engineering or math (STEM), they are most likely to point to the difficulty of these subjects, according to a new Pew Research Center survey. About half of adults (52%) say the main reason young people don’t pursue STEM degrees is they think these subjects are too hard.

REFINE YOUR SELECTION

Research teams.

1615 L St. NW, Suite 800 Washington, DC 20036 USA (+1) 202-419-4300 | Main (+1) 202-857-8562 | Fax (+1) 202-419-4372 |  Media Inquiries

Research Topics

  • Email Newsletters

ABOUT PEW RESEARCH CENTER  Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research. Pew Research Center does not take policy positions. It is a subsidiary of  The Pew Charitable Trusts .

© 2024 Pew Research Center

Information

  • Author Services

Initiatives

You are accessing a machine-readable page. In order to be human-readable, please install an RSS reader.

All articles published by MDPI are made immediately available worldwide under an open access license. No special permission is required to reuse all or part of the article published by MDPI, including figures and tables. For articles published under an open access Creative Common CC BY license, any part of the article may be reused without permission provided that the original article is clearly cited. For more information, please refer to https://www.mdpi.com/openaccess .

Feature papers represent the most advanced research with significant potential for high impact in the field. A Feature Paper should be a substantial original Article that involves several techniques or approaches, provides an outlook for future research directions and describes possible research applications.

Feature papers are submitted upon individual invitation or recommendation by the scientific editors and must receive positive feedback from the reviewers.

Editor’s Choice articles are based on recommendations by the scientific editors of MDPI journals from around the world. Editors select a small number of articles recently published in the journal that they believe will be particularly interesting to readers, or important in the respective research area. The aim is to provide a snapshot of some of the most exciting work published in the various research areas of the journal.

Original Submission Date Received: .

  • Active Journals
  • Find a Journal
  • Proceedings Series
  • For Authors
  • For Reviewers
  • For Editors
  • For Librarians
  • For Publishers
  • For Societies
  • For Conference Organizers
  • Open Access Policy
  • Institutional Open Access Program
  • Special Issues Guidelines
  • Editorial Process
  • Research and Publication Ethics
  • Article Processing Charges
  • Testimonials
  • Preprints.org
  • SciProfiles
  • Encyclopedia

jintelligence-logo

Article Menu

  • Subscribe SciFeed
  • Recommended Articles
  • Google Scholar
  • on Google Scholar
  • Table of Contents

Find support for a specific problem in the support section of our website.

Please let us know what you think of our products and services.

Visit our dedicated information section to learn more about MDPI.

JSmol Viewer

Perceptions of skills needed for stem jobs: links to academic self-concepts, job interests, job gender stereotypes, and spatial ability in young adults.

research topics for stem students 2022

1. Introduction

1.1. stem careers and spatial skills, 1.2. gender stereotyping, 1.3. the present research, 2. materials and methods, 2.1. participants, 2.2. materials and procedure, 2.2.1. selection of jobs included in surveys, 2.2.2. measures administered to the jsr sample, 2.2.3. measures administered to the scibs sample, 2.2.4. data collection, 3. results and discussion, 3.1. research question 1: can students identify spatial and other skills needed for specific jobs, 3.1.1. cluster analysis, 3.1.2. linking jsr skill clusters to o*net stem designations and skill ratings, 3.2. research question 2: do the job skill groupings increase understanding of emerging adults’ reported interests in pursuing stem careers, 3.2.1. descriptive information, 3.2.2. structural equation models predicting job interest, 4. conclusions, cautionary notes, and implications for future research, 4.1. limitations, 4.2. important future considerations, 4.3. conclusions, supplementary materials, author contributions, institutional review board statement, informed consent statement, data availability statement, acknowledgments, conflicts of interest.

  • Angle, Melanie Nora. 2011. What Drives Students to Stem Careers? The Role of Skill-Relevant Interests, Values, and Self-Concepts. Undergraduate Honors thesis, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA. Available online: https://honors.libraries.psu.edu/catalog/1812 (accessed on 7 August 2023).
  • Ariel, Robert, Natalie A. Lembeck, Scott Moffat, and Christopher Hertzog. 2018. Are there sex differences in confidence and metacognitive monitoring accuracy for everyday, academic, and psychometrically measured spatial ability? Intelligence 70: 42–51. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
  • Arrighi, Linda, and Markus Hausmann. 2022. Spatial anxiety and self-confidence mediate sex/gender differences in mental rotation. Learning & Memory 29: 312–20. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
  • Baker, Michael, and Kirsten Cornelson. 2018. Gender-based occupational segregation and sex differences in sensory, motor, and spatial aptitudes. Demography 55: 1749–75. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
  • Bian, Lin, Sarah-Jane Leslie, and Andrei Cimpian. 2017. Gender stereotypes about intellectual ability emerge early and influence children’s interests. Science 355: 389–91. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
  • Bian, Lin, Sarah-Jane Leslie, and Andrei Cimpian. 2018. Evidence of bias against girls and women in contexts that emphasize intellectual ability. American Psychologist 73: 1139–53. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
  • Bower, Corinne A., and Lynn S. Liben. 2021. Can a domain-general spatial intervention facilitate children’s science learning? A lesson from astronomy. Child Development 92: 76–100. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
  • Budai, László. 2013. Improving problem-solving skills with the help of plane-space analogies. Center for Educational Policy Studies Journal 3: 79–98. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
  • Cheryan, Sapna, Allison Master, and Andrew N. Meltzoff. 2015. Cultural stereotypes as gatekeepers: Increasing girls’ interest in computer science and engineering by diversifying stereotypes. Frontiers in Psychology 6: 49. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
  • Collier, Joel E. 2020. Applied Structural Equation Modeling Using AMOS: Basic to Advanced Techniques . New York: Routledge. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
  • Craven, Denise E., and David Rivkin. 2020. Using O*NET to identify and design career pathways. In Career Pathways: From School to Retirement . Edited by Jerry W. Hedge and Gary W. Carter. New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 299–322. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
  • Denissen, Jaap J. A., Nicole R. Zarrett, and Jacquelynne S. Eccles. 2007. I like to do it, I’m able, and I know I am: Longitudinal couplings between domain-specific achievement, self-concept, and interest. Child Development 78: 430–47. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
  • Doyle, Randi A., Daniel Voyer, and Isabelle D. Cherney. 2012. The relation between childhood spatial activities and spatial abilities in adulthood. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology 33: 112–20. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
  • Eagly, Alice H., Christa Nater, David I. Miller, Michèle Kaufmann, and Sabine Sczesny. 2020. Gender stereotypes have changed: A cross-temporal meta-analysis of U.S. public opinion polls from 1946 to 2018. American Psychologist 75: 301–15. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
  • Eccles, Jacquelynne S., and Allan Wigfield. 2020. From expectancy-value theory to situated expectancy-value theory: A developmental, social cognitive, and sociocultural perspective on motivation. Contemporary Educational Psychology 61: 101859. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
  • Estes, Zachary, and Sydney Felker. 2012. Confidence mediates the sex difference in mental rotation performance. Archives of Sexual Behavior 41: 557–70. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
  • Fleishman, Edwin A., and Maureen E. Reilly. 1992. Handbook of Human Abilities: Definitions, Measurements, and Job Task Requirements . Palo Alto: Consulting Psychologists Press. [ Google Scholar ]
  • Haines, Elizabeth L., Kay Deaux, and Nicole Lofaro. 2016. The times they are a-changing … or are they not? A comparison of gender stereotypes, 1983–2014. Psychology of Women Quarterly 40: 353–63. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
  • Hirudayaraj, Malar, Rose Baker, Francie Baker, and Mike Eastman. 2021. Soft skills for entry-level engineers: What employers want. Education Sciences 11: 641. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
  • Hyde, Janet Shibley. 2014. Gender similarities and differences. Annual Review of Psychology 65: 373–98. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
  • Jiang, Su, Sandra D. Simpkins, and Jacquelynne S. Eccles. 2020. Individuals’ math and science motivation and their subsequent STEM choices and achievement in high school and college: A longitudinal study of gender and college generation status differences. Developmental Psychology 56: 2137–51. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
  • Jones, M. Gail, Katherine Chesnutt, Megan Ennes, Kelly Lynn Mulvey, and Emily Cayton. 2021. Understanding science career aspirations: Factors predicting future science task value. Journal of Research in Science Teaching 58: 937–55. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
  • Kell, Harrison J., and David Lubinski. 2013. Spatial ability: A neglected talent in educational and occupational settings. Roeper Review 35: 219–30. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
  • Khine, Myint Swe. 2017. Spatial cognition: Key to STEM success. In Visual-Spatial Ability in STEM Education: Transforming Research into Practice . Edited by Myint Swe Khine. Berlin and Heidelberg: Springer International Publishing, pp. 3–8. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
  • Kitchen, Joseph A., Michael S. Williams, Gerhard Sonnert, and Philip Sadler. 2024. A quasi-experimental study of the impact of college-run science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) career days on American students’ STEM career aspirations. International Journal of Science Education 46: 109–30. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
  • Le, Huy, Steven B. Robbins, and Paul Westrick. 2014. Predicting student enrollment and persistence in college STEM fields using an expanded P-E fit framework: A large-scale multilevel study. Journal of Applied Psychology 99: 915–47. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
  • Lent, Robert W., and Steven D. Brown. 2019. Social cognitive career theory at 25: Empirical status of the interest, choice, and performance models. Journal of Vocational Behavior 115: 103316. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
  • Liben, Lynn S. 2006. Education for spatial thinking. In Handbook of Child Psychology: Child Psychology in Practice , 6th ed. Edited by K. Ann Renninger and Irving E. Sigel. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., vol. 4, pp. 197–247. [ Google Scholar ]
  • Liben, Lynn S. 2016. We’ve come a long way, baby (but we’re not there yet): Gender past, present, and future. Child Development 87: 5–28. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
  • Liben, Lynn S., and Emily F. Coyle. 2014. Developmental interventions to address the STEM gender gap: Exploring intended and unintended consequences. In Advances in Child Development and Behavior: The Role of Gender in Educational Contexts and Outcomes . Edited by Lynn S. Liben and R. S. Bigler. Amsterdam: Elsevier Academic Press, vol. 47, pp. 77–115. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
  • Liben, Lynn S., and Rebecca S. Bigler. 2002. The developmental course of gender differentiation: Conceptualizing, measuring, and evaluating constructs and pathways. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development 67: vii–147. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
  • Liben, Lynn S., Kim A. Kastens, and Adam E. Christensen. 2011. Spatial foundations of science education: The illustrative case of instruction on introductory geological concepts. Cognition and Instruction 29: 45–87. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
  • Liben, Lynn S., Lauren J. Myers, Adam E. Christensen, and Corinne A. Bower. 2013. Environmental-scale map use in middle childhood: Links to spatial skills, strategies, and gender. Child Development 84: 2047–63. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
  • Liben, Lynn S., Margaret L. Signorella, and Corinne A. Bower. 2017. Effects of a spatial-skills curriculum on STEM outcomes in middle-school students. In New Perspectives on the Relation between Spatial Thinking and STEM Learning . Edited by D. Uttal (Chair). Austin: Society for Research in Child Development. [ Google Scholar ]
  • Liben, Lynn S., Rebecca S. Bigler, and Holleen R. Krogh. 2001. Pink and blue collar jobs: Children’s judgments of job status and job aspirations in relation to sex of worker. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 79: 346–63. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
  • MacLean, Lisa M. 2017. Cracking the Code: How to Get Women and Minorities into STEM Disciplines and Why We Must . New York: Momentum Press. [ Google Scholar ]
  • Mariani, Matthew. 1999. Replace with a database: O*NET replaces the Dictionary of Occupational Titles. Occupational Outlook Quarterly 43: 2–9. [ Google Scholar ]
  • Martin, Carol Lynn, Diane N. Ruble, and Joel Szkrybalo. 2002. Cognitive theories of early gender development. Psychological Bulletin 128: 903–33. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
  • Master, Allison, Andrew N. Meltzoff, and Sapna Cheryan. 2021. Gender stereotypes about interests start early and cause gender disparities in computer science and engineering. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 118: e2100030118. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
  • Matthews, Victoria, Clarisse Ramirez, Kate B. Metcalfe, Madeline Wiseman, and Daniel Voyer. 2024. Sex differences in self-reported spatial abilities and affect: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Spatial Cognition & Computation 24: 85–114. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
  • Mix, Kelly S., Susan C. Levine, Yi-Ling Cheng, Chris Young, D. Zachary Hambrick, Raedy Ping, and Spyros Konstantopoulos. 2016. Separate but correlated: The latent structure of space and mathematics across development. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 145: 1206–27. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
  • Nagy-Kondor, Rita. 2017. Spatial ability: Measurement and development. In Visual-Spatial Ability in STEM Education: Transforming Research into Practice . Edited by Myint Swe Khine. Berlin and Heidelberg: Springer International Publishing, pp. 35–58. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
  • National Center for Educational Statistics. 2011a. Reported Data: Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus|Select Year: 2011 Select Survey: 12-Month Enrollment. IPEDS Data Center. Available online: https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/datacenter/FacsimileView.aspx?surveyNumber=14&unitId=214777&year=2011 (accessed on 5 June 2024).
  • National Center for Educational Statistics. 2011b. Reported Data: Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus|Select Year: 2011 Select Survey: Student Financial Aid and Price. IPEDS Data Center. Available online: https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/datacenter/FacsimileView.aspx?surveyNumber=7&unitId=214777&year=2011 (accessed on 5 June 2024).
  • National Center for O*NET Development. 2023a. Abilities—O*NET 27.3 Data Dictionary at O*NET Resource Center. O*NET Resource Center. July 11. Available online: https://www.onetcenter.org/dictionary/27.3/excel/abilities.html (accessed on 7 August 2023).
  • National Center for O*NET Development. 2023b. Abilities—Spatial Orientation. O*NET OnLine. July 11. Available online: https://www.onetonline.org/find/descriptor/result/1.A.1.f.1 (accessed on 7 August 2023).
  • National Center for O*NET Development. 2023c. Abilities—Visualization. O*NET OnLine. July 11. Available online: https://www.onetonline.org/find/descriptor/result/1.A.1.f.2 (accessed on 7 August 2023).
  • National Center for O*NET Development. 2023d. About O*NET. O*NET Resource Center. September 5. Available online: https://www.onetcenter.org/overview.html (accessed on 19 September 2023).
  • National Center for O*NET Development. 2023e. All STEM Occupations. O*NET OnLine. July 11. Available online: https://www.onetonline.org/find/stem?t=0 (accessed on 16 August 2023).
  • National Center for O*NET Development. 2023f. Browse by Abilities. O*NET OnLine. August 29. Available online: https://www.onetonline.org/find/descriptor/browse/1.A (accessed on 19 September 2023).
  • National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics. 2023. Diversity and STEM: Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities 2023 ; (NSF 23-315). Alexandria: National Science Foundation. Available online: https://ncses.nsf.gov/pubs/nsf23315/report (accessed on 19 September 2023).
  • National Research Council. 2006. Learning to Think Spatially: GIS as A Support System in the K-12 Curriculum . Washington, DC: National Academies Press. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
  • National Research Council. 2010. A Database for A Changing Economy: Review of the Occupational Information Network (O*NET) . Washington, DC: National Academies Press. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
  • Newcombe, Nora S. 2013. Seeing relationships: Using spatial thinking to teach science, mathematics, and social studies. American Educator 37: 26–31, 40. [ Google Scholar ]
  • Nosek, Brian A., Mahzarin R. Banaji, and Anthony G. Greenwald. 2002. Math = male, me = female, therefore math ≠ me. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 83: 44–59. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
  • Olkun, Sinan. 2003. Making connections: Improving spatial abilities with engineering drawing activities. International Journal of Mathematics Teaching and Learning 3: 1–10. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
  • Piaget, Jean, and Bärbel Inhelder. 1956. The Child’s Conception of Space . New York: Routledge & K. Paul. [ Google Scholar ]
  • Rabkin, Nick, and E. C. Hedberg. 2011. Arts Education in America: What the Declines Mean for Arts Participation ; Washington, DC: National Endowment for the Arts, vol. 52, pp. 1–58. Available online: https://www.arts.gov/sites/default/files/2008-SPPA-ArtsLearning.pdf (accessed on 10 September 2023).
  • Reilly, David, David L. Neumann, and Glenda Andrews. 2017. Gender differences in spatial ability: Implications for STEM education and approaches to reducing the gender gap for parents and educators. In Visual-Spatial Ability in STEM Education: Transforming Research into Practice . Edited by Myint Swe Khine. Berlin and Heidelberg: Springer International Publishing, pp. 195–224. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
  • Schaub, Michael. 2003. Social Cognitive Career Theory: Examining the Mediating Role of Sociocognitive Variables in the Relation of Personality to Vocational Interests. Ph.D. dissertation, The University of Akron, Akron, OH, USA. [ Google Scholar ]
  • Schaub, Michael, and David M. Tokar. 2005. The role of personality and learning experiences in social cognitive career theory. Journal of Vocational Behavior 66: 304–25. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
  • Seo, Eunjin, Yishan Shen, and Edna C. Alfaro. 2019. Adolescents’ beliefs about math ability and their relations to stem career attainment: Joint consideration of race/ethnicity and gender. Journal of Youth and Adolescence 48: 306–25. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
  • Signorella, Margaret L. 2020. Toward a more just feminism. Psychology of Women Quarterly 44: 256–65. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
  • Signorella, Margaret L., and Lynn S. Liben. 1985. Assessing children’s gender-stereotyped attitudes. Psychological Documents 15: 7. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
  • Signorella, Margaret L., Rebecca S. Bigler, and Lynn S. Liben. 1993. Developmental differences in children′s gender schemata about others: A meta-analytic review. Developmental Review 13: 147–83. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
  • Sorby, Sheryl, Beth Casey, Norma Veurink, and Alana Dulaney. 2013. The role of spatial training in improving spatial and calculus performance in engineering students. Learning and Individual Differences 26: 20–29. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
  • Tokar, David M., Mindi N. Thompson, Melissa R. Plaufcan, and Christine M. Williams. 2007. Precursors of learning experiences in Social Cognitive Career Theory. Journal of Vocational Behavior 71: 319–39. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
  • U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 2023. Occupational Outlook Handbook. September 6. Available online: https://www.bls.gov/ooh/ (accessed on 10 September 2023).
  • U.S. Department of Labor Women’s Bureau. 2021. Employment and Earnings by Occupation. Available online: https://www.dol.gov/agencies/wb/data/occupations (accessed on 10 September 2023).
  • Uttal, David H., Nathaniel G. Meadow, Elizabeth Tipton, Linda L. Hand, Alison R. Alden, Christopher Warren, and Nora S. Newcombe. 2013. The malleability of spatial skills: A meta-analysis of training studies. Psychological Bulletin 139: 352–402. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
  • Varma, Roli. 2018. U.S. science and engineering workforce: Underrepresentation of women and minorities. American Behavioral Scientist 62: 692–97. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
  • Vasta, Ross, and Lynn S. Liben. 1996. The water-level task: An intriguing puzzle. Current Directions in Psychological Science 5: 171–77. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
  • Wai, Jonathan, David Lubinski, and Camilla P. Benbow. 2009. Spatial ability for STEM domains: Aligning over 50 years of cumulative psychological knowledge solidifies its importance. Journal of Educational Psychology 101: 817–35. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
  • Wang, Ming-Te, and Jessica L. Degol. 2017. gender gap in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (stem): Current knowledge, implications for practice, policy, and future directions. Educational Psychology Review 29: 119–40. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
  • Williams, Christine M., and Linda M. Subich. 2006. The gendered nature of career related learning experiences: A social cognitive career theory perspective. Journal of Vocational Behavior 69: 262–75. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
  • Xie, Yu, Michael Fang, and Kimberlee Shauman. 2015. STEM Education. Annual Review of Sociology 41: 331–57. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]

