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55 Brilliant 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

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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.

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• Open access
• Published: 22 April 2020

Research and trends in STEM education: a systematic analysis of publicly funded projects

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

International Journal of STEM Education volume  7 , Article number:  17 ( 2020 ) Cite this article

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Taking publicly funded projects in STEM education as a special lens, we aimed to learn about research and trends in STEM education. We identified a total of 127 projects funded by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) of the US Department of Education from 2003 to 2019. Both the number of funded projects in STEM education and their funding amounts were high, although there were considerable fluctuations over the years. The number of projects with multiple principal investigators increased over time. The project duration was typically in the range of 3–4 years, and the goals of these projects were mostly categorized as “development and innovation” or “efficacy and replication.” The majority of the 127 projects focused on individual STEM disciplines, especially mathematics. The findings, based on IES-funded projects, provided a glimpse of the research input and trends in STEM education in the USA, with possible implications for developing STEM education research in other education systems around the world.

Introduction

The rapid development of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education and research since the beginning of this century has benefited from strong, ongoing support from many different entities, including government agencies, professional organizations, industries, and education institutions (Li, 2014 ). Typically, studies that summarized the status of research in STEM education have used publications as the unit of their analyses (e.g., Li et al., 2019 ; Li et al., 2020 ; Margot & Kettler, 2019 ; Minichiello et al., 2018 ; Otten, Van den Heuvel-Panhuizen, & Veldhuis, 2019 ; Schreffler et al., 2019 ). Another approach, which has been used less frequently, is to study research funding. Although not all research publications were generated from funded projects and not all funded projects have been equally productive, as measured by publications, research funding and publications present two different, but related perspectives on the state of research in STEM education. Our review focuses on research funding.

Types of funding support to education research

There are different types of sources and mechanisms in place to allocate, administer, distribute, and manage funding support to education. In general, there are two sources of funding: public and private.

Public funding sources are commonly government agencies that support education program development and training, project evaluation, and research. For example, multiple state and federal agencies in the USA provide and manage funding support to education research, programs and training, including the US Department of Education (ED), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the National Endowment for the Humanities—Division of Education Programs. Researchers seeking support from public funding sources often submit proposals that are vetted through a well-structured peer-review process. The process is competitive, and the decision to fund a project validates both its importance and alignment with the funding agency’s development agenda. Changes in the agencies’ agendas and funding priorities can reflect governmental intentions and priorities for education and research.

Private funding sources have played a very important role in supporting education programs and research with a long history. Some private funding sources in the USA can be sizeable, such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation ( https://www.gatesfoundation.org ), while many also have specific foci, such as the Howard Hughes Medical Institute ( https://www.hhmi.org ) that is dedicated to advancing science through research and science education. At the same time, private funding sources often have their own development agendas, flexibility in deciding funding priorities, and specific mechanisms in making funding decisions, including how funds can be used, distributed, and managed. Indeed, private funding sources differ from public funding sources in many ways. Given many special features associated with private funding sources, including the lack of transparency, we chose to examine projects that were supported by public funding sources in this review.

Approaches to examining public research funding support

One approach to studying public research funding support to STEM education would be to examine requests-for-proposals (RFPs) issued by different government agencies. However, those RFPs tend to provide guidelines, which are not sufficiently concrete to learn about specific research that is funded. In contrast, reviewing those projects selected for funding can provide more detailed information on research activity. Figure 1 shows a flowchart of research activity and distinguishes how funded projects and publications might provide different perspectives on research. In this review, we focus on the bolded portion of the flowchart, i.e., projects funded to promote STEM education.

A general flowchart of RFPs to publications

Current review

Why focus on research funding in the usa.

Recent reviews of journal publications in STEM education have consistently revealed that scholars in the USA played a leading role in producing and promoting scholarship in STEM education, with about 75% of authorship credits for all publications in STEM education either in the International Journal of STEM Education alone from 2014 to 2018 (Li et al., 2019 ) or in 36 selected journals published from 2000 to 2018 (Li et al., 2020 ). The strong scholarship development in the USA is likely due to a research environment that is well supported and conducive to high research output. Studying public funding support for STEM education research in the USA will provide information on trends and patterns, which will be valuable both in the USA and in other countries.

The context of policy and public funding support to STEM education in the USA

The tremendous development of STEM education in the USA over the past decades has benefited greatly from both national policies and strong funding support from the US governmental agencies as well as private funding sources. Federal funding for research and development in science, mathematics, technology, and engineering-related education in the USA was restarted in the late 1980s, in the latter years of the Reagan administration, which had earlier halted funding. In recent years, the federal government has strongly supported STEM education research and development. For example, the Obama administration in the USA (The White House, 2009 ) launched the “Educate to Innovate” campaign in November 2009 for excellence in STEM education as a national priority, with over 260 million USD in financial and in-kind support commitment. The Trump administration has continued to emphasize STEM education. For example, President Trump signed a memorandum in 2017 to direct ED to spend 200 million USD per year on competitive grants promoting STEM (The White House, 2017 ). In response, ED awarded 279 million USD in STEM discretionary grants in Fiscal Year 2018 (US Department of Education, 2018 ). The Trump administration took a step further to release a report in December 2018 detailing its five-year strategic plan of boosting STEM education in the USA (The White House, 2018 ). The strategic plan envisions that “All Americans will have lifelong access to high-quality STEM education and the USA will be the global leader in STEM literacy, innovation, and employment.” (Committee on STEM Education, 2018 , p. 1). Consistently, current Secretory of Education DeVos in the Trump administration has taken STEM as a centerpiece of her comprehensive education agenda (see https://www.ed.gov/stem ). The consistency in national policies and public funding support shows that STEM education continues to be a strategic priority in the USA.

Among many federal agencies that funded STEM education programs, the ED and NSF have functioned as two primary agencies. For ED, the Institute of Education Sciences (Institute of Education Sciences (IES), n.d. , see https://ies.ed.gov/aboutus/ ) was created by the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002 as its statistics, research, and evaluation arm. ED’s support to STEM education research has been mainly administered and managed by IES since 2003. In contrast to the focus of ED on education, NSF (see https://www.nsf.gov/about/ ) was created by Congress in 1950 to support basic research in many fields such as mathematics, computer sciences, and social sciences. Education and Human Resources is one of its seven directorates that provides important funding support to STEM education programs and research. In addition to these two federal agencies, some other federal agencies also provide funding support to STEM education programs and research from time to time.

Any study of public funding support to STEM education research in the USA would need to limit its scope, given the complexity of various public funding sources available in the system, the ambiguity associated with the meaning of STEM education across different federal agencies (Li et al., 2020 ), and the number of programs that have funded STEM education research over the years. For the purpose of this review, we have chosen to focus on the projects in STEM education funded by IES.

Research questions

Given the preceding research approach decision to focus on research projects funded by IES, we generated the following questions:

What were the number of projects, total project funding, and the average funding per project from 2003 to 2019 in STEM education research?

What were the trends of having single versus multiple principal investigator(s) in STEM education?

What were the types of awardees of the projects?

What were the participant populations in the projects?

What were the types of projects in terms of goals for program development and research in STEM education?

What were the disciplinary foci of the projects?

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

Based on the above discussion to focus on funding support from IES, we first specified the time period, and then searched the IES website to identify STEM education research projects funded by IES within the specified time period.

Time period

As discussed above, IES was established in 2002 and it did not start to administer and manage research funding support for ED until 2003. Therefore, we considered IES funded projects from 2003 to the end of 2019.

Searching and identifying IES funded projects in STEM education

Given the diverse perspectives about STEM education across different agencies and researchers (Li et al., 2020 ), we did not discuss and define the meaning of STEM education. Instead, we used the process described in the following paragraph to identify STEM education research projects funded by IES.

On the publicly accessible IES website ( https://ies.ed.gov ), one menu item is “FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES”, and there is a list of choices within this menu item. One choice is “SEARCH FUNDED RESEARCH GRANTS AND CONTRACTS.” On this web search page, we can choose “Program” under “ADDITIONAL SEARCH OPTIONS.” There are two program categories related to STEM under the option of “Program.” One is “Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Education” under one large category of “Education Research” and the other is “Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics” under another large category of “Special Education Research.” We searched for funded projects under these two program categories, and the process returned 98 funded projects in “Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Education” under “Education Research” and 29 funded projects in “Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics” under “Special Education Research,” for a total of 127 funded projects in these two programs designated for STEM education by IES Footnote 1 .

Data analysis

To address questions 1, 2, 3, and 4, we collected the following information about these projects identified using above procedure: amount of funding, years of duration, information about the PI, types of awardees that received and administered the funding (i.e., university versus those non-university including non-profit organization such as WestEd, Educational Testing Service), and projects’ foci on school level and participants. When a project’s coverage went beyond one category, the project was then coded in terms of its actual number of categories being covered. For example, we used the five categories to classify project’s participants: Pre–K, grades 1–4, grades 5–8, grades 9–12, and adult. If a funded project involved participants from Pre-school to grade 8, then we coded the project as having participants in three categories: Pre-K, grades 1–4, and grades 5–8.

To address question 5, we analyzed projects based on goal classifications from IES. IES followed the classification of research types that was produced through a joint effort between IES and NSF in 2013 (Institute of Education Sciences (IES) and National Science Foundation (NSF), 2013 ). The effort specified six types of research that provide guidance on the goals and level of funding support: foundational research, early-stage or exploratory research, design and development research, efficacy research, effectiveness research, and scale-up research. Related to these types, IES classified goals for funded projects: development and innovation, efficacy and replication, exploration, measurement, and scale-up evaluation, as described on the IES website.

To address question 6, we coded the disciplinary focus using the following five categories: mathematics, science, technology, engineering, and integrated (meaning an integration of any two or more of STEM disciplines). In some cases, we coded a project with multiple disciplinary foci into more than one category. The following are two project examples and how we coded them in terms of disciplinary foci:

The project of “A Randomized Controlled Study of the Effects of Intelligent Online Chemistry Tutors in Urban California School Districts” (2008, https://ies.ed.gov/funding/grantsearch/details.asp?ID=601 ) was to test the efficacy of the Quantum Chemistry Tutors, a suite of computer-based cognitive tutors that are designed to give individual tutoring to high school students on 12 chemistry topics. Therefore, we coded this project as having three categories of disciplinary foci: science because it was chemistry, technology because it applied instructional technology, and integrated because it integrated two or more of STEM disciplines.

The project of “Applications of Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS) to Improve the Skill Levels of Students with Deficiencies in Mathematics” (2009, https://ies.ed.gov/funding/grantsearch/details.asp?ID=827 ) was coded as having three categories of disciplinary foci: mathematics, technology because it used intelligent tutoring systems, and integrated because it integrated two or more of STEM disciplines.

To address question 7, all 127 projects were coded using a classification category system developed and used in a previous study (Wang et al., 2019 ). Specifically, each funded project was coded in terms of research type (experimental, interventional, longitudinal, single case, correlational) Footnote 2 , data collection method (interview, survey, observation, researcher designed tests, standardized tests, computer data Footnote 3 ), and data analysis method (descriptive statistics, ANOVA*, general regression, HLM, IRT, SEM, others) Footnote 4 . Based on a project description, specific method(s) were identified and coded following a procedure similar to what we used in a previous study (Wang et al., 2019 ). Two researchers coded each project’s description, and the agreement between them for all 127 projects was 88.2%. When method and disciplinary focus-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 seven research questions.