Click here to enlarge figure

Thinking about Jobs
This survey asks you questions about jobs. We are trying to learn what skills people think different jobs require. We will ask you to judge about 100 jobs by rating how much each one calls upon English, math, science and spatial skills.
For MATH, try to think about math skills in general rather than about one specific type of math; think of the general ability to work with numbers, perform calculations, and solve mathematical problems.
For SPATIAL SKILLS, try to think about spatial skills in general rather than about any one particular skill; think of the general ability to visualize or mentally manipulate shapes, patterns, or spaces.
For ENGLISH, try to think about English skills in general rather than about any one particular skill, such as vocabulary or spelling; think about English skills as the general ability to effectively communicate in the English language.
For SCIENCE, try to think about science skills in general rather than any one scientific discipline; think about science as the general ability to understand and apply the scientific method.
You will be answering each question using a 5-point scale as follows: the job calls on [NAMED SKILL]
1 = not at all
2 = a little bit
3 = some
4 = pretty much
5 = a lot
We generally find that the 82 jobs we list are familiar to most people, and thus we have not included any job descriptions. If you don’t know a job at all, just skip that job.
We know that there are a lot of jobs, but would ask you to try to think about each one carefully when you answer. Despite the number of questions, they are short, and thus you should be able to finish within 30 min.
Illustrative job showing how each job appeared on the survey
not at alla little bitsomepretty mucha lot
MathOOOOO
Spatial skillsOOOOO
EnglishOOOOO
ScienceOOOOO
Average Ratings by SkillO*NET
Quantitative ClusterDistance from Cluster CenterMathEnglishScienceSpatialSTEM Spatial
Visualization
Financial Analyst0.414.673.032.652.75Nn/a
Company Treasurer0.454.603.222.302.91N2.38
Financial Clerk0.474.563.072.332.74N2.00
Accountant0.584.833.082.262.95N2.25
Actuary0.594.012.873.022.91Y2.50
Statistician0.674.842.793.083.03Y2.75
Loan Officer0.884.453.471.912.79N1.88
Mathematician0.894.872.403.023.18Y2.75
Systems Analyst1.024.272.813.613.17Y3.12
Factory Owner1.023.813.492.883.71n/a
Supermarket Owner1.213.513.271.963.45n/a

Librarian0.432.174.441.933.30N2.12
Secretary0.512.664.001.803.00N2.12
Refrigerator Sales 0.692.453.631.942.70N2.12
Writer0.781.794.871.942.86N2.38
Comedian0.961.553.981.592.47N2.62
Lawyer1.052.914.582.673.22N2.50


Meteorologist0.333.943.004.623.50Y2.62
Med Lab Tech 0.364.033.004.593.43Y2.88
Lab Tech 0.364.233.004.633.55Y3.00
Geologist0.553.722.764.723.60Y3.00
Environ Scientist 0.563.613.144.783.62Y2.75
Space Scientist0.594.422.984.724.00See Meteorologist
Automotive Engr 0.604.222.684.063.90Y3.50
Comp Scientist 0.624.482.944.113.48Y3.25
Astronomer0.624.282.874.794.08Y3.00
Biologist0.634.013.144.903.33Y3.12
Electrical Engr 0.644.612.874.513.81Y3.12
Surgeon0.674.063.394.694.24Yn/a
Comp Hardware 0.684.572.834.363.43Y3.25
Comp Software 0.684.592.994.093.88Yn/a
Physicist0.704.633.074.733.83Y3.62
Geographer0.743.562.893.933.98Y2.88
Pediatrician0.753.543.454.673.37Y2.25
Doctor0.793.873.664.844.01Y2.50
Astronaut0.804.433.374.654.30n/a
Civil Engr 0.824.613.214.314.27Y3.75
Aerospace Engr 0.844.603.074.734.24Y3.25
Nuclear Engr 0.864.742.934.843.80Y3.12
Nurse0.873.383.464.253.30Y3.00
Chemist0.884.532.754.873.29Y3.00
Vet0.883.422.894.673.16Y2.88
Engineer0.904.803.064.674.08See engineer specialties
Electrician0.923.762.563.743.49N3.38
Architectural Engr 0.954.703.064.374.39See Civil Engineer
Food Scientist0.983.632.764.572.90Y2.88
Physical Therapist1.023.073.074.153.45Y2.88
Dentist1.102.943.054.463.91Y3.25
Airplane Pilot1.153.713.193.634.50N3.38
Dietician1.193.442.984.192.71Y2.50
School Teacher1.254.024.263.993.71N2.88
Landscape Architect1.263.912.763.444.45Y4.00
Architect1.334.602.983.704.68Y4.12
Nutritionist1.353.322.984.332.57See Dietician
Psychologist1.732.704.074.193.25Y2.12


Florist0.302.282.432.643.58N3.88
Plumber0.442.642.182.633.36N3.20
Cook Restaurant 0.512.282.352.492.96N2.88
Rancher0.512.222.012.463.21See Farmer
Gardener0.652.191.982.783.60N3.00
Baker0.682.732.312.692.96N2.88
Elevator Operator0.682.462.442.292.77n/a
Telephone Installer0.772.922.702.853.57N3.00
Construction Worker0.783.042.222.383.80N2.88
Umpire0.832.242.571.603.62N2.62
Police Officer0.852.313.192.113.18N2.62
Pro Athlete 0.861.902.031.823.61N3.00
Hair Stylist0.861.702.671.923.34N3.50
Welder0.892.812.163.123.45N2.88
Clothing Designer0.942.842.811.883.96N3.63
Truck Driver1.001.952.031.593.28N3.00
Artist1.102.112.661.974.40N4.00
Ship Captain1.213.092.893.073.96N3.25
Manicurist1.221.702.191.682.76N2.50
Ballet Dancer1.281.641.851.603.82N2.75
Birth Attendant1.292.302.903.533.09Y2.62
Auto Mechanic1.343.212.413.254.05N3.38
Farmer1.352.772.303.573.94N2.88
Dental Assistant1.372.813.073.513.31Y2.88
Babysitter1.371.662.851.662.63N2.75
Interior Decorator1.393.002.842.024.56N4.00
Dishwasher 2.101.401.601.352.15N2.00
Survey SectionsWomenMen
Self-concepts by domain (range 1–7)MSDMSDdp
Math4.41.54.71.4−0.35 .003
English5.51.04.91.10.49<.001
Science4.51.54.91.4−0.30
Spatial5.01.05.11.0−0.11
Athletics4.81.45.41.3−0.41 .001
Foreign Language4.61.44.11.40.36 .003
Job interest by cluster (range 1–5)MSDMSDdp
Quantitative1.50.71.80.8−0.32 .002
Verbal 2.00.71.80.60.24
Basic and Applied Science1.80.62.00.7−0.31 .010
Spatial1.70.61.60.50.31 .011
Job gender stereotyping   by cluster (range 1–5)MSDMSDdp
Quantitative2.60.52.70.4−0.15
Verbal 3.10.23.10.3 0.25
Basic & Applied Science2.60.32.70.3−0.15
Spatial 2.80.22.80.2−0.11
Spatial performance (range 0–15)MSDMSDdp
Water-level task score8.74.110.24.4−0.37 .001
PathBSEpβ
Direct:
Cultural gender stereotyping of basic & applied science jobs to spatial self-concept
−0.0090.165.956−.003
Direct:
Cultural gender stereotyping of basic & applied science jobs to basic & applied science job cluster interest
0.1240.110.258.066
Direct:
Spatial self-concept to basic & applied science job cluster interest
0.0910.044.039.134
Direct:
Spatial performance to spatial self-concept
0.0790.015<.001.334
Direct:
Spatial performance to basic & applied science job cluster interest
0.0260.011.015.162
Indirect:
Cultural gender stereotyping of basic & applied science jobs to spatial self-concept to basic & applied science job cluster interest
−0.0010.016.8570
Indirect:
Spatial performance to spatial self-concept to basic & applied science job cluster interest
0.0070.024.038.045
PathBSEpβ
Direct:
Cultural gender stereotyping of quantitative jobs to math self-concept
Women 0.6820.237.004.250
Men 0.2640.288.359.079
Direct:
Cultural gender stereotyping of quantitative jobs to quantitative cluster job interest
Women 0.3380.115.003.235
Men−0.3040.138.028−.174
Direct:
Math self-concept to quantitative job cluster interest
Women 0.1680.031<.001.318
Men 0.1680.031<0.001.322
Indirect:
Cultural gender stereotyping of quantitative jobs to math self-concept to quantitative cluster job interest
Women 0.115 0.039.007.080
Men 0.045 0.039.391.026
The statements, opinions and data contained in all publications are solely those of the individual author(s) and contributor(s) and not of MDPI and/or the editor(s). MDPI and/or the editor(s) disclaim responsibility for any injury to people or property resulting from any ideas, methods, instructions or products referred to in the content.

Share and Cite

Signorella, M.L.; Liben, L.S. Perceptions of Skills Needed for STEM Jobs: Links to Academic Self-Concepts, Job Interests, Job Gender Stereotypes, and Spatial Ability in Young Adults. J. Intell. 2024 , 12 , 63. https://doi.org/10.3390/jintelligence12070063

Signorella ML, Liben LS. Perceptions of Skills Needed for STEM Jobs: Links to Academic Self-Concepts, Job Interests, Job Gender Stereotypes, and Spatial Ability in Young Adults. Journal of Intelligence . 2024; 12(7):63. https://doi.org/10.3390/jintelligence12070063

Signorella, Margaret L., and Lynn S. Liben. 2024. "Perceptions of Skills Needed for STEM Jobs: Links to Academic Self-Concepts, Job Interests, Job Gender Stereotypes, and Spatial Ability in Young Adults" Journal of Intelligence 12, no. 7: 63. https://doi.org/10.3390/jintelligence12070063

Article Metrics

Article access statistics, further information, mdpi initiatives, follow mdpi.

MDPI

Subscribe to receive issue release notifications and newsletters from MDPI journals

  • Migration 2023 08 17

Students Win Big at National STEM Event!

bibb graves new 2018.jpg

Pictured is ASU's iconic Jo Ann Robinson residence hall (photo credit: David Campbell/ASU).

ASU Students Win Majority of Awards at National Research Frontier Symposium

- Other winners include students from Yale University, University of Tennessee-Knoxville and Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica.

By Kenneth Mullinax/ASU  

Students at Alabama State University won the lion's share of awards given at this year's annual 2022 Research Frontier Symposium, which was held virtually at ASU. The symposium is a well-respected national event that highlights academic research with a concentration on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) subjects, with a broader National Science Foundation definition to include chemistry, computer and information technology science, engineering, geosciences, life sciences, physics, astronomy, social sciences, anthropology, economics, psychology and sociology.

Among the 10 national awards presented to winners at the symposium, ASU won half of them with six of its students winning the top honors. All contestants competed in two event categories, which were oral and poster presentation formats.  

Initiatives to Raise Young People’s Interest and Participation in STEM

Loading... Editorial 16 February 2023 Editorial: Initiatives to raise young people's interest and participation in STEM Milagros Sáinz , Katja Upadyaya  and  Sergi Fàbregues 616 views 0 citations

research topics for stem students 2022

Loading... Systematic Review 05 January 2023 Use of mixed methods research in intervention studies to increase young people’s interest in STEM: A systematic methodological review Sergi Fàbregues ,  4 more  and  Beatriz-Soledad López-Pérez 6,364 views 3 citations

Original Research 22 December 2022 Associations between adolescent students’ multiple domain task value-cost profiles and STEM aspirations Janica Vinni-Laakso ,  1 more  and  Katariina Salmela-Aro 1,750 views 2 citations

Community Case Study 19 December 2022 Girls Get WISE—A programming model for engaging girls+ in STEM Tamara A. Franz-Odendaal  and  Sally Marchand 1,445 views 3 citations

Conceptual Analysis 18 November 2022 Intervention initiatives to raise young people’s interest and participation in STEM Barbara Schneider ,  2 more  and  Kayla Bartz 2,215 views 0 citations

Original Research 20 October 2022 Gender biases in the training methods of affective computing: Redesign and validation of the Self-Assessment Manikin in measuring emotions via audiovisual clips Clara Sainz-de-Baranda Andujar ,  3 more  and  Celia López-Ongil 3,460 views 2 citations

Loading... Systematic Review 11 October 2022 Interventions to increase young people's interest in STEM. A scoping review Milagros Sáinz ,  2 more  and  Beatriz-Soledad López 7,613 views 7 citations

Original Research 09 September 2022 Perception of work in the IT sector among men and women—A comparison between IT students and IT professionals Joanna Pyrkosz-Pacyna ,  1 more  and  Natasza Kosakowska-Berezecka 2,409 views 0 citations

Loading... Original Research 29 August 2022 Gendered difference in motivational profiles, achievement, and STEM aspiration of elementary school students Kezia Olive ,  3 more  and  Katariina Salmela-Aro 2,897 views 4 citations

Loading... Hypothesis and Theory 12 August 2022 I am done with this! Women dropping out of engineering majors Susana González-Pérez ,  2 more  and  Eva Cifre 11,303 views 3 citations

Original Research 27 June 2022 On the Design and Validation of Assessing Tools for Measuring the Impact of Programs Promoting STEM Vocations María Pilar Herce-Palomares ,  5 more  and  Silvia Rueda 2,287 views 1 citations

Loading... Original Research 04 March 2022 Impact of Interest Congruence on Study Outcomes Bernhard Ertl ,  1 more  and  Anja Wunderlich 3,876 views 6 citations

Research Trends in STEM Clubs: A Content Analysis

  • Open access
  • Published: 25 June 2024

Cite this article

You have full access to this open access article

research topics for stem students 2022

  • Rabia Nur Öndeş   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-9787-4382 1  

201 Accesses

Explore all metrics

To identify the research trends in studies related to STEM Clubs, 56 publications that met the inclusion and extraction criteria were identified from the online databases ERIC and WoS in this study. These studies were analysed by using the descriptive content analysis research method based on the Paper Classification Form (PCF), which includes publishing years, keywords, research methods, sample levels and sizes, data collection tools, data analysis methods, durations, purposes, and findings. The findings showed that, the keywords in the studies were used under six different categories: disciplines, technological concepts, academic community, learning experiences, core elements of education, and psychosocial factors (variables). Case studies were frequently employed, with middle school students serving as the main participants in sample groups ranging from 11–15, 16–20, and 201–250. Surveys, questionnaires, and observations were the primary methods of data collection, and descriptive analysis was commonly used for data analysis. STEM Clubs had sessions ranging from 2 to 16 weeks, with each session commonly lasting 60 to 120 min. The study purposes mainly focused on four themes: the impact of participation on various aspects such as attitudes towards STEM disciplines, career paths, STEM major selection, and academic achievement; the development and implementation of a sample STEM Club program, including challenges and limitations; the examination of students' experiences, perceptions, and factors influencing their involvement and choice of STEM majors; the identification of some aspects such as attitudinal effects and non-academic skills; and the comparison of STEM experiences between in-school and out-of-school settings. The study results mainly focused on three themes: the increase in various aspects such as academic achievement, STEM major choice, engagement in STEM clubs, identity, interest in STEM, collaboration-communication skills; the design of STEM Clubs, including sample implementations, design principles, challenges, and factors affecting their success and sustainability; and the identification of factors influencing participation, motivation, and barriers. Overall, this study provides a comprehensive understanding of STEM Clubs, leading the way for more targeted and informed future research endeavours.

Similar content being viewed by others

research topics for stem students 2022

Measuring the effect of sustainability programs on interest in STEM disciplines: a pre-post survey study of the student green team internship program

The eight essential elements of inclusive stem high schools.

research topics for stem students 2022

Effects of Out-of-School STEM Learning Environments on Student Interest: a Critical Systematic Literature Review

Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.

Introduction

Worldwide, STEM education, which integrates the disciplines of science, technology, engineering, and math, is gaining popularity in K-12 settings due to its capacity to enhance 21st-century skills such as adaptability, problem-solving, and creative thinking (National Research Council [NRC], 2015 ). In STEM lessons, students are frequently guided by the engineering design process, which involves identifying problems or technical challenges and creating and developing solutions. Furthermore, higher achievement in STEM education has been linked to increased enrolment in post-secondary STEM fields, offering students greater opportunities to pursue careers in these domains (Merrill & Daugherty, 2010 ). However, STEM activities require dedicated time and the restructuring of integrated curricula, necessitating careful organization of lessons. Recognizing the complexity of developing 21st-century STEM proficiency, schools are not expected to tackle this challenge alone. In addition to regular STEM classes, there exists a diverse range of extended education programs, activities, and out-of-school learning environments (Baran et al., 2016 ; Kalkan & Eroglu, 2017 ; Schweingruber et al., 2014 ). In this paper, out-of-school learning environments, informal learning environments, extended education, and afterschool programs were used synonymously. It is worth noting that the literature lacks a universally accepted definition for out-of-school learning environments, leading to the use of various interchangeable terms (Donnelly et al., 2019 ). Some of these terms include informal learning environments, extended education, afterschool programs, all-day school, extracurricular activities, out-of-school time learning, extended schools, expanded learning, and leisure-time activities. These terms refer to optional programs and clubs offered by schools that exist outside of the standard academic curriculum (Baran et al., 2016 ; Cooper, 2011 ; Kalkan & Eroglu, 2017 ; Schweingruber et al., 2014 ).

Out-of-school learning, in contrast to traditional in-school learning, offers greater flexibility in terms of time and space, as it is not bound by the constraints of the school schedule, national or state standards, and standardized tests (Cooper, 2011 ). Out-of-school learning experiences typically involve collaborative engagement, the use of tools, and immersion in authentic environments, while school environments often emphasize individual performance, independent thinking, symbolic representations, and the acquisition of generalized skills and knowledge (Resnick, 1987 ). They encompass everyday activities such as family discussions, pursuing hobbies, and engaging in daily conversations, as well as designed environments like museums, science centres, and afterschool programs (Civil, 2007 ; Hein, 2009 ). On the other hand, extended education refers to intentionally structured learning and development programs and activities that are not part of regular classes. These programs are typically offered before and after school, as well as at locations outside the school (Bae, 2018 ). As a result, out-of-school learning environments encompass a wide range of experiences, including social, cultural, and technical excursions around the school, field studies at museums, zoos, nature centres, aquariums, and planetariums, project-based learning, sports activities, nature training, and club activities (Civil, 2007 ; Donnelly et al., 2019 ; Hein, 2009 ). At this point, STEM clubs are a specialized type of extracurricular activity that engage students in hands-on projects, experiments, and learning experiences related to scientific, technological, engineering, and mathematical disciplines. STEM Clubs, described as flexible learning environments unconstrained by time or location, offer an effective approach to conducting STEM studies outside of school (Blanchard et al., 2017 ; Cooper, 2011 ; Dabney et al., 2012 ).