Question 1: the number of projects, total funding, and the average funding per project from 2003 to 2019

Figure 2 shows the distribution of funded projects over the years in each of the two program categories, “Education Research” and “Special Education Research,” as well as combined (i.e., “STEM” for projects funded under “Education Research,” “Special STEM” for projects funded under “Special Education Research,” and “Combined” for projects funded under both “Education Research” and “Special Education Research”). As Fig. 2 shows, the number of projects increased each year up to 2007, with STEM education projects started in 2003 under “Education Research” and in 2006 under “Special Education Research.” The number of projects in STEM under “Special Education Research” was generally less than those funded under the program category of “Education Research,” especially before 2011. There are noticeable decreases in combined project counts from 2009 to 2011 and from 2012 to 2014, before the number count increased again in 2015. We did not find a consistent pattern across the years from 2003 to 2019.

The distribution of STEM education projects over the years. (Note: STEM refers to projects funded under “Education Research,” Special STEM refers to projects funded under “Special Education Research,” and “Combined” refers to projects funded under both “Education Research” and “Special Education Research.” The same annotations are used in the rest of the figures.)

A similar trend can be observed in the total funding amount for STEM education research (see Fig. 3 ). The figure shows noticeably big year-to-year swings from 2003 to 2019, with the highest funding amount of more than 33 million USD in 2007 and the lowest amount of 2,698,900 USD in 2013 from these two program categories. Although it is possible that insufficient high-quality grant proposals were available in one particular year to receive funding, the funded amount and the number of projects (Fig. 2 ) provide insights about funding trends over the time period of the review.

Annual funding totals

As there are diverse perspectives and foci about STEM education, we also wondered if STEM education research projects might be funded by IES but in program options other than those designated options of “Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Education.” We found a total of 54 funded projects from 2007 to 2019, using the acronym “STEM” as a search term under the option of “SEARCH FUNDED RESEARCH GRANTS AND CONTRACTS” without any program category restriction. Only 2 (3.7%) out of these 54 projects were in the IES designated program options of STEM education in the category of “Education Research.” Further information about these 54 projects and related discussion can be found as additional notes at the end of this review.

Results from two different approaches to searching for IES-funded projects will likely raise questions about what kinds of projects were funded in the designated program option of “Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Education,” if only two funded projects under this option contained the acronym “STEM” in a project’s title and/or description. We shall provide further information in the following sub-sections, especially when answering question 6 related to projects’ disciplinary focus.

Figure 4 illustrates the trend of average funding amount per project each year in STEM education research from 2003 to 2019. The average funding per project varied considerably in the program category “Special Education Research,” and no STEM projects were funded in 2014 and 2017 in this category. In contrast, average funding per project was generally within the range of 1,132,738 USD in 2019 to 3,475,975 USD in 2014 for the projects in the category of “Education Research” and also for project funding in the combined category.

The trend of average funding amount per project funded each year in STEM education research

Figure 5 shows the number of projects in different funding amount categories (i.e., less than 1 million USD, 1–2 million USD, 2–3 million USD, 3 million USD or more). The majority of the 127 projects obtained funding of 1–2 million USD (77 projects, 60.6%), with 60 out of 98 projects (61.2%) under “Education Research” program and 17 out of 29 projects (58.6%) in the program category “Special Education Research.” The category with second most projects is funding of 3 million USD or more (21 projects, 16.5%), with 15 projects (15.3% of 98 projects) under “Education Research” and 6 projects (20.7% of 29 projects) under “Special Education Research.”

The number of projects in terms of total funding amount categories

Figure 6 shows the average amount of funding per project funded across these different funding amount and program categories. In general, the projects funded under “Education Research” tended to have a higher average amount than those funded under “Special Education Research,” except for those projects in the total funding amount category of “less than 1 million USD.” Considering all 127 funded projects, the average amount of funding was 1,960,826.3 USD per project.

The average amount of funding per project across different total funding amount and program categories

Figure 7 shows that the vast majority of these 127 projects were 3- or 4-year projects. In particular, 59 (46.5%) projects were funded as 4-year projects, with 46 projects (46.9%) under “Education Research” and 13 projects (44.8%) under “Special Education Research.” This category is followed closely by 3-year projects (54 projects, 42.5%), with 41 projects (41.8%) under “Education Research” and 13 projects (44.8%) under “Special Education Research.”

The number of projects in terms of years of project duration. (Note, 2: 2-year projects; 3: 3-year projects; 4: 4-year projects; 5: 5-year projects)

Question 2: trends of single versus multiple principal investigator(s) in STEM education

Figure 8 shows the distribution of projects over the years grouped by a single PI or multiple PIs where the program categories of “Education Research” and “Special Education Research” have been combined. The majority of projects before 2009 had a single PI, and the trend has been to have multiple PIs for STEM education research projects since 2009. The trend illustrates the increased emphases on collaboration in STEM education research, which is consistent with what we learned from a recent study of journal publications in STEM education (Li et al., 2020 ).

The distribution of projects with single versus multiple PIs over the years (combined)

Separating projects by program categories, Fig. 9 shows projects funded in the program category “Education Research.” The trends of single versus multiple PIs in Fig. 9 are similar to the trends shown in Fig. 8 for the combined programs. In addition, almost all projects in STEM education funded under this regular research program had multiple PIs since 2010.

The distribution of projects with single versus multiple PIs over the years (in “Education Research” program)

Figure 10 shows projects funded in the category “Special Education Research.” The pattern in Fig. 10 , where very few projects funded under this category had multiple PIs before 2014, is quite different from the patterns in Figs. 8 and 9 . We did not learn if single PIs were appropriate for the nature of these projects. The trend started to change in 2015 as the number of projects with multiple PIs increased and the number of projects with single PIs declined.

The distribution of projects with single versus multiple PIs over the years (in “Special Education Research” program)

Question 3: types of awardees of these projects

Besides the information about the project’s PI, the nature of the awardees can help illustrate what types of entity or organization were interested in developing and carrying out STEM education research. Figure 11 shows that the university was the main type of awardee before 2012, with 80 (63.0%) projects awarded to universities from 2003 to 2019. At the same time, non-university entities received funding support for 47 (37.0%) projects and they seem to have become even more active and successful in obtaining research funding in STEM education over the past several years. The result suggests that diverse organizations develop and conduct STEM education research, another indicator of the importance of STEM education research.

The distribution of projects funded to university versus non-university awardees over the years

Question 4: participant populations in the projects

Figure 12 indicates that the vast majority of projects were focused on student populations in preschool to grade 12. This is understandable as IES is the research funding arm of ED. Among those projects, middle school students were the participants in the most projects (70 projects), followed by student populations in elementary school (48 projects), and high school (38 projects). The adult population (including post-secondary students and teachers) was the participant group in 36 projects in a combined program count.

The number of projects in STEM education for different groups of participants (Note: Pre-K: preschool-kindergarten; G1–4: grades 1–4; G5–8: grades 5–8; G9–12: grades 9–12; adult: post-secondary students and teachers)

If we separate “Education Research” and “Special Education Research” programs, projects in the category “Special Education Research” focused on student populations in elementary and middle school most frequently, and then adult population. In contrast, projects in the category “Education Research” focused most frequently on middle school student population, followed by student populations in high school and elementary school.

Given the importance of funded research in special education Footnote 5 at IES, we considered projects focused on participants with disabilities. Figure 13 shows there were 28 projects in the category “Special Education Research” for participants with disabilities. There were also three such projects funded in the category “Education Research,” which together accounted for a total of 31 (24.4%) projects. In addition, some projects in the category “Education Research” focused on other participants, including 11 projects focused on ELL students (8.7%) projects and 37 projects focused on low SES students (29.1%).

The number of funded projects in STEM education for three special participant populations (Note: ELL: English language learners, Low SES: low social-economic status)

Figure 14 shows the trend of projects in STEM education for special participant populations. Participant populations with ELL and/or Low SES gained much attention before 2011 among these projects. Participant populations with disabilities received relatively consistent attention in projects on STEM education over the years. Research on STEM education with special participant populations is important and much needed. However, related scholarship is still in an early development stage. Interested readers can find related publications in this journal (e.g., Schreffler et al., 2019 ) and other journals (e.g., Lee, 2014 ).

The distribution of projects in STEM education for special participant populations over the years

Question 5: types of projects in terms of goals for program development and research

Figure 15 shows that “development and innovation” was the most frequently funded type of project (58 projects, 45.7%), followed by “efficacy and replication” (34 projects, 26.8%), and “measurement” (21 projects, 16.5%). The pattern is consistent across “Education Research,” “Special Education Research,” and combined. However, it should be noted that all five projects with the goal of “scale-up evaluation” were in the category “Education Research” Footnote 6 and funding for these projects were large.

The number of projects in terms of the types of goals

Examining the types of projects longitudinally, Fig. 16 shows that while “development and innovation” and “efficacy and replication” types of projects were most frequently funded in the “Education Research” program, the types of projects being funded changed longitudinally. The number of “development and innovation” projects was noticeably fewer over the past several years. In contrast, the number of “measurement” projects and “efficacy and replication” projects became more dominant. The change might reflect a shift in research development and needs.

The distribution of projects in terms of the type of goals over the years (in “Education Research” program)

Figure 17 shows the distribution of project types in the category “Special Education Research.” The pattern is different from the pattern shown in Fig. 16 . The types of “development and innovation” and “efficacy and replication” projects were also the dominant types of projects under “Special Education Research” program category in most of these years from 2007 to 2019. Projects in the type “measurement” were only observed in 2010 when that was the only type of project funded.

The distribution of projects in terms of goals over the years (in “Special Education Research” program)

Question 6: disciplinary foci of projects in developing and conducting STEM education research

Figure 18 shows that the majority of the 127 projects under such specific programs included disciplinary foci on individual STEM disciplines: mathematics in 88 projects, science in 51 projects, technology in 43 projects, and engineering in 2 projects. The tremendous attention to mathematics in these projects is a bit surprising, as mathematics was noted as being out of balance in STEM education (English, 2016 ) and also in STEM education publications (Li, 2018b , 2019 ). As noted above, each project can be classified in multiple disciplinary foci. However, of the 88 projects with a disciplinary focus on mathematics, 54 projects had mathematics as the only disciplinary focus (38 under “Education Research” program and 16 under “Special Education Research” program). We certainly hope that there will be more projects that further scholarship where mathematics is included as part of (integrated) STEM education (see Li & Schoenfeld, 2019 ).

The number of projects in terms of disciplinary focus

There were also projects with specific focus on integrated STEM education (i.e., combining any two or more disciplines of STEM), with a total of 55 (43.3%) projects in a combined program count. The limited number of projects on integrated STEM in the designated STEM funding programs further confirms the common perception that the development of integrated STEM education and research is still in its initial stage (Honey et al., 2014 ; Li, 2018a ).

In examining possible funding trends, Fig. 19 shows that mathematics projects were more frequently funded before 2012. Engineering was a rare disciplinary focus. Integrated STEM was a disciplinary focus from time to time among these projects. No other trends were observed.

The distribution of projects in terms of disciplinary focus over the years

Question 7: research types and methods that projects used

Figure 20 indicates that “interventional” (in 104 projects, 81.9%) and “experimental research” (in 89 projects, 70.1%) were the most frequently funded types of research. The percentages of projects funded under the regular education research program were similar to those funded under “Special Education Research” program, except that projects funded under “Special Education Research” tended to utilize correlational research more often.

The number of projects in terms of the type of research conducted

Research in STEM education uses diverse data collection and analysis methods; therefore, we wanted to study types of methods (Figs. 21 and 22 , respectively). Among the six types of methods used for data collection, Fig. 21 indicates that “standardized tests” and “designed tests” were the most commonly used methods for data collection, followed by “survey,” “observation,” and “interview.” The majority of projects used three quantitative methods (“standardized tests,” “researcher designed tests,” and “survey”). The finding is consistent with the finding from analysis of journal publications in STEM education (Li et al., 2020 ). Data collected through “interview” and “observation” were more likely to be analyzed using qualitative methods as part of a project’s research methodology.