Out-of-school learning environments, extended education or afterschool programs, hold tremendous potential for enhancing student learning and providing them with a diverse and enriching educational experience (Robelen, 2011 ). Extensive research supports the notion that these alternative educational programs not only contribute to students' academic growth but also foster their social, emotional, and intellectual development (NRC, 2015 ). Studies have consistently shown that after-school programs play a vital role in boosting students' achievement levels (Casing & Casing, 2024 ; Pastchal-Temple, 2012 ; Shernoff & Vandell, 2007 ), and contributing to positive emotional development, including improved self-esteem, positive attitudes, and enhanced social behaviour (Afterschool Alliance, 2015 ; Durlak & Weissberg, 2007 ; Lauer et al., 2006 ; Little et al., 2008 ). Moreover, engaging in various activities within these programs allows students to develop meaningful connections, expand their social networks, enhance leadership skills (Lipscomb et al., 2017 ), and cultivate cooperation, effective communication, and innovative problem-solving abilities (Mahoney et al., 2007 ).

Implementing STEM activities in out-of-school learning environments not only supports students in making career choices and fostering meaningful learning and interest in science, but also facilitates deep learning experiences (Bybee, 2001 ; Dabney et al., 2012 ; Sahin et al., 2018 ). Furthermore, STEM Clubs enhance students' emotional skills, such as a sense of belonging and peer-to-peer communication, while also fostering 21st-century skills, facilitating the acquisition of current content, and promoting career awareness and interest in STEM professions (Blanchard et al., 2017 ). In summary, engaging in STEM activities through social club activities not only addresses time constraints but also complements formal education and contributes to students' overall development. Hence, STEM Clubs, which are part of extended education, can be defined as dynamic and flexible learning environments that provide an effective approach to conducting STEM studies beyond traditional classroom settings. These clubs offer flexibility in terms of time and location, with intentionally structured programs and activities that take place outside of regular classes. They provide students with unique opportunities to explore and deepen their understanding of STEM subjects through collaborative engagement, hands-on use of tools, and immersive experiences in authentic environments (Bae, 2018 ; Blanchard, et al., 2017 ; Bybee, 2001 ; Cooper, 2011 ; Dabney et al., 2012 ). STEM Clubs have gained immense popularity worldwide, providing students with invaluable opportunities to explore and cultivate their interests and knowledge in these crucial fields (Adams et al., 2014 ; Bell et al., 2009 ). According to America After 3PM, nearly 75% of afterschool program participants, around 5,740,836 children, have access to STEM learning opportunities (Afterschool Alliance, 2015 ).

STEM Clubs as after-school programs come in various forms and provide diverse tutoring and instructional opportunities. For instance, the Boys and Girls Club of America (BGCA) operates in numerous cities across the United States, annually serving 4.73 million students (Boys and Girls Club of America, 2019 ). This program offers students the chance to engage in activities like sports, art, dance, field trips, and addresses the underrepresentation of African Americans in STEM. Another example is the Science Club for Girls (SCFG), established by concerned parents in Cambridge to address gender inequity in math, science, and technology courses and careers. SCFG brings together girls from grades K–7 through free after-school or weekend clubs, science explorations during vacations, and community science fairs, with approximately 800 to 1,000 students participating each year. The primary goal of these clubs is to increase STEM literacy and self-confidence among K–12 girls from underrepresented groups in these fields. More examples can be found in the literature, such as the St. Jude STEM Club (SJSC), where students conducted a 10-week paediatric cancer research project using accurate data (Ayers et al., 2020 ), and After School Matters, based in Chicago, offers project-based learning that enhances students' soft skills and culminates in producing a final project based on their activities (Hirsch, 2011 ).

The Purpose of The Study

The literature on STEM Clubs indicates a diverse range of such clubs located worldwide, catering to different student groups, operating on varying schedules, implementing diverse activities, and employing various strategies, methodologies, experiments, and assessments (Ayers et al., 2020 ; Blanchard et al., 2017 ; Boys and Girls Club of America, 2019 ; Hirsch, 2011 ; Sahin et al., 2018 ). However, it was previously unknown which specific sample groups were most commonly studied, which analytical methods were used frequently, and which results were primarily reported, even though the overall topic of STEM Clubs has gained significant attention. Therefore, organizing and categorizing this expansive body of literature is necessary to gain deeper insights into the current state of knowledge and practices in STEM Clubs. By systematically reviewing and synthesizing the diverse range of studies on this topic, we can develop a clearer understanding of the focus areas, methodologies, and key findings that have emerged from the existing research (Fraenkel et al., 2012 ). At this point, using a content analysis method is appropriate for this purpose because this method is particularly useful for examining trends and patterns in documents (Stemler, 2000 ). Similarly, some previous research on STEM education has conducted content analyses to examine existing studies and construct holistic patterns to understand trends (Bozkurt et al., 2019 ; Chomphuphra et al., 2019 ; Irwanto et al., 2022 ; Li et al., 2020 ; Lin et al., 2019 ; Martín-Páez et al., 2019 ; Noris et al., 2023 ). However, there is a lack of content analysis specifically focused on studies of STEM Clubs in the literature and showing the trends in this topic. Analysing research trends in STEM Clubs can help build upon existing knowledge, identify gaps, explore emerging topics, and highlight successful methodologies and strategies (Fraenkel et al., 2012 ; Noris et al., 2023 ; Stemler, 2000 ). This information can be valuable for researchers, educators, and policymakers to stay up-to-date and make informed decisions regarding curriculum design (Bozkurt et al., 2019 ; Chomphuphra et al., 2019 ; Irwanto et al., 2022 ; Li et al., 2020 ; Lin et al., 2019 ; Martín-Páez et al., 2019 ; Noris et al., 2023 ), the development of effective STEM Club programs, resource allocation, and policy formulation (Blanchard et al., 2017 ; Cooper, 2011 ; Dabney et al., 2012 ). Therefore, the identification of research trends in STEM Clubs was the aim of this study.

To identify research trends, studies commonly analysed documents by considering the dimensions of articles such as keywords, publishing years, research designs, purposes, sample levels, sample sizes, data collection tools, data analysis methods, and findings (Bozkurt et al., 2019 ; Chomphuphra et al., 2019 ; Irwanto et al., 2022 ; Li et al., 2020 ; Sozbilir et al., 2012 ). Using these dimensions as a framework is a useful and common approach in content analysis because this framework allows researchers to systematically examine the key aspects of existing studies and uncover patterns, relationships, and trends within the research data (Sozbilir et al., 2012 ). Hence, since the aim of this study is to identify and analyse research trends in STEM Clubs, it focused on publishing years, keywords, research designs, purposes, sample levels, sample sizes, data collection tools, data analysis methods, and findings of the studies on STEM Clubs.

As a conclusion, the main problem of this study is “What are the characteristics of the studies on STEM Clubs?”. The following sub-questions are addressed in this study:

What is the distribution of studies on STEM Clubs by year?

What are the frequently used keywords in studies on STEM Clubs?

What are the commonly employed research designs in studies on STEM Clubs?

What are the typical purposes explored in studies on STEM Clubs?

What are the commonly observed sample levels in studies on STEM Clubs?

What are the commonly observed sample sizes in studies on STEM Clubs?

What are the commonly utilized data collection tools in studies on STEM Clubs?

What are the commonly utilized data analysis methods in studies on STEM Clubs?

What are the typical durations reported in studies on STEM Clubs?

What are the commonly reported findings in studies on STEM Clubs?

In this study, the descriptive content analysis research method was employed, which allows for a systematic and objective examination of the content within articles, and description of the general trends and research results in a particular subject matter (Lin et al., 2014 ; Suri & Clarke, 2009 ; Sozbilir et al., 2012 ; Stemler, 2000 ). Given the aim of examining research trends in STEM Clubs, the utilization of this method was appropriate, as it provides a structured approach to identify patterns and trends (Gay et al., 2012 ). To implement the content analysis method, this study followed the three main phases proposed by Elo and Kyngäs ( 2008 ): preparation, organizing, and reporting. In the preparation phase, the unit of analysis, such as a word or theme, is selected as the starting point. So, in this study, the topic of STEM Clubs was carefully selected. During the organizing process, the researcher strives to make sense of the data and to learn "what is going on" and obtain a sense of the whole. So, in this study, during the analysis process, the content analysis framework (sample levels, sample sizes, data collection tools, research designs, etc.) was used to question the collected studies. Finally, in the reporting phase, the analyses are presented in a meaningful and coherent manner. So, the analyses were presented meaningfully with visual representations such as tables, graphs, etc. By adopting the content analysis research method and following the suggested phases, this study aimed to gain insights into research trends in STEM Clubs, identify recurring themes, and provide a comprehensive analysis of the collected data.

Search and Selection Process

The online databases ERIC and Web of Science were searched using keywords derived from a database thesaurus. These databases were chosen because of their widespread recognition and respect in the fields of education and academic research, and they offer a substantial amount of high-quality, peer-reviewed literature. The search process involved several steps. Firstly, titles, abstracts, and keywords were searched using Boolean operators for the keywords "STEM Clubs," "STEAM Clubs," "science-technology-engineering-mathematics clubs," "after school STEM program" and "extracurricular STEM activities" in the databases (criterion-1). Secondly, studies were collected beginning from November to the end of December 2023. So, the studies published until the end of December 2023 were included in the search, without a specific starting date restriction (criterion-2). Thirdly, the search was limited to scientific journal articles, book chapters, proceedings, and theses, excluding publications such as practices, letters to editors, corrections, and (guest) editorials (criterion-3). Fourthly, studies published in languages other than English were excluded, focusing exclusively on English language publications (criterion-4). Fifthly, duplicate articles found in both databases were identified and removed. Next, the author read the contents of all the studies, including those without full articles, with a particular focus on the abstract sections. After that, studies related to after school program and extracurricular activities that did not specifically involve the terms STEM or clubs were excluded, even though “extracurricular STEM activities” and “after school STEM program” were used in the search process, and there were studies related to after school program or extracurricular activities but not STEM (criterion-5). Additionally, studies conducted in formal and informal settings within STEM clubs were included, while studies conducted in settings such as museums or trips were excluded (criterion-6). Because STEM Clubs are a subset of informal STEM education settings, which also include museums and field trips, the main focus of this study is to show the trends specifically related to STEM Clubs. Moreover, studies focusing solely on technology without incorporating other STEM components were also excluded (criterion-7). Finally, 56 publications that met the inclusion and extraction criteria were identified. These publications comprised two dissertations, seven proceedings, and 47 articles from 36 different journals. By applying these criteria, the search process aimed to ensure the inclusion of relevant studies while excluding those that did not meet the specified criteria as shown in Fig.  1 .

figure 1

Flowchart of article process selection

Data Analysing Process

Two different approaches were followed in the content analysis process of this study. In the first part, deductive content analysis was used, and a priori coding was conducted as the categories were established prior to the analysis. The categorization matrix was created based on the Paper Classification Form (PCF) developed by Sozbilir et al. ( 2012 ). The coding scheme devised consisted of eight classification groups for the sections of publication years, keywords, research designs, sample levels, sample sizes, data collection tools, data analysis methods, and durations, with sub-categories for each section. For example, under the research designs section, the sub-categories included qualitative and quantitative methods, case study, design-case study, comparative-case study, ethnographic study, phenomenological study, survey study, experimental study, mixed and longitudinal study, and literature review study. These sub-categories were identified prior to the analysis. Coding was then applied to the data using spreadsheets in the Excel program, based on the categorization matrix. Frequencies for the codes and categories created were calculated and presented in the findings section with tables. Line charts were used for the publication years section, while word clouds, which visually represent word frequency, were used for the keywords section. Word clouds display the most frequently used words in different sizes and colours based on their frequencies (DePaolo & Wilkinson, 2014 ). So, in this part, the analysis was certain since the studies mostly provided related information in their contents.

In the second part, open coding and the creation of categories and abstraction phases were followed for the purposes and findings sections. Firstly, the stated purposes and findings of the studies were written as text. The written text was then carefully reviewed, and any necessary terms were written down in the margins to describe all aspects of the content. Following this open coding, the lists of categories were grouped under higher order headings, taking into consideration their similarities or dissimilarities. Each category was named using content-characteristic words. The abstraction process was repeated to the extent that was reasonable and possible. In this coding process, two individuals independently reviewed ten studies, considering the coding scheme for the first part and conducting open coding for the second part. They then compared their notes and resolved any differences that emerged during their initial checklists. Inter-rater reliability was calculated as 0.84 using Cohen's kappa analysis. Once coding reliability was ensured, the remaining articles were independently coded by the author. After completing the coding process, consensus was reached through discussions regarding any disagreements among the researchers regarding the codes, as well as the codes and categories constructed for the purpose and findings sections. At this point, there were mostly agreements in the coding process since the studies had already clearly stated their key characteristics, such as research design, sample size, sample level, and data collection tools. Additionally, when coding the studies' stated purposes and results, the researchers closely referred to the original sentences in the studies, which led to a high level of consistency in the coded content between the two raters.

Studies related to the STEM Clubs were initially conducted in 2009 (Fig.  2 ). The noticeable increase in the number of studies conducted each year is remarkable. It can be seen that the majority of the 47 articles that were examined (56 articles) were published after 2015, despite a decrease in the year 2018. Additionally, it was observed that the articles were most frequently published (8) in the years 2019 and 2022, least frequently (1) in the years 2009, 2010, and 2014, and there were no publications in 2012.

figure 2

Number of articles by years

Word clouds were utilized to present the most frequently used keywords in the articles, as shown in Fig.  3 . However, due to the lack of reported keywords in the ERIC database, only 30 articles were included for these analyses. The keywords that exist in these studies were represented in a word cloud in Fig.  3 . The most frequently appearing keywords, such as "STEM," "education" and "learning" were identified. Additionally, by using a content analysis method, these keywords were categorized into six different groups: disciplines, technological concepts, academic community, learning experiences, core elements of education, and psychosocial factors (variables) in Table  1 .

figure 3

Word cloud of the keywords used in articles

The purposes of the identified studies identified were classified into six main themes: “effects of participation in STEM Clubs on” (25), “evolution of a sample program for STEM Clubs and its implementation” (25), “examination of” (11), “identification of” (3), “comparison of in-school and out-school STEM experiences” (2) and “others” (6). Table 2 presents the distribution of the articles’ purposes based on the classification regarding these themes. Therefore, it can be seen that purposes of “effects of participation in STEM Clubs on,” and “evolution of a sample program for STEM Clubs and its implementation” were given the highest and equal consideration, while the purposes related to "identification of" (3) and "comparison of in-school and out-of-school STEM experiences" (2) were given the least consideration among them.

Within the theme of "effects of participation in STEM Clubs on" there are 11 categories. The aims of the studies in this section are to examine the effect of participation in STEM Clubs on various aspects such as attitudes towards STEM disciplines or career paths, STEM major choice/career aspiration, achievement in math, science, STEM disciplines, or content knowledge, perception of scientists, strategies used, value of clubs, STEM career paths, enjoyment of physics, use of complex and scientific language, interest in STEM, creativity, critical thinking about STEM texts, images of mathematics, or climate-change beliefs/literacy. It is evident that the majority of research in this section focuses on the effects of participation in STEM Clubs on STEM major choice/career aspiration (5), achievement (4), perception of something (4), and interest in STEM (3).

Within the theme of "evolution of a sample program for STEM Clubs and its implementation" there are three categories: development of program/curriculum/activity (14), identification of program's challenges and limitations (3), and implementation of program/activity (8). The studies in this section aim to develop a sample program for STEM Clubs and describe its implementation. It can be seen that the most preferred purpose among them is the development of program/curriculum/activity (14), while the least preferred purpose is the identification of program's challenges and limitations (3). In addition, studies that focus on the development of the program, curriculum, or activity were classified under the "general" category (10). Sub-categories were created for studies specifically expressing the development of the program with a focus on a particular area, such as the maker movement or Arduino-assisted robotics and coding. Similarly, studies that explicitly mentioned the development of the program based on presented ideas and experiences formed another sub-category. Furthermore, the category related to the implementation of program/activity was divided into eight sub-categories, each indicating the specific centre of implementation, such as problem-based learning-centred and representation of blacks-centred.

The theme of "examination of" refers to studies that aim to examine certain aspects, such as the experiences and perceptions of students (7) and the factors influencing specific subjects (4). Studies focusing on examining the experiences and perceptions of students were labelled as "general" (4), while studies exploring their experiences and perceptions regarding specific content, such as influences and challenges to participation in STEM clubs (2) and assessment (1), were labelled accordingly. Additionally, studies that focused on examining factors affecting the choice of STEM majors (2), participation in STEM clubs (1), and motivation to develop interest in STEM (1) were categorized in line with their respective focuses. As shown in Table  2 , it is evident that studies focusing on examining the experiences and perceptions of students (7) were more frequently conducted compared to studies focusing on examining the factors affecting specific subjects (4).

The theme of "identification of" refers to studies that aim to identify certain aspects, such as the types of attitudinal effects (1), types of changes in affect toward engineering (1), and non-academic skills (1). Additionally, the theme of "comparison of in-school and out-of-school STEM experiences" (2) refers to studies that aim to compare STEM experiences within school and outside of school. Lastly, studies that did not fit into the aforementioned categories were included in the "others" theme (6) as no clear connection could be identified among them.

Research Designs

The research designs employed in the examined articles were identified as follows: qualitative methods (36), including case study (20), design-case study (6), comparative-case study (4), ethnographic study (2), phenomenological study (2), and survey study (2); quantitative methods (7), including survey study (4) and experimental study (3); mixed methods and longitudinal studies (10); and literature review (3), as illustrated in Table  3 . It can be observed that among these methods, case study was the most commonly utilized. Furthermore, it is evident that quantitative methods (7) and literature reviews (3) were employed less frequently compared to qualitative (36) and mixed methods (10). Additionally, survey studies were utilized in both quantitative and qualitative studies.

Sample Levels

The frequencies and percentages of sample levels in the examined articles are presented in Table  4 . The studies involved participants at different educational levels, including elementary school (8), middle school (23), high school (14), pre-service teachers or undergraduate students (6), teachers (4), parents (3), and others (1). It is apparent that middle school students (23) were the most commonly utilized sample among them, while high school students (14) were more frequently chosen compared to elementary school students (8). It should be noted that while grade levels were specified for both elementary and middle school students, separate grade levels were not identified for high school students in these studies. Additionally, studies that involved mixed groups were labelled as 3-5th and 6-8th grades. However, when the mixed groups included participants from different educational levels such as elementary, middle, or high school, teachers, parents, etc., they were counted as separate levels. Furthermore, the studies conducted with participants such as pre-service teachers, undergraduates, teachers, and parents were less frequently employed compared to K-12 students.

Sample Sizes

The frequencies of sample sizes in the examined articles are presented in Table  5 . It was observed that in 15 studies, the number of sample sizes was not provided. The intervals for the sample size were not equally separated; instead, they were arranged with intervals of 5, 10, 50, and 100. This choice was made to allow for a more detailed analysis of smaller samples, as smaller intervals can provide a more granular examination of data instead of cumulative amounts. The analysis reveals that the studies primarily prioritized sample groups with 11–15 (f:8) participants, followed by groups of 16–20 (f:4) and 201–250 (f:4). Additionally, it is evident that sample sizes of 6–10, 21–25, 41–50, 50–100, and more than 2000 (f:1) were the least commonly studied.

Data Collection Tools

The frequencies and percentages of data collection tools in the examined articles are presented in Table  6 . The analysis reveals that the studies primarily employed survey or questionnaires (31.6%) and observations (30.5%) as data collection methods, followed by interviews (15.8%), documents (13.7%), tests (4.2%), and field notes (4.2%). Regarding survey/questionnaires, Likert-type scales (f:23) were more commonly employed compared to open-ended questions (f:7). Tests were predominantly used as achievement tests (f:2) and assessments (f:2), representing the least preferred data collection tools. Furthermore, the table illustrates that multiple data collection tools were frequently employed, as the total number of tools (95) is nearly twice the number of studies (56).

Data Analysing Methods

The frequencies and percentages of data analysing methods in the examined articles are presented in Table  7 . The table reveals that the studies predominantly employed descriptive analysis (f:33, 41.25%), followed by inferential statistics (f:16, 20%), descriptive statistics (f:15, 18.75%), content analysis (f:14, 17.5%), and the constant-comparative method (f:2, 2.5%). It is notable that qualitative methods (f:49, 61.25%) were preferred more frequently than quantitative methods (f:31, 38.75%) in the examined studies related to STEM Clubs. Within the qualitative methods, descriptive analysis (f:33) was utilized nearly twice as often as content analysis (f:14), while within the quantitative methods, descriptive statistics (f:15) and inferential statistics (f:16), including t-tests, ANOVA, regression, and other methods, were used with comparable frequency.

The durations of STEM Clubs in the examined studies are presented in Table  8 . Based on the analysis, there are more studies (f:37) that do not state the duration of STEM Clubs than studies (f:19) that do provide information on the durations. Additionally, among the studies that do state the durations, there is no common period of time for STEM Clubs, as they were implemented for varying numbers of weeks and sessions, with session durations ranging from several minutes. Therefore, it can be observed that STEM Clubs were conducted over the course of 3 semesters (academic year and summer), 5 months, 2 to 16 weeks, with session durations ranging from 60 to 120 min. Furthermore, the durations of "3 semesters," "10 weeks with 90-min sessions per week," and "unknown weeks with 60-min sessions per week" were used more than once in the studies.

The content analysis of the findings of the identified examined articles are presented by their frequencies in Table  9 . Although the studies cover a diverse range of topics, the analysis indicates that the results can be broadly classified into three themes, namely, the "development of or increase in certain aspects" (f:68), "design of STEM Clubs" (f:17), and "identification of various aspects" (f:16). Based on the analysis, the findings in the studies are associated with the development of certain aspects such as skills or the increase in specific outcomes like academic achievement. Furthermore, the studies explore the design of STEM Clubs through the description of specific cases, such as sample implementations and challenges. Additionally, the studies focus on the identification of various aspects, such as factors and perceptions.

It is evident from the findings that the studies predominantly yield results related to the development of or increase in certain aspects (f:68). Within this theme, the most commonly observed result is the development of STEM or academic achievement or STEM competency (f:11). This is followed by an increase in STEM major choice or career aspiration (f:9), an increase in engagement or participation in STEM clubs (f:5), the development of identity including STEM, science, engineering, under-representative groups (f:5), the development of interest in STEM (f:4), an increase in enjoyment (f:4), and the development of collaboration, leadership, or communication skills (f:4). Furthermore, it can be observed that there are some results, such as the development of critical thinking, perseverance and the teachers’ profession, that were yielded less frequently (f:1). The results of 16 studies were found with a frequency of 1.

Within the design of STEM Clubs, the sample implementation or design model for different purposes such as the usage of robotic program or students with disabilities (f:7), design principles or ideas for STEM clubs, activities or curriculum (f:4), challenges or factors effecting STEM Clubs success and sustainability (f:3) were presented as a result. Additionally, the comparison was made between in-school and out-of-school learning environments (f:3), highlighting the contradictions of STEM clubs and science classes, as well as the differences in STEM activities and continues-discontinues learning experiences in mathematics. Within the identification of various aspects, the most commonly gathered result was the identification of factors affecting participation or motivation to STEM clubs (f:5). This was followed by the identification of barriers to participation (f:2). The identification of other aspects, such as parents' roles and perspectives on STEM, was comparatively less frequent.

Considering the wide variety of STEM Clubs found in different regions around the world, this study aimed to investigate the current state of research on STEM Clubs. It is not surprising to observe an increase in the number of studies conducted on STEM Clubs over the years. This can be attributed to the overall growth in research on STEM education (Zhan et al., 2022 ), as STEM education often includes activities and after-school programs as integral components (Blanchard et al., 2017 ). Identifying relevant keywords and incorporating them into a search strategy is crucial for conducting a comprehensive and rigorous systematic review (Corrin et al., 2022 ). To gain a broader understanding of keyword usage in the context of STEM Clubs, a word cloud analysis was performed (McNaught & Lam, 2010 ). Additionally, based on the content analysis method, six different categories for keywords were immerged: disciplines, technological concepts, academic community, learning experiences, core elements of education, and psychosocial factors (variables). The analysis revealed that the keyword "STEM" was used most frequently in the studies examined. This may be because authors want their studies to be easily found and widely searchable by others, so they use "STEM" as a general term for their studies (Corrin et al., 2022 ). Similarly, the frequent use of keywords like "education" and "learning" from the "core elements of education" category could be attributed to authors' desire to use broad, searchable terms to make their studies more discoverable (Corrin et al., 2022 ). Additionally, it was observed that from the STEM components, only "science" and "engineering" were used as keywords, while "mathematics" and "technology" were not present. This finding aligns with claims in the literature that mathematics is often underemphasized in STEM integration (Fitzallen, 2015 ; Maass et al., 2019 ; Stohlmann, 2018 ). Although the specific term "technology" did not appear in the word cloud, technology-related keywords such as "arduino," "robots," "coding," and "innovative" were present. Furthermore, the analysis revealed that authors preferred to use keywords related to their sample populations, such as "middle (school students)," "elementary (students)," "high school students," or "teachers." Additionally, keywords describing learning experiences, such as "extracurricular," "informal," "afterschool," "out-of-school," "social," "clubs," and "practice" were commonly used. This preference may stem from the fact that STEM clubs are often part of informal learning environments, out-of-school programs, or afterschool activities, and these concepts are closely related to each other (Baran et al., 2016 ; Cooper, 2011 ; Kalkan & Eroglu, 2017 ; Schweingruber et al., 2014 ). Moreover, the analysis showed that keywords related to psychosocial factors (variables), such as "disabilities," "skills," "interest," "attainment," "enactment," "expectancy-value," "self-efficacy," "engagement," "motivation," "career," "gender," "cognitive," and "identity" were also prevalent. This suggests that the articles investigated the effects of STEM club practices on these psychosocial variables. To sum up, by using these keywords, researchers can gain valuable insights and effectively search for relevant articles related to STEM clubs, enabling them to locate appropriate resources for their research (Corrin et al., 2022 ).