The number of projects categorized by the type of data collection methods

The number of projects categorized by the type of data analysis methods

Figure 22 shows the use of seven (including others) data analysis methods among these projects. The first six methods (i.e., descriptive, ANOVA*, general regression, HLM, IRT, and SEM) as well as some methods in “others” are quantitative data analysis methods. The number of projects that used these quantitative methods is considerably larger than the number of projects that used qualitative methods (i.e., included in “others” category).

Concluding remarks

The systematic analysis of IES-funded research projects in STEM education presented an informative picture about research support for STEM education development in the USA, albeit based on only one public funding agency from 2003 to 2019. Over this 17-year span, IES funded 127 STEM education research projects (an average of over seven projects per year) in two designated STEM program categories. Although we found no discernable longitudinal funding patterns in these two program categories, both the number of funded projects in STEM education and their funding amounts were high. If we included an additional 52 projects with the acronym “STEM” funded by many other programs from 2007 to 2019 (see “ Notes ” section below), the total number of projects in STEM education research would be even higher, and the number of projects with the acronym “STEM” would also be larger. The results suggested the involvement of many researchers with diverse expertise in STEM education research was supported by a broad array of program areas in IES.

Addressing the seven questions showed several findings. Funding support for STEM education research was strong, with an average of about 2 million USD per project for a typical 3–4 year duration. Also, our analysis showed that the number of projects with multiple PIs over the years increased over the study time period, which we speculate was because STEM education research increasingly requires collaboration. STEM education research is still in early development stage, evidenced by the predominance of project goals in either “development and innovation” or “efficacy and replication” categories. We found very few projects (5 out of 127 projects, 4.0%) that were funded for “scale-up evaluation.” Finally, as shown by our analysis of project participants, IES had focused on funding projects for students in grades 1–12. Various quantitative research methods were frequently used by these projects for data collection and analyses.

These results illustrated how well STEM education research was supported through both the designated STEM education and many other programs during the study time period, which helps to explain why researchers in the USA have been so productive in producing and promoting scholarship in STEM education (Li et al., 2019 ; Li et al., 2020 ). We connected several findings from this study to findings from recent reviews of journal publications in STEM education. For example, publications in STEM education appeared in many different journals as many researchers with diverse expertise were supported to study various issues related to STEM education, STEM education publications often have co-authorship, and there is heavy use of quantitative research methods. The link between public funding and significant numbers of publications in STEM education research from US scholars offers a strong argument for the importance of providing strong funding support to research and development in STEM education in the USA and also in many other countries around the world.

The systematic analysis also revealed that STEM education, as used by IES in naming the designated programs, did not convey a clear definition or scope. In fact, we found diverse disciplinary foci in these projects. Integrated STEM was not a main focus of these designated programs in funding STEM education. Instead, many projects in these programs had clear subject content focus in individual disciplines, which is very similar to discipline-based education research (DBER, National Research Council, 2012 ). Interestingly enough, STEM education research had also been supported in many other programs of IES with diverse foci Footnote 7 , such as “Small Business Innovation Research,” “Cognition and Student Learning,” and “Postsecondary and Adult Education.” This funding reality further suggested the broad scope of issues associated with STEM education, as well as the growing need of building STEM education research as a distinct field (Li, 2018a ).

Inspired by our recent review of journal publications as research output in STEM education, this review started with an ambitious goal to study funding support as research input for STEM education. However, we had to limit the scope of the study for feasibility. We limited funding sources to one federal agency in the USA. Therefore, we did not analyze funding support from private funding sources including many private foundations and corporations. Although public funding sources have been one of the most important funding supports available for researchers to develop and expand their research work, the results of this systematic analysis suggest the importance future studies to learn more about research support and input to STEM education from other sources including other major public funding agencies, private foundations, and non-profit professional organizations.

Among these 54 funded projects containing the acronym “STEM” from 2007 to 2019, Table 1 shows that only 2 (3.7%) were in the IES designated program option of STEM education in the category of “Education Research.” Forty-nine projects were in 13 other program options in the category of “Education Research,” with surprisingly large numbers of projects under the “Small Business Innovation Research” option (17, 31.5%) and “Cognition and Student Learning” (11, 20.4%). Three of the 54 funded projects were in the program category of “Special Education Research.” To be specific, two of the three were in the program of “Small Business Innovation Research in Special Education,” and one was in the program of “Special Topic: Career and Technical Education for Students with Disabilities.”

The results suggest that many projects, focusing on various issues and questions directly associated with STEM education, were funded even when researchers applied for funding support in program options not designated as “Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Education.” It implies that issues associated with STEM education had been generally acknowledged as important across many different program areas in education research and special education research. The funding support available in diverse program areas likely allowed numerous scholars with diverse expertise to study many different questions and publish their research in diverse journals, as we noted in the recent review of journal publications in STEM education (Li et al., 2020 ).

A previous study identified and analyzed a total of 46 IES funded projects from 2007 to 2018 (with an average of fewer than 4 projects per year) that contain the acronym “STEM” in a project’s title and/or description (Wang et al., 2019 ). Finding eight newly funded projects in 2019 suggested a growing interest in research on issues directly associated with STEM education in diverse program areas. In fact, five out of these eight newly funded projects specifically included the acronym “STEM” in the project’s title to explicitly indicate the project’s association with STEM education.

Availability of data and materials

The data and materials used and analyzed for the review are publicly available at the IES website, White House website, and other government agency websites.

In a previous study (Wang, Li, & Xiao, 2019), we used the acronym “STEM” as a search term under the option of “SEARCH FUNDED RESEARCH GRANTS AND CONTRACTS” without any program category restriction, and identified and analyzed 46 funded projects from 2007 to 2018 that contain “STEM” in a project’s title and/or description after screening out unrelated key words containing “stem” such as “system”. To make comparisons when needed, we did the same search using the acronym “STEM” and found 8 more funded projects in 2019 for a total of 54 funded projects across many different program categories from 2007 to 2019.

The project of “A Randomized Controlled Study of the Effects of Intelligent Online Chemistry Tutors in Urban California School Districts” (2008). In the project description, its subtitle shows intervention information. We coded this project as “interventional.” Then, the project also included the treatment group and the control group. We coded this project as “experimental.” Finally, this project was to test the efficacy of computer-based cognitive tutors. This was a correlational study. We thus coded it as “correlational.”

Computer data means that the project description indicated this kind of information, such as log data on students.

Descriptive means “descriptive statistics.” General regression means multiple regression, linear regression, logistical regression, except hierarchical linear regression model. ANOVA* is used here as a broad term to include analysis of variance, analysis of covariance, multivariate analysis of variance, and/or multivariate analysis of variance. Others include factor analysis, t tests, Mann-Whitney tests, and binomial tests, log data analysis, meta-analysis, constant comparative data analysis, and qualitative analysis.

Special education originally was about students with disabilities. It has broadened in scope over the years.

The number of students under Special Education was 14% of students in public schools in the USA in 2017–2018. https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_cgg.asp

For example, “Design Environment for Educator-Student Collaboration Allowing Real-Time Engineering-centric, STEM (DESCARTES) Exploration in Middle Grades” (2017) was funded as a 2-year project to Parametric Studios, Inc. (awardee) under the program option of “Small Business Innovation Research” (here is the link: https://ies.ed.gov/funding/grantsearch/details.asp?ID=1922 ). “Exploring the Spatial Alignment Hypothesis in STEM Learning Environments” (2017) was funded as a 4-year project to WestEd (awardee) under the program option of “Cognition and Student Learning” (link: https://ies.ed.gov/funding/grantsearch/details.asp?ID=2059 ). “Enhancing Undergraduate STEM Education by Integrating Mobile Learning Technologies with Natural Language Processing” (2018) was funded as a 4-year project to Purdue University (awardee) under the program option of “Postsecondary and Adult Education” (link: https://ies.ed.gov/funding/grantsearch/details.asp?ID=2130 ).

Abbreviations

Analysis of variance

Discipline-based education research

Department of Education

Hierarchical linear modeling

Institute of Education Sciences

Item response theory

National Science Foundation

Pre-school–grade 12

Requests-for-proposal

Structural equation modeling

Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics

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• Published: 03 November 2023

Subject integration and theme evolution of STEM education in K-12 and higher education research

• Zehui Zhan   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-6936-1977 1 , 2 &
• Shijing Niu 1  

Humanities and Social Sciences Communications volume  10 , Article number:  781 ( 2023 ) Cite this article

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• Science, technology and society

Over the past two decades, the field of STEM education has produced a wealth of research findings. This study systematically reviewed the published literature from the perspective of subject integration and theme evolution, considering both K-12 and higher education. It was found that STEM education originated from higher education, but the main emphasis is gradually shifting to the K-12 stage. There were mainly sixteen subjects involved in STEM education, showing the gradual in-depth integration of science, engineering, technology, math, humanities, and social sciences, in which humanism is increasingly emphasized. Culture is a new perspective for understanding the diversity of participants, which also gives STEM education a distinctive regional character. In addition, in the K-12 stage, research related to computer science and art stands out alongside the four main subjects, demonstrating relatively even distribution across research themes. Conversely, in higher education, engineering, and chemistry garner considerable attention, with research themes predominantly concentrated on learning outcomes and social relevance. On a holistic scale, researchers exhibit a pronounced interest in learning outcomes, yet relatively less emphasis is placed on pedagogical aspects. Regarding prospective trends, there should be a heightened focus on the cultivation of students’ thinking competencies, students’ career development, and pedagogy.

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Introduction.

In response to the global challenges, the promotion of economic development, and the need to meet modern society’s demands for knowledge and skills within the realms of STEM, the emergence of STEM education aimed to develop employment opportunities in STEM fields while bolstering national competitiveness. The acronym STEM education originated from the four subjects (i.e., science, mathematics, engineering, and technology) that were proposed in the report “ Undergraduate Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Education ” (National Science Board 1986 ). Essentially, STEM education stands as an innovation-oriented education that prevailed in Western countries, spearheaded by the United States.

Subsequently, Yakman ( 2008 ) introduced the addition of the “A” element, representing arts, to STEM education, thereby incorporating humanities subjects such as history, philosophy, and religion. The fundamental objective of STEM education is to amalgamate multiple subjects into a cohesive framework (Morrison 2006 ). According to the National Science Foundation ( 2014 ), STEM entails a comprehensive integration of various disciplines, encompassing not only the subjects of natural sciences (e.g., computers and information, engineering, and mathematics), but also the subjects of social sciences (e.g., psychology, economics, sociology, and political science). With an increasing number of disciplines becoming intertwined in STEM education, its interdisciplinary essence has become progressively prominent. As a result, STEM education is increasingly acknowledged as interdisciplinary education with a focus on engineering, where subject integration plays a central role.

In the past two decades, STEM education has witnessed a large number of research achievements, and many scholars have conducted comprehensive reviews on the topic. These studies have focused either on curriculum reform (Uskoković 2023 ), teaching methods (Li and Wong 2023 ), or technology applications (Salas-Pilco et al. 2022 ; Conde et al. 2021 ). At the research level, especially in teaching and learning, many researchers have recognized the interdisciplinary nature of STEM education, but almost no research has focused on the development of STEM education from the perspective of subject integration (Perignat and Katz-Buonincontro 2019 ). The evolution of STEM disciplines and the development of their themes are closely interrelated, but the underlying coupling relationships and reasons for their formation remain unexplored.

Moreover, there exist significant differences in the disciplinary systems of K-12 education and higher education, including teaching objectives, methods, breadth, and depth. As a result, STEM education at different educational levels exhibits distinct characteristics, making it necessary to conduct a segmented analysis. Although some researchers have analyzed the development trends in STEM education from a macro perspective and recognized differences between educational stages, this has not been the primary focus of their work, and there has also been a lack of emphasis on specific disciplines (Zhan et al. 2022a ).

Based on these considerations, this study attempts to examine and explore the developmental trajectories and trends of STEM education at various educational stages from the perspective of disciplinary evolution. Specifically, the following questions will be addressed:

RQ1: How were subjects integrated into STEM education in K-12 and higher education?

RQ2: What is the distribution of the subject themes involved in STEM education at the K-12 and higher education levels?

Keyword search

Papers related to STEM education were searched on 10 July 2023 from the Science Web Core Collection. The query started with the search statement TI = (STEM education) OR TI = (STEAM education) OR AK = (STEM education) OR AK = (STEAM education) OR AK = (STEAM education) OR KP= (STEM education) OR KP = (STEAM education), which yielded a total of 3668 publications. The search results were further refined according to the research area, while duplicates, poorly indexed documents, and documents inconsistent with STEM Education/STEAM Education research were removed, leaving a final total of 2188 publications.

Research process

WOS (Web of Science) was selected as the data source for this study. This database covers a wide range of journals, has a high impact, and can provide a complete sample for this study (Martín-Páez et al. 2019 ). Then, the following steps were used to analyze the data.

Step 1: Data classification (education stage classification). It has been shown that K-12 and higher education systems have different focuses on STEM education (Zhan et al. 2022a ). To clarify the characteristics of the different stages, the data was divided into K-12 and higher education levels based on field information such as title, keywords (including author keywords and keywords plus), journal, and abstract. After discarding the data that could not be categorized, 903 valid data were obtained for the K-12 stage, with the time range from 2009 to 2023, and 873 valid data for the higher education stage, with the time range from 2004 to 2023.

Step 2: Keywords cleaning. In the collected data, some keywords have the same meaning but may be analyzed as different words, such as math, mathematics; model, models, etc., and some words have similar semantics, which may also lead to inaccurate analysis results when analyzed separately, so it was necessary to build a synonym database for synonym replacement so that they could be more accurately counted and visualized.

Step 3: Data classification (time and theme classification). The data at different stages were sub-categorized by time and theme respectively. Time division according to a time slice for a year. The keywords with the top 10 frequency in each subject were screened as alternative theme terms, and the alternative subject terms of each subject were integrated, then the remaining keywords were used as subject terms to participate in the final statistics.

Step 4: Data statistics and visualization. The categorized subject time and subject themes of different sections were counted separately, and the statistical results were visualized and described using heat maps. The heat map used in this study is a kind of statistical chart that shows the frequency of a certain word by the relative shades of color blocks, with dark colors representing the high frequency of occurrence and light colors representing the low frequency of occurrence. Finally, four maps were created to depict the time distribution and theme distribution at the K-12 and higher education levels. The research process is shown in Fig. 1 .

The entire research process went through five stages: data acquisition, data classification (education stage classification), keyword cleaning, data classification (time and theme classification), and data statistics and visualization.

Research findings

Analysis of the temporal evolution of the subject.

STEM education originated from higher education, but in recent years, there has been rapid development in the K-12 stage. Both levels show a similar trend of overall integration, starting with a focus on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, and later, an increasing involvement of humanities and social sciences. Interdisciplinary integration has become prominent, particularly in higher education. As shown in Fig. 2 .

The first column displays the subjects involved in STEM education, and the first row is the timeline. This figure illustrates the time and subject distribution of STEM-related literature. Darker colors indicate a greater number of documents related to the corresponding time node and subject.

Subject integration of STEM in K-12 Education

Subject integration refers to the methods and processes of cross-fertilization of different subjects, which is specifically expressed as the mutual integration of a subject with one or more subjects through knowledge, concepts, skills, methods, etc. at a certain time node, so time node is one important element of subject integration path analysis. Figure 2(1) illustrates the integration of different subjects at different time points at the K12 level. In the early stages (2009 to 2014), the subjects of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics played a dominant role, and these subjects were considered to be the core of STEM education. Over time, science subjects such as computer science, arts, physics, and environmental science were gradually incorporated into the STEM education integration pathway. In the post-2019 period, more and more research has emerged in the humanities and social sciences.

Different subjects played different roles in STEM education at the K-12 level. Science and technology provided a rich foundation of knowledge and practice for students involved in STEM education. Engineering developed students’ design thinking and problem-solving skills, while mathematics provided the foundation for quantitative and logical thinking. Early STEM education has not yet shown a clear trend of cross-fertilization of disciplines. Science courses, such as physics, chemistry, and biology, were considered the main foci of STEM education, with students exploring basic science concepts through participation in experiments and educational games.

As time went on, computer science and environmental science became important subjects for STEM education, and they facilitated the development of computational thinking and environmental awareness in students at the basic education level (Zhan et al. 2022b ). In 2013, Grover and Pea ( 2013 ) published a study entitled “Computational Thinking in K-12: A Review of the State of the Field”, which explored the importance of including computational thinking as a content and goal of STEM education and had a profound impact on subsequent research regarding the integration of computing into STEM education. In 2022, the U.S. Department of Education proposed “ Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math, including Computer Science ”, also hinting at the importance of computer science in STEM (Department of Education, 2022 ).

Environmental issues have always been important social topics and are closely related to the development of engineering and technology. The integration of environmental science emphasized the importance of environmental awareness and sustainable development, making students conscious of environmental problems and proposing solutions through scientific and technological means. At the K-12 level, researchers have focused on green skills elements in STEM curricula and the integration of STEM educational approaches in environmental curricula (Sümen and Çalisici 2016 ).

After 2019, the integration of humanities and social sciences brought more dimensions and diversity to STEM education. At this stage, STEM education showed a clear interdisciplinary character. Compared to science courses that are involved in STEM education in the form of teaching content, humanities, and social sciences are integrated in a way that is more on the level of research methods and educational philosophy.

Psychological research explored the impact of spatial thinking, spatial skills, and spatial abilities on STEM learning, recognizing the importance of students’ mental states and cognitive abilities for learning (Buckley et al. 2018 ; Gilligan et al. 2017 ; Taylor and Hutton 2013 ). The inclusion of arts enhanced students’ understanding of creativity and encouraged them to use their imagination and creative abilities in the practice of science and engineering (Yakman 2010 ). The inclusion of political science primarily conducted a comparative study of STEM education across different regions from the perspective of policies (Sharma and Yarlagadda 2018 ).

Philosophy created a framework for analyzing and synthesizing STEM education goals and discourses, encouraging students to think deeply about the value and impact of science and technology (Ortiz-Revilla et al. 2020 ). The incorporation of history offered students diverse learning objectives that enabled them to understand the context and social impact of the development of science and technology (Park and Cho 2022 ). The inclusion of linguistics promoted the engagement of culturally and linguistically diverse students in STEM education, encouraging cross-cultural communication and collaboration across linguistic and cultural boundaries (Mallinson and Hudley 2018 ).

In the K-12 stage, there is a significant concentration of disciplines in STEM education, with computer science and arts receiving the most attention alongside the four main subjects. Additionally, interdisciplinary teaching in this stage is guided by conceptual instruction. In 2013, the United States released the milestone document “ K-12 Science Education Framework ”, initiating a major reform in science education. This document became the blueprint for the formal launch of the new era of science education reform known as the “ Next Generation Science Standards ” (NGSS). NGSS proposed a paradigm for science education in the U.S., integrating three dimensions: practices, cross-cutting concepts, and disciplinary core ideas. Seven powerful cross-cutting concepts were selected from these dimensions to bridge the boundaries between different subjects. These concepts include patterns, cause and effect relationships, systems and system models, matter and energy, structure and function, stability and change, and scale, proportion, and quantity (National Research Council 2013 ). The document brought new guidance and direction to STEM education in the United States, emphasizing comprehensive and interdisciplinary educational principles.

Subject integration of STEM in higher education

Figure 2(2) illustrates the time distribution of subjects at the higher education level. Since 2004, a total of 16 subjects have been involved in STEM studies at the higher education level. Similar to the K-12 level, the integration in higher education also shows an intersection of science, technology, engineering, humanities, and social sciences.

STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) continued to play an important role at the higher education level, covering a wide range of fields of study. Unlike at the K-12 level, STEM education in higher education has exhibited a blend of disciplines at the beginning because of the strong interdisciplinary nature of the courses offered at universities themselves (for example, biochemistry). Students were exposed to more specialized and in-depth knowledge of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines in their areas of specialization. The focus of disciplinary integration was on combining theories and methods from different disciplines for cross-disciplinary research and innovation. For example, researchers in the multidisciplinary education (ME) course selected undergraduate students in engineering, pre-nursing, and pre-occupational health to collaborate in a maker space to solve health problems and create practical solutions to health-related problems facing the community through their backgrounds and competencies (Ludwig et al. 2017 ).

The development and disciplinary integration of STEM education was influenced by educational reform and societal needs. With the continuous advancement of technology and globalization, there was an increasing demand for comprehensive ability and interdisciplinary thinking. Traditional science and engineering education could no longer meet the current social and professional needs. Therefore, the integration of humanities and social science disciplines has become an important trend in the development of STEM education. For example, art subjects have promoted the integration of innovation and esthetics by providing creative expression and the development of design thinking. The prominence of gender, race, and economic issues, cultural background conflict in higher education has called for the inclusion of social science disciplines such as psychology, economics, and philosophy, linguistics, political science.

In higher education, the distribution of subjects was relatively diverse, with engineering receiving significant attention among the four main subjects. Additionally, chemistry has also been highly regarded, while comparatively, computer science’s involvement is not as prominent.

Comparing the temporal evolution of subjects at different educational levels

In summary, the concept of STEM education was gradually evolving from an initial bias toward engineering education to a more integrated and diverse educational paradigm. Since 2004, there have been 16 subjects involved in STEM (i.e., science, technology, engineering, mathematics, art, physics, chemistry, biology, psychology, computer science, environmental science, linguistics, economics, political science, philosophy, and history). In the analysis of subject integration, the overall integration trend was similar between the K-12 stage and the higher education stage. However, there were still some differences between K-12 education and higher education.

First, STEM education arose in higher education, but there seems to be a trend of research focus shifting from higher education to K-12 education. From 2004 to 2009, STEM research was focused on higher education, and after 2016, the number of papers in K-12 surpassed higher education. The reason for this phenomenon may be that the rise of STEM education sprung from the lack of talent in STEM careers, and higher education was directly oriented to society, so it was reasonable for research and reform to start from higher education, while government policies lead and funding investment largely promoted the rapid development of STEM education in K-12 education stage. Higher education points to the current talent needs of society, while K-12 education points to the future talent needs of society. The inclusion of STEM education in the education strategy of several countries also indicates that STEM talents are an important component of future national competitiveness, so it is very necessary to emphasize the K-12 stage.

Second, at the level of pedagogy and practice, disciplinary integration in STEM education at the K-12 level was often achieved through interdisciplinary projects and activities, such as engineering design challenges, science experiments, and mathematical modeling. These activities were usually classroom-cantered, with teachers guiding students through practice and inquiry. In contrast, in STEM education at the higher education level, disciplinary integration was focused more on the integration of research and practice. Students explored and applied integrated disciplinary knowledge in depth through participation in research projects, hands-on internships, and interdisciplinary courses.

In addition, the concept of STEAM education was more popular at the K-12 stage. “STEAM” was more frequently used in the K-12 stage, which could be said to a certain extent that the STEAM education concept was more popular in the K-12 stage, but may not necessarily indicate a deeper level of interdisciplinary integration in this stage.