The popularity of case studies as a research design, based on the analysis, can be attributed to the fact that studies on STEM Clubs were conducted in diverse learning environments, highlighting sample implementation designs (Adams et al., 2014 ; Bell et al., 2009 ; Robelen, 2011 ). At this point, case studies offer the opportunity to present practical applications and real-world examples (Hamilton & Corbett-Whittier, 2012 ), which is highly valuable in the context of STEM Clubs. Additionally, the observation that quantitative methods were not as commonly utilized as qualitative methods in studies related to STEM Clubs contrasts with the predominant reliance on quantitative methods in STEM education research (Aslam et al., 2022 ; Irwanto et al., 2022 ; Lin et al., 2019 ). This suggests a lack of quantitative studies specifically focused on STEM Clubs, indicating a need for more research in this area employing quantitative approaches. Therefore, it is important to prioritize and conduct additional quantitative studies to further enhance our understanding of STEM Clubs and their impact. In studies on STEM Club, there is a higher frequency of research involving K-12 students, particularly middle school students, parallel to some studies on literature (Aslam et al., 2022 ), compared to other groups such as pre-service teachers, undergraduate students, teachers, and parents. This can be attributed to the fact that STEM Clubs are designed for K-12 students, and middle school is a crucial period for introducing them to STEM concepts and careers. Middle school students are developmentally ready for hands-on and inquiry-based learning, commonly used in STEM education. Additionally, time constraints, especially for high school students preparing for university, may limit their involvement in extensive STEM activities. Furthermore, STEM Clubs were primarily employed with sample groups ranging from 11–15, 16–20, and 201–250 participants. The preference for 11–20 participants, rather than less than 10, may be attributed to the collaborative nature of STEM activities, which often require a larger team for effective teamwork and group dynamics (Magaji et al., 2022 ). Utilizing small groups as samples can result in the case study research design being the most frequently employed approach due to its compatibility with smaller sample sizes. On the other hand, the inclusion of larger groups (201–250) is suitable for survey studies, as this number can represent the total student population attending STEM Clubs throughout a semester with multiple sessions (Boys & Girls Club of America, 2019 ).

According to studies on STEM Clubs, surveys or questionnaires and observations were predominantly used as data collection methods. This preference can be attributed to the fact that surveys or questionnaires allow researchers to gather data on diverse aspects, including students' attitudes, perceptions, and experiences related to STEM Clubs, facilitating generalization and comparison (McLafferty, 2016 ). Furthermore, observations were frequently employed because they can offer a deeper understanding of the lived experiences and actual practices within STEM Clubs (Baker, 2006 ). Along with data collection tools, descriptive analysis was predominantly utilized in studies on STEM Clubs, with quantitative methods including descriptive statistics and inferential statistics being used to a similar extent. The preference for descriptive analysis may arise from its effectiveness in describing activities, experiences, and practices within STEM Clubs. Given the predominance of case study research in the analysed studies, it is not surprising to observe a high frequency of descriptive statistics in the findings. On the other hand, the extensive use of quantitative analysing methods can be attributed to the need for statistical analysis of surveys and questionnaires (Young, 2015 ). Consequently, future studies on STEM Clubs could benefit from considering the use of tests and field notes as additional data collection tools, along with surveys, observations and interviews. Additionally, the development of tests specifically designed to assess aspects related to STEM could provide valuable insights (Capraro & Corlu, 2013 ; Grangeat et al., 2021 ). Moreover, increasing the utilization of content analysis and constant comparative analysis methods could further enhance the depth and richness of data analysis in STEM Club research (White & Marsh, 2006 ). In the studies on STEM Clubs, the duration and scheduling of the clubs varied considerably. While there was no common period of time for STEM Clubs, they were implemented for different numbers of weeks and sessions, with session durations ranging from several minutes to 60 to 120 min. However, it was observed that STEM Clubs were predominantly conducted over the course of three semesters, including the academic year and summer, or for durations of 2 to 16 weeks. This scheduling pattern can be attributed to the fact that STEM Clubs were often implemented as after-school programs, and they were designed to align with the academic semesters and summer school periods to effectively reach students. Additionally, the number of weeks in these studies may have been arranged according to the duration of academic semesters, although some studies were conducted for less than a semester (Gutierrez, 2016 ). The most common use of multiple sessions with a time range of 60 to 120 min can be attributed to the nature of the activities involved in STEM Clubs. These activities often require more time than regular class hours, and splitting them into separate sessions allows students to effectively concentrate on their work and engage in more in-depth learning experiences (Vennix et al., 2017 ).

The purposes of the studies on STEM Clubs were mostly related to effects of participation in STEM Clubs on various aspects such as attitudes towards STEM disciplines or career paths, STEM major choice/career aspiration, achievement etc., evolution of a sample program for STEM Clubs and its implementation including the development of program/activity, identification of program's challenges and limitations, and implementation of it, followed by the examination of certain aspects such as the experiences and perceptions of students and the factors influencing specific subjects, identification of such as the types of attitudinal effects and non-academic skills, and comparison of in-school and out-school STEM experiences. Therefore, the results of the studies parallel to the purposes were mostly related to development of or increase in certain aspects such as STEM or academic achievement or STEM competency STEM major choice or career aspiration engagement or participation in STEM Clubs, identity, interest in STEM, enjoyment, collaboration, communication skills, critical thinking, the design of STEM Clubs including the sample implementation or design model for different purposes such as the usage of robotic program or students with disabilities, design principles or ideas for STEM clubs or activities, challenges or factors effecting STEM Clubs success and sustainability, and the comparison between in-school and out-of-school learning environments. Also, they are related to the identification of various aspects such as factors affecting participation or motivation to STEM clubs, barriers to participation. At this point, it is evident that these identified categories align with the findings of studies in the literature. These studies claim that after-school programs, such as STEM Clubs, have positive impacts on students' achievement levels (NRC, 2015 ; Kazu & Kurtoglu Yalcin, 2021 ; Shernoff & Vandell, 2007 ), communication, and innovative problem-solving abilities (Mahoney et al., 2007 ), leadership skills (Lipscomb et al., 2017 ), career decision-making (Bybee, 2001 ; Dabney et al., 2012 ; Sahin et al., 2018 ; Tai et al., 2006 ), creativity (Wan et al., 2023 ), 21st-century skills (Hirsch, 2011 ; Zeng et al., 2018 ), interest in STEM professions (Blanchard et al., 2017 ; Chittum et al., 2017 ; Wang et al., 2011 ), and knowledge in STEM fields (Adams et al., 2014 ; Bell et al., 2009 ). Furthermore, it can be inferred that the studies on STEM Clubs paid significant attention to the design descriptions of programs or activities (Nation et al., 2019 ). This may be because there is a need for studies that focus on designing program models for different cases (Calabrese Barton & Tan, 2018 ; Estrada et al., 2016 ). These studies can serve as examples and provide guidance for the development of STEM clubs in various settings. By creating sample models, researchers can contribute to the improvement and expansion of STEM clubs across different environments (Cakir & Guven, 2019 ; Estrada et al., 2016 ).

In conclusion, as the studies on the trends in STEM education (Bozkurt et al., 2019 ; Chomphuphra et al., 2019 ; Irwanto et al., 2022 ; Li et al., 2020 ; Lin et al., 2019 ; Martín-Páez et al., 2019 ; Noris et al., 2023 ), the analysis of prevailing research trends specifically in STEM Clubs, which are implemented in diverse environments with varying methods and purposes, can provide a comprehensive understanding of these clubs as a whole.

It can also serve as a valuable resource for guiding future investigations in this field. By identifying common approaches and identifying gaps in methods and results, a holistic perspective on STEM Clubs can be achieved, leading to a more informed and targeted direction for future research endeavours.

Recommendations

Future research on STEM Clubs should consider the trends identified in the study and address methodological gaps. For instance, there is a lack of research in this area that employs quantitative approaches. Therefore, it is important for future studies to incorporate quantitative methods to enhance the understanding of STEM Clubs and their impact. This includes exploring underrepresented populations, investigating the long-term impacts of STEM Clubs, and examining the effectiveness of specific pedagogical approaches or interventions within these clubs. Researchers should conduct an analysis to identify common approaches used in STEM Clubs across different settings. This analysis can help uncover effective strategies, best practices, and successful models that can be replicated or adapted in various contexts. By undertaking these efforts, researchers can contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of STEM Clubs, leading to advancements in the field of STEM education.

Limitations

It is important to consider the limitations of the study when interpreting its findings. The study's findings are based on the literature selected from two databases, which may introduce biases and limitations. Additionally, the study's findings are constrained by the timeframe of the literature review, and new studies may have emerged since the cut-off date, potentially impacting the representation and generalizability of the research trends identified. Another limitation lies in the construction of categories during the coding process. The coding scheme used may not have fully captured or represented all relevant terms or concepts. Some relevant terms may have been inadequately represented or identified using different words or phrases, potentially introducing limitations to the analysis. While efforts were made to ensure validity and reliability, there is still a possibility of unintended biases or inconsistencies in the categorization process.

Data Availability

The datasets (documents, excel analysis) utilized in this article are available upon request from the corresponding author.

Adams, J. D., Gupta, P., & Cotumaccio, A. (2014). A museum program enhances girls’ STEM interest, motivation and persistence. Afterschool Matters, 12 , 14–20.

Google Scholar  

Afterschool Alliance (2015).  Full STEM ahead: Afterschool programs step up as key partners in STEM education . Retrieved November 2023 from http://www.afterschoolalliance.org/AA3PM/

Aslam, S., Saleem, A., Kennedy, T. J., Kumar, T., Parveen, K., Akram, H., & Zhang, B. (2022). Identifying the research and trends in STEM education in Pakistan: A systematic literature review. SAGE Open, 12 (3), 21582440221118544.

Article   Google Scholar  

Ayers, K. A., Wade-Jaimes, K., Wang, L., Pennella, R. A., & Pounds, S. B. (2020). The St. Jude STEM clubs: An after-school STEM club for upper elementary school students in Memphis, TN. Journal of STEM Outreach, 3 (1), 1–26. https://doi.org/10.15695/jstem/v3i1.13

Bae, S. H. (2018). Concepts, models, and research of extended education. International Journal for Research on Extended Education, 6 (2), 153–165.

Baker, L. (2006). Observation: A complex research method. Library Trends, 55 (1), 171–189.

Baran, E., Bilici, S. C., Mesutoglu, C., & Ocak, C. (2016). Moving STEM beyond schools: Students’ perceptions about an out-of-school STEM education program. International Journal of Education in Mathematics, Science and Technology, 4 (1), 9–19. https://doi.org/10.18404/ijemst.71338

Bell, P., Lewenstein, B., Shouse, A. W., & Feder, M. A. (2009). Learning science in informal environments: People, places and pursuits . National Research Council of the National Academies.

Blanchard, M. R., Hoyle, K. S., & Gutierrez, K. S. (2017). How to start a STEM club. Science Scope, 41 (3), 88–94.

Boys and Girls Club of America (2019). Annual report . Retrieved November 2023 from https://www.bgca.org/about-us/annual-report

Bozkurt, A., Ucar, H., Durak, G., & Idin, S. (2019). The current state of the art in STEM research: A systematic review study. Cypriot Journal of Educational Science,  14 (3), 374–383. https://doi.org/10.18844/cjes.v14i3.3447

Bybee, R. W. (2001). Achieving scientific literacy: Strategies for ensuring that free choice science education complements national formal science education efforts. In J. H. Falk (Ed.), Free choice education: How we learn science outside of school (pp. 44–63). Teachers College Press.

Cakir, N. K., & Guven, G. (2019). Arduino-assisted robotic and coding applications in science teaching: Pulsimeter activity in compliance with the 5E learning model. Science Activities, 56 (2), 42–51.

Calabrese Barton, A., & Tan, E. (2018). A longitudinal study of equity-oriented STEM-rich making among youth from historically marginalized communities. American Educational Research Journal, 55 (4), 761–800.

Capraro, R. M., & Corlu, M. S. (2013). Changing views on assessment for STEM project-based learning. In R. M. Capraro, M. M. Capraro, & J. R. Morgan (Eds.),  STEM project-based learning (pp. 109–118). Brill.

Chapter   Google Scholar  

Casing, P. I., & Casing, L. M. R. (2024). Fostering students’ mathematics achievement through after-school program in the 21st century. Online Submission, 12 (3), 118–122.

Chittum, J. R., Jones, B. D., Akalin, S., & Schram, A. B. (2017). The effects of an afterschool STEM program on students’ motivation and engagement. International Journal of STEM Education, 4 , 1–16.

Chomphuphra, P., Chaipidech, P., & Yuenyong, C. (2019). Trends and research issues of STEM education: A review of academic publications from 2007 to 2017. Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 1340 (1), 012069.

Civil, M. (2007). Building on community knowledge: An avenue to equity in mathematics education. In N. S. Nasir & P. Cobb (Eds.), Improving access to mathematics: Diversity and equity in the classroom (pp. 105–117). Teachers College.

Cooper, S. (2011). An exploration of the potential for mathematical experiences in informal learning environments. Visitor Studies, 14 (1), 48–65. https://doi.org/10.1080/10645578.2011.557628

Corrin, L., Thompson, K., Hwang, G. J., & Lodge, J. M. (2022). The importance of choosing the right keywords for educational technology publications. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 38 (2), 1–8.

Dabney, K. P., Tai, R. H., Almarode, J. T., Miller-Friedmann, J. L., Sonnert, G., Sadler, P. M., & Hazari, Z. (2012). Out-of-school time science activities and their association with a career interest in STEM. International Journal of Science Education, Part B, 2 (1), 63–79. https://doi.org/10.1080/21548455.2011.629455

DePaolo, C. A., & Wilkinson, K. (2014). Get your head into the clouds: Using word clouds for analyzing qualitative assessment data. TechTrends, 58 , 38–44. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11528-014-0750-9

Donnelly, M., ažetić, P., Sandoval-Hernandez, A., Kumar, K., & Whewall, S. (2019). An unequal playing field-extra-curricular activities, soft skills and social mobility . Social Mobility Commission.

Durlak, J. A., & Weissberg, R. P. (2007). The impact of after-school programs that promote personal and social skills. Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL). Retrieved from www.casel.org

Elo, S., & Kyngäs, H. (2008). The qualitative content analysis process. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 62 (1), 107–115.

Estrada, M., Burnett, M., Campbell, A. G., Campbell, P. B., Denetclaw, W. F., Gutiérrez, C. G., Hurtado, S., John, G. H., Matsui, J., McGee, R., Okpodu, C. M, Robinson, T. J., Summers, M. F., Werner-Washburne, M., & Zavala, M. (2016). Improving underrepresented minority student persistence in STEM. CBE—Life Sciences Education , 15 (3), es5.

Fitzallen, N. (2015). STEM Education: What does mathematics have to offer? In M. Marshman, V. Geiger, & A. Bennison (Eds.), Mathematics education in the margins. Proceedings of The 38th Annual Conference of the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia (pp. 237–244). MERGA.

Fraenkel, J., Wallen, N., & Hyun, H. (2012). How to design and evaluate research in education (10th ed.). McGraw-Hill Education.

Gay, L. R., Mills, G. E., & Airasian, P. W. (2012). Educational research: competencies for analysis and applications (10th ed.). Pearson.

Grangeat, M., Harrison, C., & Dolin, J. (2021). Exploring assessment in STEM inquiry learning classrooms. International Journal of Science Education, 43 (3), 345–361.

Gutierrez, K. S. (2016). Investigating the climate change beliefs, knowledge, behaviors, and cultural worldviews of rural middle school students and their families during an out-of-school intervention: A mixed-methods study (Publication No. 11320) [Doctoral dissertation, North Carolina State University]. NC State University Libraries.

Hamilton, L., & Corbett-Whittier, C. (2012). Using case study in education research . Sage.

Hein, G. (2009). Learning science in informal environments: People, places, and pursuits. Museums & Social Issues, 4 (1), 113–124.

Hirsch, B. (2011). Learning and development in after-school programs. Phi Delta Kappan, 92 (5), 66–69. https://doi.org/10.1177/2F003172171109200516

Irwanto, I., Saputro, A. D., Widiyanti, W., Ramadhan, M. F., & Lukman, I. R. (2022). Research trends in STEM education from 2011 to 2020: A systematic review of publications in selected journals. International Journal of Interactive Mobile Technologies (iJIM), 16 (5), 19–32.

Kalkan, C., & Eroglu, S. (2017). Designing sample activities based on STEM materials for gifted/talented students in support education rooms. Journal of Gifted Education and Creativity , 4 (2), 36–46. Retrieved November 2023 from  https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/jgedc/issue/38702/449432

Kazu, I. Y., & Kurtoglu Yalcin, C. (2021). The effect of STEM education on academic performance: A meta-analysis study. Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology-TOJET, 20 (4), 101–116.

Lauer, P. A., Akiba, M., Wilkerson, S. B., Apthorp, H. S., Snow, D., & Martin-Glenn, M. L. (2006). Out-of-school-time programs: A meta-analysis of effects for at-risk students. Review of Educa- Tional Research, 76 (2), 275–313.

Li, Y., Wang, K., Xiao, Y., & Froyd, J. E. (2020). Research and trends in STEM education: A systematic review of journal publications. International Journal of STEM Education, 7 (1), 1–16.

Lin, T. C., Lin, T. J., & Tsai, C. C. (2014). Research trends in science education from 2008 to 2012: A systematic content analysis of publications in selected journals. International Journal of Science Education, 36 (8), 1346–1372.

Lin, T. J., Lin, T. C., Potvin, P., & Tsai, C. C. (2019). Research trends in science education from 2013 to 2017: A systematic content analysis of publications in selected journals. International Journal of Science Education, 41 (3), 367–387.

Lipscomb, S., Haimson, J., Liu, A. Y., Burghardt, J., Johnson, D. R., & Thurlow, M. L. (2017). Preparing for life after high school: The characteristics and experiences of youth in special education. Findings from the National Longitudinal Transition Study 2012. Volume 2: Comparisons across disability groups: Full report (Report No. NCEE 2017–4018). U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance.

Little, P., Wimer, C., & Weiss, H. B. (2008). After school programs in the 21st century: Their poten- tial and what it takes to achieve it. Issues and Opportunities in out-of-School Time Evaluation, 10 , 1–12.

Maass, K., Geiger, V., Ariza, M. R., & Goos, M. (2019). The role of mathematics in interdisciplinary STEM education. ZDM, 51 , 869–884. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11858-019-01100-5

Magaji, A., Ade-Ojo, G., & Bijlhout, D. (2022). The impact of after school science club on the learning progress and attainment of students. International Journal of Instruction, 15 (3), 171–190.

Mahoney, J. L., Parente, M. E., & Lord, H. (2007). After-school program engagement: Links to child competence and program quality and content. The Elementary School Journal, 107 (4), 385–404.

Martín-Páez, T., Aguilera, D., Perales-Palacios, F. J., & Vílchez-González, J. M. (2019). What are we talking about when we talk about STEM education? A Review of Literature. Science Education, 103 (4), 799–822.

McLafferty, S. (2016). Conducting questionnaire surveys. Key Methods in Geography, 3 , 129–142.

McNaught, C., & Lam, P. (2010). Using Wordle as a supplementary research tool. Qualitative Report, 15 (3), 630–643.

Merrill, C., & Daugherty, J. (2010). STEM education and leadership: A mathematics and science partnership approach. Journal of Technology Education, 21 (2), 21–34.

Nation, J. M., Harlow, D., Arya, D. J., & Longtin, M. (2019). Being and becoming scientists: Design-based STEM programming for girls. Afterschool Matters, 29 , 36–44.

National Research Council, Division of Behavioral, Board on Science Education, & Committee on Successful Out-of-School STEM Learning (2015). Identifying and supporting productive STEM programs in out-of-school settings . National Academies Press.

Noris, M., Saputro, S., & Ulimaz, A. (2023). STEM research trends from 2013 to 2022: A systematic literature review. International Journal of Technology in Education (IJTE), 6 (2), 224–237. https://doi.org/10.46328/ijte.390

Pastchal-Temple, A. S. (2012). The effect of regular participation in an after-school program on student achievement, attendance, and behavior (Publication No. 4368) [Doctoral dissertation, Mississippi State University]. Mississippi State University Libraries.

Resnick, L. B. (1987). Education and learning to think . National Academy Press.

Robelen, E. (2011). New STEM schools target underrepresented groups. Education Week, 31 (1), 18–19.

Sahin, A., Ekmekci, A., & Waxman, H. C. (2018). Collective effects of individual, behavioral, and contextual factors on high school students’ future STEM career plans. International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, 16 , 69–89.

Schweingruber, H., Pearson, G., & Honey, M. (Eds.). (2014). STEM integration in K-12 education: Status, prospects, and an agenda for research . National Academies Press.

Shernoff, D. J., & Vandell, D. L. (2007). Engagement in after school program activities: Quality of experience from the perspective of participants. Journal of Youth Adolescence, 36 , 891–903.

Stemler, S. (2000). An overview of content analysis. Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation, 7 (17), 1–6. https://doi.org/10.7275/z6fm-2e34

Stohlmann, M. (2018). A vision for future work to focus on the “m” in integrated STEM. School Science and Mathematics, 118 (7), 310–319. https://doi.org/10.1111/ssm.12301

Sozbilir, M., Kutu, H., & Yasar, M. D. (2012). Science education research in Turkey: A content analysis of selected features of papers published. In J. Dillon & D. Jorde (Eds.), The world of science education: Handbook of research in Europe (pp. 1–35). Sense publishers.

Suri, H., & Clarke, D. (2009). Advancements in research systhesis methods: From a methodologically inclusive perspective. Review of Educational Research, 79 (1), 395–430.

Tai, R. H., Qi Liu, C., Maltese, A. V., & Fan, X. (2006). Planning early for careers in science. Science, 312 (5777), 1143–1144.

Vennix, J., Den Brok, P., & Taconis, R. (2017). Perceptions of STEM-based outreach learning activities in secondary education. Learning Environments Research, 20 , 21–46.

Wan, Z. H., So, W. M. W., & Zhan, Y. (2023). Investigating the effects of design-based STEM learning on primary students’ STEM creativity and epistemic beliefs. International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, 21 (Suppl. 1), 87–108.

Wang, H. H., Moore, T. J., Roehrig, G. H., & Park, M. S. (2011). STEM integration: Teacher perceptions and practice. Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research, 1 (2), 1–13.

White, M. D., & Marsh, E. E. (2006). Content analysis: A flexible methodology. Library Trends, 55 (1), 22–45.

Young, T. J. (2015). Questionnaires and surveys. In Z. Hua (Ed.), Research methods in intercultural communication: A practical guide (pp. 163–180). John Wiley & Sons. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119166283.ch11

Zeng, Z., Yao, J., Gu, H., & Przybylski, R. (2018). A meta-analysis on the effects of STEM education on students’ abilities. Science Insights Education Frontiers, 1 (1), 3–16.

Zhan, Z., Shen, W., Xu, Z., Niu, S., & You, G. (2022). A bibliometric analysis of the global landscape on STEM education (2004–2021): Towards global distribution, subject integration, and research trends. Asia Pacific Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, 16 (2), 171–203.

Download references

Open access funding provided by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye (TÜBİTAK). There was no external funding received for the research conducted in this article.

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Department of Industrial Engineering, Istanbul Aydin University, Istanbul, Turkey

Rabia Nur Öndeş

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rabia Nur Öndeş .

Ethics declarations

Ethical approval and consent.

This is a review study and no ethical approval is required.

Competing Interests

The authors have no competing interests to declare that are relevant to the content of this article.

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Rights and permissions

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ .

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Öndeş, R.N. Research Trends in STEM Clubs: A Content Analysis. Int J of Sci and Math Educ (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10763-024-10477-z

Download citation

Received : 19 January 2024

Accepted : 10 June 2024

Published : 25 June 2024

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s10763-024-10477-z

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

  • Research Trends
  • Content Analysis
  • After-school Program
  • Extracurricular Activities
  • Find a journal
  • Publish with us
  • Track your research

NASA Logo

NASA@ My Library and Partners Engage Millions in Eclipse Training and Preparation

The Space Science Institute, with funding from the NASA Science Mission Directorate and Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, provided unprecedented training, support, and supplies to 15,000 libraries in the U.S. and territories in support of public engagement during the 2023 and 2024 eclipses.

From September 2022 to September 2024, these efforts included:

  • Co-development efforts with 3 NASA@ My Library Partner Libraries in the “Square of Awesome” (where both the total and annular eclipse crossed) led to the distribution of 50 NASA@ My Library Solar Science Kits to libraries with a high percentage of Spanish speaking patrons.
  • Over 6 million solar viewers distributed to approximately 15,000 public libraries (with some school libraries included), distributed to every US state and territory.
  • Over 2,000 in-person workshop attendees at 78 in-person solar science workshops in almost every state and territory
  • Final workshops scheduled for Hawaii (4 islands) and American Samoa
  • A total of 217 Solar Eclipse Activities for Libraries (SEAL) Solar Science Kits distributed to State Libraries
  • Over 49,062 programs held at public libraries reaching more than 2.8 million patrons

One public library staff member had this to say: "People who haven't been into the library for 20+ years came in to get glasses, and we had a lot of new library cards generated in late March. Our door counts were over pre-pandemic for the first time since 2019. Thank you for making this possible!"

The NASA@ My Library project is supported by NASA under cooperative agreement award number NNX16AE30A and is part of NASA’s Science Activation Portfolio. Learn more about how Science Activation connects NASA science experts, real content, and experiences with community leaders to do science in ways that activate minds and promote deeper understanding of our world and beyond: https://science.nasa.gov/learn

Four young latinx students wearing solar viewing glasses and and looking up at the sun, grasping each other in a circle as if they're jumping up and down with excitement.