Analysis of the evolution of subject themes

Research hotspots are reflected, to some extent, by the frequency of scientific theme terms. In this study, 32 keywords were selected as subject themes at the K-12 level and 33 keywords were selected at the higher education level. To facilitate the analysis, these keywords were grouped into “learning outcomes”, “teachers’ professional development”, “technology empowerment”, “social relevance”, and “pedagogy”. As shown in Fig. 3 .

The first column represents topic categories, the second column contains relevant keywords, and the third row displays the subjects involved in STEM education. This figure illustrates the theme and subject distribution of STEM-related literature. Darker colors indicate a greater number of documents related to the corresponding subject and theme.

Subject theme evolution in K-12 education

Overall, STEM research topics at the K-12 level predominantly emphasize “learning outcomes”, while maintaining a relatively balanced distribution across “teachers’ professional development”, “technology empowerment”, “social relevance”, and “pedagogy”. The dimension of “learning outcomes” primarily encompassed keywords such as students’ academic performance, thinking skills, and associated influencing factors. “Teachers’ professional development” involved aspects related to teachers’ preparedness for STEM education and collaborative efforts among educators. “Technology empowerment” focused on the impact of various technologies such as modeling, robotics, programming, and augmented reality on both the teaching environment and instructional content. “Pedagogy” primarily revolved around inquiry based and game based learning. Furthermore, research related to social themes primarily aimed to foster educational equity from multiple dimensions, including aspects like gender, culture, and policy.

At the K-12 level, the theme of “learning outcomes” account for the largest proportion with 37.69%, under which the theme words included “achievement”, “self-efficacy”, “performance”, “attitudes”, “computational thinking”, “knowledge”, “creativity”, “beliefs”, “design thinking” and “cognitive-load”. In 2009, Obama proposed the “ Competing for Excellence ” initiative, which aimed to improve students’ achievement in STEM. This initiative has led to more researchers exploring different teaching models, activities, and tools to improve student achievement and performance. Also, students’ attitudes, knowledge, beliefs, self-efficacy, and cognitive-load were important factors influencing STEM performance and interest and have received close attention from researchers. Self-efficacy refers to one’s perceived ability to perform specific behaviors that may contain difficulties and stress (Bandura et al. 1999 ). Cognitive load is a multidimensional structure that represents the burden placed on a learner’s cognitive system when processing specific tasks, often appearing alongside keywords like motivation, performance, etc., in educational research with technical support (Kao and Ruan 2022 ).

Computational thinking, creativity (Zhan et al. 2023 ), and design thinking were goals of STEM education and were closely related to the disciplines. Computational thinking (CT) could be seen as a thinking pattern for solving problems with computational tools, and it is a fundamental skill required in everyday life (Wing 2006 ). It has the most direct relationship with computers, and the “ Next Generation Science Standards ” emphasized its significance by considering computational thinking as a core scientific practice. In China, computational thinking is recognized as a core competency in the curriculum standards for information technology. In addition, there is also increasing research focusing on the connection between CT and mathematics (Lv et al. 2023 ). Weintrop et al. defined computational thinking in mathematical and scientific practices using a taxonomy that includes four main categories: data practices, modeling and simulation practices, computational problem-solving practices, and systems thinking practices, which had a broad impact on K-12 education (Weintrop et al. 2016 ).

Furthermore, there was a clear association between creativity and the arts, as well as between design thinking and engineering disciplines. Some scholars argued that creativity plays one of three roles that arts assume in STEM education, with the other two being arts/esthetic learning and contextual understanding (Liu et al. 2021 ). Design is a prerequisite for making and the first step in the formation of STEM work, often found in studies of engineering subjects (Hernandez et al. 2014 ), and design thinking also plays an important role in engineering education, especially in high school (Li and Zhan 2022 ).

“Technology empowerment” (18.91%) was the second most popular theme, with the following themes: “modeling”, “robotics”, “programming”, “augmented reality”, and “scratch”. “Technology empowerment” emphasized the development of student literacy such as information awareness and computational thinking on the one hand, and laid the foundation for students’ STEM education practices on the other. Researchers have explored that robotics education has the potential to cultivate transferable skills in the STEM field (Nelson 2014 ) and narrow the gender gap in STEM, particularly by promoting girls’ learning (Zhong et al. 2023 ). The use of modeling tools can help students visualize abstract scientific and mathematical concepts or objects, which has a positive impact on learners’ academic and personal growth.

In addition, programming is a fundamental requirement for learning computer subjects, and the development of skills related to computer programming and robotics, as well as the introduction of computational thinking principles in STEM education, were considered by researchers as trends in today’s world (Bermúdez et al. 2019 ). AR (Augmented Reality) is the technology that allows virtual objects to be overlaid on real images, enriching students’ learning experiences. AR-STEM research was primarily conducted among K-12 students and typically relies on marker-based AR. However, location-based AR has significant advantages in supporting student learning beyond the classroom and facilitating scientific inquiry-based learning (Sırakaya and Alsancak Sırakaya 2022 ). Scratch is a graphical programming tool. In the K-12 stage, the abstract nature of programming concepts and languages makes it challenging for students to grasp them directly. Graphical programming significantly reduces the complexity of programming, making Scratch widely adopted (Kao and Ruan 2022 ).

The theme of “social relevance” ranked third with 17.53%, with the main themes related to “gender”, “equity”, “culture”, “policy”, “justice” and “patriotism”. Equality has always been an important topic in education, ensuring that individuals of different genders and races can participate in STEM education without discrimination. The Obama administration launched “ the Teach for Innovation program ” in 2009, which aimed to increase access to STEM education and employment opportunities for disadvantaged groups, and has contributed in part to researchers’ attention to gender. The topic of justice was multifaceted, with environmental justice being particularly prominent. Its purpose was to encourage readers to reframe societal and environmental issues as an ethical responsibility, fostering the construction of this responsibility through care, recognition, openness, and responsiveness to both human and non-human vitality (Kayumova et al. 2019 ).

Furthermore, since STEM education was a national priority, many researchers have analyzed the development of STEM education through policy analysis (Zhong et al. 2022 ), particularly focusing on different countries and regions such as South Korea (Park et al. 2016 ), the United States, Europe (Subotnik et al. 2017 ), India, Australia (Sharma and Yarlagadda 2018 ), etc. In South Korea, researchers have combined history education with traditional STEM education to inspire students’ patriotism (Park and Cho, 2022 ).

STEM education originated in the United States, and its evolution is determined by a variety of factors, including national economy, politics, and culture (Zhong et al. 2022 ). As STEM education was increasingly promoted worldwide, it faced challenges of cultural conflicts and international exchanges. “Culture” was a broadly encompassing term, and research about culture could be divided into two categories. First, it served as a research methodology, such as sociocultural theory, exploring social issues like gender and race and aiming at promoting educational equity for students of diverse cultures and languages (Eisenhart and Allen 2020 ).

Second, culture served as the background and content carrier for STEM activities. In China, researchers have developed C-STEAM, or culturally oriented disciplinary integration education, based on STEM education and considering the reality and needs of China’s development. This concept emphasized exploring and creating cultural concepts using related disciplines in the context of traditional Chinese culture, cultivating students’ humanistic spirit, and enhancing their cultural identity and understanding. At the same time, C-STEAM embodied the nurturing value of cultivating students’ core literacy, the carrying value of passing on excellent traditional culture, and the social value of creating a culture with regional characteristics. On this basis, the researcher proposed the ETIC curriculum classification framework and 6 C implementation model, which provided a reference for promoting the construction and development of the regional C-STEAM curriculum. (Zhan et al. 2020 , 2021 ; Huo et al. 2020 ).

“Professional development” ranked fourth with 15.62%. The theme words related were “knowledge”, “professional development”, “attitudes”, “conceptions”, “beliefs”, “teacher preparation”, and “teacher collaboration”. Researchers have indicated that changing teachers to interdisciplinary teaching requires first developing the skills and attitudes of interdisciplinary teaching, and professional development (PD) was considered a key component to helping teachers through this transition process (Al Salami et al. 2017 ). The link between teacher preparation to teach STEM and student STEM achievement has motivated researchers to develop professional development programs to address teacher confidence, attitudes, knowledge, pedagogy, and other preparation issues (Nadelson et al. 2013 ). Understanding the beliefs held by educators was central to influencing change and improving instruction, so researchers needed to be able to design educational programs that address teachers’ beliefs and work to change them when appropriate (Nathan et al. 2010 ; Vossen et al. 2020 ).

Furthermore, there was still considerable uncertainty about “what STEM education is” and “what it means” in terms of curriculum and student achievement, research and discussion on the concept of STEM aimed to create a shared concept of STEM education to facilitate dialog between different stakeholders (Dare et al. 2019 ; Holmes et al. 2018 ). The above topics can all be categorized as preparations for STEM education, primarily referring to pre-service and in-service STEM teacher training. In addition to the mentioned content, this also included language training, relevant technical learning, and teaching methods. Furthermore, due to the interdisciplinary nature of STEM education, collaboration among teachers from multiple disciplines was necessary, especially when humanities and social sciences were involved (Park and Cho 2022 ). Therefore, teacher cooperation was also an important way for teachers’ professional development.

“Pedagogy” received the least attention (10.25%). The theme words related were “inquiry based learning”, “game based learning”, “project based learning”, and “self-regulated learning”. Game based learning demonstrated a close association with technology and computers. Nowadays, students are generally passionate about electronic games, however, they often lack sufficient computer programming knowledge and skills, which limits their development in the computer and technology fields. To address this issue, game based learning has received significant attention in the K-12 stage. The purpose of inquiry based learning was to cultivate students’ inquiry skills, which was also at the core of the science curriculum. In STEM education, this method was considered to have three components: data analysis, interpretive reflection, and critical reflection. Using inquiry based learning could integrate various disciplines, enhance educators’ attitudes, and it’s also suitable for the special needs of gifted students (Abdurrahman et al. 2019 ).

STEM PBL (STEM Project-Based Learning) is a student-centered teaching approach based on constructivism, characterized by clear outcomes and vaguely defined tasks (Capraro and Slough 2013 ). STEM PBL activities are fundamentally interdisciplinary, encouraging students to construct knowledge, identify problems independently, and collaborate to solve them (Han et al. 2015 ). Self-regulated learning (SRL) refers to an active, iterative process in which learners achieve their goals by controlling, monitoring, and adjusting their cognitive/metacognitive processes and learning behaviors. This approach was effective in activating and monitoring learners’ behaviors, cognitions, and emotions, which is crucial for task performance in the STEM field (Li et al. 2020 ).

Through the above analysis, it is evident that research topics in different disciplines have varying emphases. “Achievement” and “gender” were highly popular topics in the scientific community. Additionally, in the fields of math, physics, chemistry, and biology, there was a greater emphasis on “technological empowerment” and “pedagogy”. Technology placed the most emphasis on “modeling”, while computer science was concerned with “computational thinking”. Engineering exhibited a relatively even distribution of research topics. In contrast, the focus areas within humanities and social sciences were relatively scattered.

Subject theme evolution in higher education

In comparison to the K-12 level, research theme distribution in higher education appeared to be more concentrated. This was primarily manifested in the prevalence of research related to “learning outcomes” and “social relevance”, which collectively account for over three-quarters of the total research. Conversely, research areas focusing on “teachers’ professional development”, “technology empowerment”, and “pedagogy” were relatively scarce. However, from a disciplinary perspective, research topics in the humanities and social sciences at the higher education level exhibited greater diversity and richness.