Related Terms

  • 2023 Solar Eclipse
  • 2024 Solar Eclipse
  • Earth Science
  • For Kids and Students
  • Heliophysics
  • Science Activation
  • Science Mission Directorate

Explore More

research topics for stem students 2022

NASA Opportunities Fuel Growth and Entrepreneurship for Bronco Space Club Students

NASA’s public competitions can catalyze big changes – not just for the agency but also for participants. Bronco Space, the CubeSat laboratory at California State Polytechnic University in Pomona, California, matured more than just space technology as a result of winning funds from NASA’s TechLeap Prize competition. It grew from its roots in a broom […]

research topics for stem students 2022

An Eclipse Megamovie Megastar

The bright-white, diffuse glow of an elliptical galaxy sits at image center. The galaxy's core appears as an intense-white circle that gets more diffuse as you move outward from the core. A rusty-red, diffuse cloud is visible to the upper-left of the galaxy. It extends to the upper-left corner of the image, where it is very faint. Black background dotted with foreground stars and distant galaxies.

Hubble Examines an Active Galaxy Near the Lion’s Heart

Discover more topics from nasa.

James Webb Space Telescope

The image is divided horizontally by an undulating line between a cloudscape forming a nebula along the bottom portion and a comparatively clear upper portion. Speckled across both portions is a starfield, showing innumerable stars of many sizes. The smallest of these are small, distant, and faint points of light. The largest of these appear larger, closer, brighter, and more fully resolved with 8-point diffraction spikes. The upper portion of the image is blueish, and has wispy translucent cloud-like streaks rising from the nebula below. The orangish cloudy formation in the bottom half varies in density and ranges from translucent to opaque. The stars vary in color, the majority of which have a blue or orange hue. The cloud-like structure of the nebula contains ridges, peaks, and valleys – an appearance very similar to a mountain range. Three long diffraction spikes from the top right edge of the image suggest the presence of a large star just out of view.

Perseverance Rover

research topics for stem students 2022

Parker Solar Probe

research topics for stem students 2022

research topics for stem students 2022

“Useful, not just in the professional world but in everyday life”- Exploring a non-STEM student’s experience in a tertiary-level data analytics unit

  • Samuel K. Teague + −
  • Kim L. Hudson + −

research topics for stem students 2022

This study investigates the transformation in student knowledge pertaining to the study area of ‘data analytics’, and the building of confidence, specifically in non-STEM students, to analyse, interpret, manipulate, and present data to a range of stakeholders using Microsoft Excel . The context of the study is a newly developed, centrally delivered undergraduate data analytics unit, within which a pre-and post-course survey was embedded. These surveys were administered to students across three separate semesters: S2 2022, S1 2023, and S2 2023. The confidence of both non-STEM and STEM students in conducting data analysis was captured. The findings indicate that students benefit from an immersive curriculum where they are exposed to both an understanding of data analytics in a broad global and social context, characterised by rapid technological change, as well as opportunities to master technical skills utilised through Microsoft Excel . The results demystify the notion that non-STEM students are less capable of expanding their depth of knowledge and technological skill development outside their discipline of choice. These results are important in the context of graduate employability and the importance of digital literacy in a rapidly changing world of work.

IMAGES

  1. 55 Brilliant Research Topics For STEM Students

    research topics for stem students 2022

  2. Quantitative research topics for STEM students in the philippines 2022

    research topics for stem students 2022

  3. Research Topics For Stem Students In The Philippines 2022

    research topics for stem students 2022

  4. 85 Unique Research Topics for STEM Students

    research topics for stem students 2022

  5. 189+ Good Quantitative Research Topics For STEM Students

    research topics for stem students 2022

  6. 151+ Great Quantitative Research Topics For STEM Students

    research topics for stem students 2022

VIDEO

  1. QUALITATIVE RESEARCH TITLES FOR STEM STUDENTS #researchtitle #qualitativeresearch #stem

  2. BIOLOGY 2ND QUARTER TOPICS- |STEM STRAND|- SHS #stemeducation #STEM #Biology

  3. Best Research Topics For Senior High School Students

  4. 15 Best Science Projects

  5. What are the biggest challenges facing STEM education?

  6. Sose entrance exam STEM important topics

COMMENTS

  1. 55 Brilliant Research Topics For STEM Students

    There are several science research topics for STEM students. Below are some possible quantitative research topics for STEM students. A study of protease inhibitor and how it operates. A study of how men's exercise impacts DNA traits passed to children. A study of the future of commercial space flight.

  2. Insights in STEM Education: 2022

    This editorial initiative, led by Dr Lianghuo Fan, Specialty Chief Editor of the STEM Education section, together with Dr Sibel Erduran and Dr Subramaniam Ramanathan, is focused on new insights, novel developments, current challenges, recent advances, and future perspectives in the field of STEM education. The Research Topic solicits brief ...

  3. Research and trends in STEM education: a systematic review of journal

    With the rapid increase in the number of scholarly publications on STEM education in recent years, reviews of the status and trends in STEM education research internationally support the development of the field. For this review, we conducted a systematic analysis of 798 articles in STEM education published between 2000 and the end of 2018 in 36 journals to get an overview about developments ...

  4. 11 STEM Research Topics for High School Students

    Topic 1: Artificial Intelligence (AI) AI stands at the forefront of technological innovation. Students can engage in research on AI applications in various sectors and the ethical implications of AI. This field is suitable for students with interests in computer science, AI, data analytics, and related areas. Topic 2: Applied Math and AI.

  5. Trends and Hot Topics of STEM and STEM Education: a Co-word ...

    This study explored research trends in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. Descriptive analysis and co-word analysis were used to examine articles published in Social Science Citation Index journals from 2011 to 2020. From a search of the Web of Science database, a total of 761 articles were selected as target samples for analysis. A growing number of STEM ...

  6. Trending Topic Research: STEM

    STEM. Trending Topic Research File. Science, Technology Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) is one of the most talked about topics in education, emphasizing research, problem solving, critical thinking, and creativity. The following compendium of open-access articles are inclusive of all substantive AERA journal content regarding STEM published ...

  7. Top 10 Research Topics from 2022

    Top 10 Research Topics from 2022. Find the answers to your biggest research questions from 2022. With collective views of over 3.2 million, researchers explored topics spanning from vaccine safety and psychedelic therapy to quaternary fossils and antiviral plants.

  8. PDF STEM Research Trends From 2013 to 2022: A Systematic Literature Review

    social position and courting with the researcher (Cheung & Tai, 2021). The results of the analysis of the major research themes that are often used by researcher. from 2013 to 2022 are teaching and learning with a percentage of 24%. The theme of teaching and learning is indeed a world concern in an effort to improve.

  9. STEM Seminar Series

    The Office of Undergraduate Research and the McNair Scholars Program have joined forces to organize a lunchtime STEM research seminar series, which enters its tenth academic year in 2022-23. To maximize student access, the STEM Seminar Series will take place virtually during the Fall 2022 semester. Two virtual panel discussions are planned.

  10. Need Suggestions!! Research Topic/Question Related to Stem/Online

    marshjams. NEED SUGGESTIONS!! RESEARCH TOPIC/QUESTION RELATED TO STEM/ONLINE CLASSES/STUDENTS <3. Academic Help. Hello po!! If you see this and you have suggestions po for research topic na related to STEM pls leave suggestions po! Thank you so much, I really need help since yung groupmates ko di nagrerespond SAKET so I'm really doing my best ...

  11. Promoting Secondary Students' Twenty-First Century Skills and STEM

    This article is part of the Research Topic Stem, Steam, ... Chai C-S and Jiang MY-C (2022) Promoting Secondary Students' Twenty-First Century Skills and STEM Career Interests Through a Crossover Program of STEM and Community Service Education. Front. Psychol. 13:903252. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.903252.

  12. The Top 10 PBL & STEM Education News Articles of 2022

    Here are the top ten news articles on STEM education in 2022. These stories support Defined's mission of assisting students in developing the critical 21st-century skills they need to succeed in college, careers, and life. ... and STEM education this year. Topics range from PBL best practices to social-emotional learning, and equity in STEM ...

  13. Home

    Overview. The Journal for STEM Education Research is an interdisciplinary research journal that aims to promote STEM education as a distinct field. Offers a platform for interdisciplinary research on a broad spectrum of topics in STEM education. Publishes integrative reviews and syntheses of literature relevant to STEM education and research.

  14. 24 STEM Lessons You Can Quickly Deploy in the Classroom

    Find our full collection of more than 250 STEM educator guides and student activities in Teach and Learn. For games, articles, and more activities from NASA for kids in upper-elementary grades, visit NASA Space Place and NASA Climate Kids. Explore more educational resources and opportunities for students and educators from NASA STEM Engagement.

  15. Undergraduate Research for STEM Students, Benefits and Challenges

    UNDERGRADUA TE RESEARCH FOR STEM. STUDENTS, BENEFITS AND CHALLENGES. 1 Mohammed Mahmoud, 2 Mark Hoffmann. 1 [email protected], 2 [email protected]. 1 Department of Computer Science ...

  16. Undergraduate Research Experiences for STEM Students

    Undergraduate Research Experiences for STEM Students provides a comprehensive overview of and insights about the current and rapidly evolving types of UREs, in an effort to improve understanding of the complexity of UREs in terms of their content, their surrounding context, the diversity of the student participants, and the opportunities for ...

  17. STEM Education News -- ScienceDaily

    Dec. 9, 2022 — Wearing a face mask can temporarily disrupt decision-making in some situations, a new study of chess players has found. The study analyzed almost three million chess moves played ...

  18. An Exploration of the Relationship Between Active Learning and Student

    Much of the research about STEM students' motivation measures the relationship between student motivation and academic outcomes, focusing on the student's mindset. This study takes a different approach, considering student motivation and instructional practices. Teaching practices and student motivation were analyzed simultaneously in undergraduate Biology classes using a self-determination ...

  19. Trends in Highly Cited Empirical Research in STEM Education: a

    The top 100 most-cited empirical research publications in STEM education were identified through topic search of specific terms ("STEM," "STEAM," or "science, technology, engineering, and mathematics"), as it was done in other research reviews (Li et al., 2020, 2022). However, the author's self-inclusion of such identifier(s) did ...

  20. PDF International Scientific Collaboration and Research Topics on STEM ...

    This systematic review provides an in-depth overview of international STEM researcher collaborations and trends in STEM education's most recent research topics. We examined 49 peer-reviewed articles selected from 244 articles published in three reputable international journals from January 2014 to December 2018.

  21. STEM Research Trends From 2013 to 2022: A Systematic Literature Review

    STEM research papers, with or without a STEM title, shows a more positive trend as articles are reviewed, with. a gradual increase from 2017 to 2022 and the possibility of a sharp increase in 2023 ...

  22. STEM Education & Workforce

    Half of Americans think young people don't pursue STEM because it is too hard. When Americans are asked why more students don't pursue a degree in science, technology, engineering or math (STEM), they are most likely to point to the difficulty of these subjects, according to a new Pew Research Center survey. About half of adults (52%) say ...

  23. J. Intell.

    Gender gaps in spatial skills—a domain relevant to STEM jobs—have been hypothesized to contribute to women's underrepresentation in STEM fields. To study emerging adults' beliefs about skill sets and jobs, we asked college students (N = 300) about the relevance of spatial, mathematical, science and verbal skills for each of 82 jobs. Analyses of responses revealed four job clusters ...

  24. Students Win Big at National STEM Event!

    Students at Alabama State University won the lion's share of awards given at this year's annual 2022 Research Frontier Symposium, which was held virtually at ASU. The symposium is a well-respected national event that highlights academic research with a concentration on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) subjects, with a ...

  25. Initiatives to Raise Young People's Interest and Participation in STEM

    The paper " Intervention initiatives to raise young people's interest and participation in STEM " examines, using two interventions developed with randomized control trials, how to increase science interest and participation in a group of elementary and secondary school students in the United States (Schneider et al.).

  26. Research Trends in STEM Clubs: A Content Analysis

    In studies on STEM Club, there is a higher frequency of research involving K-12 students, particularly middle school students, parallel to some studies on literature (Aslam et al., 2022), compared to other groups such as pre-service teachers, undergraduate students, teachers, and parents. This can be attributed to the fact that STEM Clubs are ...

  27. NASA@ My Library and Partners Engage Millions in Eclipse Training and

    The Space Science Institute, with funding from the NASA Science Mission Directorate and Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, provided unprecedented training, support, and supplies to 15,000 libraries in the U.S. and territories in support of public engagement during the 2023 and 2024 eclipses. From September 2022 to September 2024, these efforts included: One public library […]

  28. "Useful, not just in the professional world but in everyday life

    Abstract. This study investigates the transformation in student knowledge pertaining to the study area of 'data analytics', and the building of confidence, specifically in non-STEM students, to analyse, interpret, manipulate, and present data to a range of stakeholders using Microsoft Excel.The context of the study is a newly developed, centrally delivered undergraduate data analytics unit ...