“Social relevance” was the most popular theme in higher education research (47.31%). The research content could be broadly categorized into three types. The first category was educational equity and justice, including keywords “gender”, “identity”, “stereotype threat”, “race”, “equity”, “minority”, and “marginalized populations”. STEM identity is an expressed connection between one’s self and STEM, which depends on the individual’s beliefs about their abilities and their conceptual and practical knowledge of their particular STEM subject (Charleston et al. 2014 ). Enhancing the self-identity of minority groups and optimizing the experience of marginalized populations, especially females, contributed to their more active participation in STEM education. Stereotype threat is a risk experienced by individuals in which individuals fear that they will validate negative stereotypes of the group to which they belong (Spencer et al. 1999 ). Stereotype threat has been shown to have a significant impact on the likelihood of women, minorities, and white men leaving STEM professions (Beasley and Fischer 2012 ).

The second category was students’ career development, including the keywords “career” and “choice”. Career orientation was more prominent at the higher education level than at the K-12 level, with researchers focusing on career goals, career preparation, the position of STEM talent in the labor market, major selection, and attrition.

The third category was culture-related research, which, in higher education, connected with various humanities and social sciences disciplines such as psychology, philosophy, history, linguistics, and more. Research in this category focused on promoting educational equity and students’ full participation in STEM education by addressing the fair treatment of students from different sociocultural backgrounds and using “culturally responsive pedagogy”. This approach involved leveraging the cultural characteristics, experiences, and perspectives of ethnically diverse students to teach them more effectively, fostering educational equity and comprehensive engagement in STEM education (Gay 2003 ).

“Learning outcomes” was also a theme that received a lot of attention in higher education, with 30.47%. The related themes included “achievement”, “performance”, “self-efficacy”, “motivation”, “persistence”, “innovation”, “critical thinking”, “computational thinking”, “creativity”, and “digital skills”. It was evident from this that higher education was not only concerned with issues such as students’ achievement, performance, and computational thinking but also paid attention to influencing factors such as students’ self-efficacy and motivation. How to sustain students in STEM majors and reduce attrition of STEM majors, especially among minority and female populations, was a concern in studies related to “persistence” (Burt et al. 2019 ; Ong et al. 2018 ).

Compared to the K-12 stage, higher education placed less emphasis on computational thinking and creativity but focused more on innovation and critical thinking. Creativity refers to “the generation of novel and useful ideas by an individual or a small group of individuals” while innovation is “the successful implementation of creative ideas within an organization” (Amabile 1988 ). The distinction between creativity and innovation lies in the emphasis on products and outcomes in innovation. Higher education demands that students not only have creative ideas but also successfully transform these ideas into scalable products. In contrast, K-12 education placed more emphasis on encouraging students to generate new ideas. Besides, Critical thinking was another important developmental goal at the higher education level. It served as a method and tool for problem-solving, conceptualized as purposeful, self-regulated judgment involving various thinking skills such as analysis, evaluation, and reasoning (Gadot and Tsybulsky 2023 ).

Digital skill is a concept encompassing skills and specific techniques that are necessary for the use of effective digital technology (van Laar et al. 2019 ). In research, various terms were used to describe the ability to use digital technology effectively in learning activities, such as digital skills, technical skills, digital literacy, digital competence, digital tools, 21st-century skills, ICT literacy, and ICT skills. Studies have shown a positive correlation between students’ digital skills and their creative self-efficacy, and higher levels of digital skills were often predictive of higher levels of actual performance (Chonsalasin and Khampirat 2022 ).

“Technology empowerment” was ranked third with 11.53%, and the related themes were “modeling”, “robotics”, “programming”, “augmented reality” and “virtual reality”. Modeling is a useful tool to identify current problem situations, predict future societal changes, and identify possible solutions (Suh and Han 2019 ). Programming was considered to be related to problem-solving and the main pedagogical challenge was the lack of appropriate methods and tools as well as scaled and personalized instruction (Medeiros et al. 2019 ). Robots were often used in the classroom to develop students’ human-machine collaboration skills (Mathers et al. 2012 ).

Augmented Reality (AR) refers to the technology that enhances virtual information in the real environment through ongoing activities and user input, while “Virtual Reality (VR)” is the technology that immerses users in a purely virtual environment. The learning environments created by VR and AR technologies contributed to the formation of collaborative, interactive, and highly immersive learning experiences, thereby enhancing the efficiency of learning for learners (Zhong et al. 2021 ). Additionally, they demonstrated the potential to help students improve their cross-cultural communication skills (Akdere et al. 2021 ).

“Teachers’ Professional Development” was ranked fourth with 6.11% of the total, and related terms were “faculty training”, “professional development”, and “educational innovation”. Faculty training and professional development were broadly defined terms, and there was a significant degree of overlap in their research content. They encompassed research related to teacher development (such as teacher reflection and active learning), diversity and equity issues among the teaching staff, curriculum design, teaching methodologies, and pedagogical knowledge. Research related to educational innovation encompassed the introduction of new educational technologies, teaching methods, curriculum designs, and assessment approaches to address evolving learning needs and societal challenges.

“Pedagogy” was the least studied topic (4.58%), with related themes including “collaborative learning”, “active learning”, “experiential learning”, “game based learning”, and “positive learning”. Collaborative learning played a significant role in enhancing the likelihood of successful problem-solving. Additionally, collaborative skills are crucial for individuals pursuing STEM careers. Active learning is a method characterized by students taking control of their learning to some extent through metacognition, self-assessment, and reflection, within student-centered and inquiry based learning approaches (National Research Council et al. 2000 ; Kuh 2008 ). The American Association for the Advancement of Science encouraged university science educators to shift their teaching from traditional lectures to active learning (American Association for the Advancement of Science 2011 ).

Experiential Learning is an educational approach that emphasizes acquiring knowledge and skills through first-hand experiences, practice, and reflection, often in forms such as teaching, research, and internships. Experiential learning can facilitate the transfer of classroom learning to real-world practice and has the potential to enhance students’ learning, motivation, skill development, and graduation rates (Gong et al. 2022 ). Game based learning was not very common in higher education, and research in this area was quite scattered, covering topics such as computer-based learning and the creation of diverse and inclusive learning environments. The origins of positive learning can be traced back to the early days of the positive psychology movement, to promote students’ overall well-being, not just the imparting of knowledge and skills, but also the cultivation of their positive psychological traits and qualities (White 2016 ).

Undoubtedly, in higher education, almost all disciplines focused their research on “learning outcomes” and “social relevance”. Among these, the most emphasized areas included students’ performance, diversity, equity, and career development. Furthermore, engineering placed a significant emphasis on programming and robotics technology; mathematics and technology prioritized students’ self-efficacy, motivation, persistence, and programming skills. Chemistry, on the other hand, exhibited a unique pattern by showing less focus on learning outcomes but a greater emphasis on technology integration and pedagogy. The arts concentrated more on technology integration and social relevance. However, many other disciplines lacked a substantial focus on teacher professional development.

Comparing the evolution of subject themes at different educational levels

From the above analysis, it can be found that the distribution of research topics in K-12 education was relatively balanced, while in higher education, it was more concentrated. However, in higher education, research in the humanities and social sciences was more in-depth, and the distribution of themes was more extensive. The research hotspots at the two levels have shown the following differences.

Overall, in the K-12 stage, “learning outcomes” received the most attention, while career education for students was lacking. In higher education, “learning outcomes” and “social relevance” were the most emphasized aspects, while “teachers’ professional development” and “pedagogy” were relatively neglected.

Specifically, concerning “learning outcomes”, achievement, performance, and self-efficacy were common topics across different educational levels. K-12 education placed more emphasis on computational thinking, creativity, and design thinking, while higher education focused more on innovation and critical thinking. Regarding “teachers’ professional development”, higher education paid relatively less attention to teachers and their development, lacking a systematic body of research. In “technology empowerment”, technologies in the research were highly similar, but there was a greater volume of publications in K-12 education. The knowledge or tools learned were also more foundational and straightforward at this level. In the realm of “social relevance” research, gender, equity, and culture were common topics of interest, but higher education delved into students’ career choices and development, an area that lacked emphasis in K-12 education. In terms of “pedagogy” research, K-12 education primarily focused on inquiry based learning and game based learning, while higher education emphasized collaborative learning and active learning.

This study analyzed and compared the development of the STEM research field in two aspects: subject integration and subject themes distribution, to clarify the STEM subject orientation and the ecological map of subject integration in the STEM field.

Referring to RQ1, the subject time distribution maps were used to find out how subjects integrated into STEM education at the K-12 and higher education levels. From the above analysis, it is clear that subject integration followed the evolutionary path of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics to the addition of social sciences and humanities. The addition of the latter has qualitatively improved the connotation of STEM education and fundamentally changed the subject integration path. In other words, the field of STEM studies has expanded from science education to the whole education field, and the cross-fertilization of subjects has become its most fundamental feature. This conclusion has been corroborated by existing research and policies (Perignat and Katz-Buonincontro 2019 ; Zhan et al. 2022a ).

Referring to RQ2, the subject themes distribution maps at the K-12 and higher education levels reflected the main research content of STEM education. Research themes were not evenly distributed, especially since the research on “learning outcomes” was much more than the research on “teachers’ professional development” and “pedagogy”, which implied that the current attention to STEM teachers was insufficient. Previous research indicated that teacher education programs lack content related to interdisciplinary integration across different subject areas and do not provide suitable activities for integrating STEM education (Türk et al. 2018 ). In addition, although K-12 education started late, it has developed rapidly due to the promotion of policies and the future needs of society, but there is still much room for expansion of its research scope, especially career issues. In recent years, with the further development of globalization, student diversity has become evident not only in higher education but also in K-12 education. Research has shown that multicultural education and culturally supportive teaching contribute to addressing the persistent inequalities in the field of STEM education (Charity Hudley and Mallinson 2017 ).

STEM education has obvious interdisciplinary characteristics, in which different subjects play different roles, as shown in Table 1 . The essence of science subjects is to understand the objective laws of the world, and science education aims to help students understand the world through inquiry methods, knowledge is the key to its teaching. The essence of technology is the application of knowledge scenarios, and technology achieves the purpose of transforming the world by manipulating and optimizing the variables that affect the results (products), the key to its teaching is the acquisition of skills. Engineering is the integrated application of technology, and its purpose is also to transform the world, but unlike technology, engineering places more emphasis on the coordination of all elements within the system to find the optimal solution to the problem, and engineering operates and optimizes the variables that affect the system to achieve the purpose of system optimization. The essence of mathematics is measurement and calculation, which develops itself through abstract, non-empirical mathematical operations and heuristic logical deduction, and can provide the logical and calculative basis for other subjects, and the key to its teaching is calculation, measurement, and logical deduction.

Unlike the above subjects, the essence of humanities and social sciences is to feel, interpret, and create the man-made world. It contributes to the all-around development of human beings, the enhancement of moral values and cultural identity, and the development of creative and innovative thinking through the unity of awareness, expression, values, and emotions, the key to teaching is tasting, designing, and creating. In addition, there is a slight difference between the humanities and social sciences. The social sciences involved in STEM fields mainly reflect on the social issues that exist or are raised in STEM education from the perspective of research, but are less reflected in the teaching of the subjects, such as psychology. The involvement of the humanities is mainly reflected in the teaching of the subjects, and the educational goals are achieved through teaching students to appreciate the appeal and value of the arts.

The STEM education research ecosystem comprises two parts. The upper elliptical portion reveals the distribution of disciplines and research topics, while the lower timeline illustrates the timeline of interdisciplinary integration. The central part of the ellipse indicates the disciplinary composition of STEM education. Science, oriented towards exploration, forms the foundation of STEM education. Engineering, driven by creativity and innovation, plays a crucial role in fostering students’ creativity and innovation. Science and engineering mutually reinforce each other and progress together. Technology provides the tools and support for STEM education, while mathematics serves as the computational foundation, collectively facilitating STEM education activities.

STEM education, through interdisciplinary teaching, emphasizes the cultivation of students’ higher-order thinking skills, such as scientific thinking, design thinking, engineering thinking, and computational thinking. The outermost circle includes other disciplines involved in STEM education, such as arts, economics, history, political science, linguistics, psychology, philosophy, physics, biology, computer science, environmental studies, chemistry, and more. This demonstrates the trend in STEM education shifting from STEM to STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) and the integration of science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and social sciences in education. The pink and blue sections represent the distribution of research topics in the K-12 and higher education stages.

From the above analysis, we could outline the ecological map of STEM subject integration in terms of subject integration and subject themes distribution, as shown in Fig. 4 , which demonstrates the subject integration and main research contents of STEM education.

This figure is composed of two parts, with the upper part representing the content dimension, and the lower part representing the time dimension. The pink area within the ellipse illustrates the most prominent research themes in the K-12 stage, while the blue area illustrates the most prominent research themes in higher education.

Conclusion and future research

Based on the literature related to STEM education in the WOS database from 2004 to 2023, covering 903 papers at the K-12 level and 873 papers at the higher education level, this study conducted a bibliometric analysis from the perspective of subject evolution, including subject timeline evolution analysis and subject theme evolution analysis, to reveal the subject evolution trends and research hotspots in STEM education. The following conclusions were reached.

First, regarding subject integration, the interdisciplinary and cross-subject collaboration in STEM education was constantly expanding and deepening, forming a new situation in which science, engineering, humanities, and social sciences are integrated. Since 2004, a total of 16 subjects have been involved, among them, arts, physics, chemistry, biology, computer science, and environmental science were the main integrated subjects. Interdisciplinary integration promoted the innovation and development of STEM education research.

Second, regarding the research themes, humanism was more and more emphasized in STEM education. In the temporal evolution of subjects in STEM education, it was found that the research outputs of humanities and social science subjects such as arts, psychology, and philosophy kept increasing. The cultural themes have enriched the diversity of participants and the uniqueness of regions in STEM education research, viewed from perspectives such as theory, teaching methods, and regional development. “Social relevance” has garnered significant attention across different educational levels. In K-12 education, research topics were relatively balanced, but there was a lack of research on students’ career choices and development. In higher education, research topics in the humanities and social sciences were more diverse in their distribution.

To sum up, this study analyzed the developmental lineage of STEM education, focusing on the subject roles, and hot topics of research, and summing up potential guidance for subsequent subject integration research. Future work should prioritize the articulation of STEM subject integration between K-12 education and higher education. At the K-12 level, it is necessary to enhance vocational education appropriately, while in higher education, reducing the attrition rate of STEM majors may become a crucial issue. Additionally, attention to multi-discipline teacher collaboration and professional development, high-quality curricula design, and regional policy support should continue to be emphasized. Moreover, different countries present different characteristics in the development of STEM education due to their different cultural, political, and economic backgrounds. In future studies, we aim to conduct a comparative study on the development of STEM education on a country-by-country basis.

Data availability

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available in the supplementary file.

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Acknowledgements

This research was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation in China (62277018; 62237001), Ministry of Education in China Project of Humanities and Social Sciences (22YJC880106), the Major Project of Social Science in South China Normal University (ZDPY2208), the Degree and graduate education Reform research project in Guangdong (2023JGXM046).

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Zhan, Z., Niu, S. Subject integration and theme evolution of STEM education in K-12 and higher education research. Humanit Soc Sci Commun 10 , 781 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-02303-8

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Trends in Highly Cited Empirical Research in STEM Education: a Literature Review

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• Volume 5 , pages 303–321, ( 2022 )

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• Yeping Li 1 ,
• Ke Wang 2 ,
• Yu Xiao 1 &
• Suzanne M. Wilson 3  

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The development of STEM education scholarship takes time and collective effort. Identifying and examining trends in highly cited empirical STEM education research over time will help inform the field and future research. In this study, we searched the Web of Science core database to identify the top 100 most-cited empirical research journal publications in each of three consecutive years. Our analyses revealed consistencies and important changes over the years in terms of the inclusion of articles themselves, the journals where they were published, disciplinary content coverage, and research topics. The results demonstrate that STEM education research is increasingly recognized as important in education, both through publications and citations, and that the field is moving toward conducting more multi- and interdisciplinary STEM education research.

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Introduction

The importance of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education has been well-recognized, not only due to the importance of each component discipline but also the connection and integration of different STEM disciplines. Different from the traditional approach of focusing on individual disciplines such as mathematics and physics, STEM education opens the door for new opportunities and approaches for students’ learning and preparation (see Li, 2018 ). However, new opportunities come with new challenges, as STEM itself is not a discipline. The nature and content of this new integrative field of STEM education scholarship cannot be pre-defined, but emerges from the collective contributions of numerous scholars over time. To gain insights into STEM education scholarship development, we sought to identify and examine trends in empirical research publications that have had high impact in the field over the past 3 years.

A recent research review (Li et al., 2022 ) served as the foundation for this study. In that review, we specified high impact empirical research publications as those that gained high citations. Although many databases are available to search for publication citation counts, the Web of Science (WoS) is the world’s leading scientific citation search and analytical information platform (Li et al., 2018 ). Its core database has been commonly used as a reliable indexing database with close attention to high standard research publications with a peer-review process, thus used in many research review studies (e.g., Li et al., 2018 ; Marín-Marín et al., 2021 ). The WoS core database is more selective than many others, such as Scopus. For these reasons, we searched the WoS core database to identify the top 100 most-cited empirical studies in STEM education published in journals from 2000 to 2021. The search was conducted on September 12, 2022, and allowed us to identify and select those research publications that gained high citations for inclusion up to that day. However, as publication citations keep changing on a daily basis and also over time, it remains unclear whether and how the top 100 most-cited research publications may be changing over time. Learning about publication citation changes provides a glimpse into the dynamic evolution in STEM education research field.

Li et al. ( 2022 ) examined multiple aspects of the top 100 most-cited empirical studies published in journals from 2000 to 2021, including journals in which these high impact empirical studies were published, publication years, disciplinary content coverage, and research topics. We planned for the current study to also focus on those aspects. Different from the recent review, however, the current study aimed to identify and examine possible trends from changes in the top 100 most-cited empirical research publications identified in three different years (i.e., August 2020, September 2021, and September 2022). Taken together, this study was designed to use data from three searches conducted over the years to systematically analyze and report:

consistencies and changes in the top 100 most-cited empirical research journal publications over three years

distributions and patterns of the top 100 most-cited empirical research publications in different journals

disciplinary content coverage of the top 100 most-cited empirical research journal publications and possible trends

research topics being focused on by the top 100 most-cited empirical research journal publications and topic trends

Methodological Considerations

Searching and identifying.

To be consistent with Li et al. ( 2022 ), we used the same process to search and identify the top 100 most-cited empirical research publications in different years. The process started with searching the WoS core database under the field of “topic” (covering title, abstract, author keywords, and keywords plus), using the same search terms: “STEM” OR “STEAM” OR “science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.” Because there are many different categories in the WoS database, we conducted publication searches under the same WoS category: Education Educational Research, on August 9, 2020, September 20, 2021, and September 12, 2022, respectively. In each of these 3 years, the time period of publications was set as starting from 2000 to the year right before the search was conducted. For example, in 2022, all publications from 2000 to 2021 were specified in the search.

After obtaining a list of publications from the search, all publications were placed in descending order in terms of citation counts. Each publication was then carefully checked using the same criteria for inclusion or exclusion (see Table 1 ). The process identified the top 100 most-cited empirical research journal publications. The follow-up publication coding and analysis were then carried out in the same way as Li et al. ( 2022 ).

Accounting for Different Search Category Coverage

During the article search process in September 2022, we noticed that the WoS database has four categories listed under “education”: Education Educational Research, Education Scientific Disciplines, Psychology Educational, and Education Special. It occurred to us that empirical research articles in STEM education may also be published in journals that are not classified and listed under the category of “Education Educational Research.”

Thus, we conducted another search of the WoS database in 2022 under all of the four categories using the same search terms for journal publications from 2000 to 2021. The search returned 9275 publications under “Education Educational Research,” 2161 under “Education Scientific Disciplines,” 247 under “Psychology Educational,” and 15 under “Education Special.” The combined list of all publications was then placed in descending order in terms of citation counts, and each publication was screened using the same inclusion or exclusion criteria (Table 1 ).

As these two searches with the inclusion of different WoS categories were conducted in the same year, possible connections and differences in the inclusion of publications and journals across these two searches will not reveal possible trends over time. However, comparing the results may illuminate the diversity of journal outlets that researchers are using.

Trends in Highly Cited STEM Education Research Publications

Consistencies and changes from 2020 to 2022.

Across the 3 years, 76 publications were identified as included each year. Eleven publications were changed in the 2nd search in 2021 in comparison to the list from the 1st search in 2020; twenty-three publications were changed in 2022. Across the lists between searches in 2021 and 2022, there were 84 same publications and 16 different publications. The results suggest that the majority (76) of high impact empirical research journal publications were stable, over the 3-year period, in terms of gaining high citations. At the same time, quite a substantial number of publications (24) were dropped.

Figure  1 shows the distributions of top 100 most-cited publications in 2022, 2021, and 2020, respectively. Several overall consistencies are noteworthy. Specifically, across these three distributions, the majority of publications were published between 2010 and 2015, suggesting that publications would typically need about 5–10 years to gain extensive exposure to obtain enough citations for inclusion. At the same time, the distribution of those most-cited publications identified in 2022 shows that some more recent publications (2016–2019) also emerged with high citations. Multiple factors might account for this, including possible changes in journal inclusion in the WoS core database or the appearance of high quality research that was disseminated in high profile ways. Further examination of possible contributing factors is beyond the scope of this study.

Distributions of the top 100 most-cited empirical research journal publications in STEM education over the years in three different searches

Table 2 provides the top 10 list of most-cited publications identified from each search. Nine articles (with citation counts bolded) appear each year. In particular, the top 4 are the same across the 3 years. All top 10 articles from the 2021 search made it to the top 10 list again in 2022 search. There is one article difference of inclusion in the top 10 list between 2021 and 2020 searches, and two article differences of inclusion in the top 10 between 2022 and 2020 searches.

Table 2 also shows that all of these most-cited articles were published between 2008 and 2013. The top 10 most-cited publications in 2020 had an average of 180 citations (range, 134–271 per article). In 2021, the articles had an average of 226 citations (range, 180–352). For the top 11 (with two articles in a tie at the 10th place) in 2022, the average was 263 citations (range, 211–421). The nine articles that appeared each year had an average of 185 citations with a range of 140 to 271 in 2020, an average of 231 citations with a range of 192 to 352 in 2021, and an average of 272 citations with a range of 211 to 421 in 2022. The results again provide a clear indication of increased citations for publications over time, albeit with different increasing rates for different publications.

We also observed that the top 10 list of most-cited empirical research publications were published in different journals, but not in a journal specifically on STEM education. In fact, there was no well-established journal in STEM education before 2019 (Li, 2019 ). It is not surprising that the top 10 list of most-cited empirical research articles in STEM education were published in other well-established journals in education or science education at that time. The results suggest the potential value of examining what journals published highly cited empirical research in STEM education and related patterns.

Distributions and Patterns of Highly Cited Publications in Different Journals

We identified and sorted all journals in which publications appeared. Forty-eight journals published these articles across the 3 years (see Table 3 ), 43 journals published the top 100 identified in 2022, 41 journals in 2021, and 40 journals in 2020. Thirty-five of these journals appeared in all three searches.

Thirty-seven journals were covered by SSCI (Social Sciences Citation Index) and 11 were covered by ESCI (Emerging Sources Citation Index). These are clearly well-established and quality journals in the professional community. Moreover, the majority of these journals have a long publishing history, with 35 journals being established 30 or more years ago, and 13 journals having less than a 30-year history. Eleven journals have been established since 2000, eight SSCI journals and three ESCI journals. This suggests that the most highly cited empirical research has been published in well-established and reputable journals with a long publishing history. It is not surprising as STEM education itself has too a short history to establish top journals (Li et al., 2020 ).

To take a closer look at the possible impact of different journals, we examined the top 10 journals and their publications from the list in Table 3 . These 10 journals contributed 57 articles (57%) for the top 100 collection from 2022 search, 56 articles (56%) for the top 100 collection in 2021, and 53 articles (53%) for the top 100 collection in 2020. The results provide clear indications that these 10 journals carried a heavy weight in publishing high impact research articles from the three searches. All of these 10 journals were SSCI journals. They all had 30 or more years of history, except one journal, International Journal of STEM Education (IJSTEM), that started to publish in 2014 (Li, 2014 ). In fact, IJSTEM is the only journal, out of the 48 journals in the list, with a clear focus on STEM education research. The result provides a confirmation about the initial stage of STEM education research journal development at this time (Li, 2018 ; Li et al., 2020 ), and the leading journal status of IJSTEM in promoting and publishing STEM education research (Li, 2021 ).

Among the 48 journals listed in Table 3 , we classified them into two general categories: general education research journals (without a discipline of STEM specified in a journal’s title) and those with STEM discipline specified in a journal’s title, an approach similar to what we used in a previous research review (Li et al., 2020 ). Thirty journals spoke to general educational education research readers; 18 to readers in specific discipline(s) of STEM. The result suggests that researchers published their high impact empirical research in STEM education in a wide range of journals, with more in general educational research journals as these journals tend to be well-established with a long history, and spoke both to scholars with interests in STEM and to broader communities.

Figure  2 shows that the distributions of the top 100 articles over these two types of journals were very stable across these three searches, with about 50% of the articles published in educational research journals and 50% in journals with STEM discipline(s) specified.

Distributions of top 100 most-cited empirical research publications in general and STEM-specific journals. Note: 0 = journals without STEM discipline specified, 1 = journals with STEM discipline specified

Going beyond the cumulative counts of these publications in two types of journals from each search, Fig.  3 shows the distributions of top 100 publications in each type of journal over the years for each search, where dotted line segments refer to the distributions in journals without STEM discipline specified and solid line segments refer to the distributions in journals with STEM discipline specified.

Trends of top 100 most-cited empirical STEM education research publications in general vs. STEM-specific journals, 2020–2022

Overall, there are some general consistencies in trends between the group of dotted line segments and the group of solid line segments, an observation consistent with what we learned from Fig.  2 about overall distributions of publications. However, we also noticed that the dotted line segments stay above the solid line segments from 2009 to 2012, and solid line segments tend to stay higher since 2014 especially from the 2022 search. The results suggest a general trend that those highly cited articles tended to be published in general educational research journals before 2013, but started to have more in journals with content discipline of STEM specified after 2013 in recent search. There are many possible reasons for this trend (e.g., Li et al., 2020 ; Li & Xiao, 2022 ; Moore et al., 2017 ; Wilsdon et al., 2015 ). Researchers might have developed disciplinary consciousness in publications, especially when STEM education publications started to pick up since that time. There is also evidence that there has been a rise in higher education in the pressure to publish, both due to the use of productivity metrics in universities and funders’ use of publication records in evaluating research grants. It may be that, on the global front, institutions of higher education are broadening the list of recommended outlets for publications to STEM-specific journals. This result may also relate to disciplinary content coverage specified in these top 100 publications in different searches, a topic that we will examine further in next section.

Disciplinary Content Coverage

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 not mean that all four STEM disciplines were focused on in their studies. Thus, we took a further look at each publication to examine if it focused on a single discipline of STEM or multiple disciplines of STEM.

Figure  4 presents summarized results. The vast majority (75% or more) of these top 100 highly cited articles focused on multidisciplinary STEM education. There is a small but notable change in disciplinary foci between those publications identified from 2022 search and those publications from 2021 and 2020 searches: 25 publications on a single discipline of STEM and 75 on multidisciplinary STEM education from 2022 search, while about 15 publications on a single discipline of STEM and 85 on multidisciplinary STEM education from 2021 and 2020 searches. It would be interesting to see how the disciplinary foci emerged from those highly cited empirical research publications evolve.

Disciplinary content coverage in top 100 most-cited articles, 2020–2022. Note: 1 = single discipline of STEM education, 2 = multidisciplinary STEM education

To take a further look at possible changes across different searches, Fig.  5 presents the distributions of top 100 publications with different disciplinary content coverages from 2020 to 2022. We used solid line segments for the distributions of publications on a single discipline of STEM and dotted line segments for the distributions of publications on multidisciplinary STEM education.

Trends in disciplinary content coverage, 2020–2022

Several general consistencies in trends between the group of dotted line segments and the group of solid line segments, an observation consistent with what we learned from Fig.  4 . At the same time, we also noticed that no publications on a single discipline of STEM before 2011 made to the list in 2021 and 2022 searches, and more publications on multidisciplinary STEM education after 2015 made to the list in these two recent searches than the 2020 search. The results suggest a possible trend of shifting research interest and development toward multi- and interdisciplinary STEM education in the field through recent publications and citations.

Research Topics

To examine research topics, we used the same list of topics from previous reviews (Li & Xiao, 2022 ; Li et al., 2019 ). The following list contains seven topic categories (TC) that was used to classify and examine all publications identified and selected from the three searches in this study.

TC1: Teaching, teacher, and teacher education in STEM (including both pre-service and in-service teacher education) in K-12 education

TC2: Teacher and teaching in STEM (including faculty development, etc.) at post-secondary level

TC3: STEM learner, learning, and learning environment in K-12 education

TC4: STEM learner, learning, and learning environments (excluding pre-service teacher education) at post-secondary level

TC5: Policy, curriculum, evaluation, and assessment in STEM (including literature review about a field in general)

TC6: Culture, social, and gender issues in STEM education

TC7: History, epistemology, and perspectives about STEM and STEM education

Consistent with the coding practice used in the previous reviews, we assigned each publication to only one topic. When there were cases that more than one topic could have been used, a decision was made after discussion.

Figure  6 shows that more publications on four TCs (i.e., TC3, TC4, TC5, and TC6) were more highly cited than articles focused on the other three TCs (i.e., TC1, TC2, and TC7). Moreover, TC4 (STEM learner, learning, and learning environments at post-secondary level) and TC6 (culture, social, and gender issues in STEM education) were the two TCs in 2021 and 2020 searches that had the most publications. In 2022, culture, social, and gender issues in STEM education was the focus of many more publications than the other TCs. The results suggest that publications in TC4 and TC6 were more likely to gain high citations than publications in other TCs, and the trend seems to go further for publications in TC6 but not for TC4 in 2022 search. At the same time, it is a bit surprising to observe that teaching, teacher, and teacher education in STEM in K-12 education (TC1) and teachers and teaching in STEM at post-secondary level (TC2) were not popular topic areas among those highly cited research publications. It would be interesting to see if possible changes may take place in the future.

Trends in research topic distributions, 2020–2022

In comparison to what we can learn from previous research reviews (Li et al., 2020 ; Li & Xiao, 2022 ), the results from this study seemingly present a different picture in terms of the “hot” topics. However, it should be pointed out that this study was restricted in identifying and selecting high impact empirical research publications in STEM education from the WoS database, different from previous reviews in terms of both journal coverages and the scope of publication inclusion. In fact, there were many highly cited research reviews and conceptual papers in STEM education but excluded from review in this study.

Consistencies and Changes in the Top 100 Most-cited Empirical STEM Research Journal Publications Identified from Two Searches Using Different WoS Categories

Now we come to the two searches conducted in 2022 using different WoS categories, as mentioned above. One search was conducted using one category (“Education Educational Research”). The results of the top 100 most-cited publications were presented above together with the results from 2021 and 2020 searches. The second search was conducted using all four categories listed under “education,” including “Education Educational Research,” “Education Scientific Disciplines,” “Psychology Educational,” and “Education Special.” Some journals may be classified and listed in more than one category, for example, IJSTEM that is listed under both “Education Educational Research” and “Education Scientific Disciplines.” Nevertheless, it is clear that the 2nd search covered more journals and publications with all four categories.

Table 4 shows the list of all journals (50) that published the top 100 most-cited empirical research articles from these two searches, with 43 journals published the top 100 identified in the 1st search and 45 journals in the second search. The vast majority of the journals were the same (38). At the same time, we observed a few important differences. First, there were a few journals (see journal titles in bold in Table 4 , all SSCI journals) likely not listed under “Education Educational Research” but published highly cited empirical research articles in STEM education, especially CBE-Life Science Education (CBE-LSE) and the Journal of Educational Psychology . The inclusion of these new journals from the search actually resulted in significant changes to the allocation of top 100 most-cited empirical research publications in other journals. Moreover, if taking a close look at these nine articles published in CBE-LSE (a journal specified with STEM discipline), we found that these articles were all published more recently from 2014 to 2019, with three in 2014, two in 2015, and one in 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019, respectively. The result is consistent with a trend we noticed above from Fig.  3 .

Second, some journals (see journal titles in italics in Table 4 ) from the first search being pushed out in the second search, as publications in these journals did not have high enough citations for inclusion as part of the top 100 list. Moreover, these five journals were all on general education research, except one ( Physical Review Physics Education Research ).

Taken together, the results suggest that differences can occur with the use of different categories in the WoS searches. The use of all four categories under “education” would make the search more inclusive, which is what we conducted in the WoS core database search in the recent research review (Li et al., 2022 ).

Concluding Remarks

This study, for the first time, examined trends in highly cited empirical research publications in STEM education, through reviewing the top 100 most-cited journal articles identified from the WoS core database in each of three consecutive years. The systematic analysis of these publications reveals the on-going accumulation and development of STEM education scholarship. Although empirical research in STEM education has been consistently published in many well-established journals especially in educational research, our analysis shows that a growing number of those highly cited research articles were published in journals specified more or less with STEM discipline(s). In particular, among the top 10 journals that published more than 50% of those top 100 most-cited articles in each search, the International Journal of STEM Education was able to make to the top 10 journal list even though it is the only one established after 2000.

Across these three searches, the vast majority of those highly cited research publications focused on multidisciplinary STEM education. At the same time, the lists of publications identified from recent searches in 2021 and 2022 contain no publication on a single discipline of STEM before 2011 but an increasing number of publications on multidisciplinary STEM education in recent years. A trend shows an increased interest and development in recent publications on multi- and interdisciplinary STEM education.

With a restriction on empirical research in STEM education from the WoS database, this study differed from previous research reviews that covered all types of articles on STEM education in different journals (e.g., Li & Xiao, 2022 ; Li et al., 2020 ). Nevertheless, our analysis in this study shows that culture, social, and gender issues in STEM education (TC6) and STEM learner, learning, and learning environments at post-secondary level (TC4) were popular topic areas among those highly cited research publications. In contrast, teaching, teacher, and teacher education in STEM in K-12 education (TC1) and teacher and teaching in STEM at post-secondary level (TC2) were not popular. As research in these TCs has been growing with increased publications (Li & Xiao, 2022 ), we would not be surprised if more publications in these areas will appear in the top 100 research publication list in the future.

It may also be the case that teaching, teachers, and teacher preparation are the focus of already-published research that is still too recent to have accumulated the citations necessary to become highly cited. If one major goal of literature reviews is to help scholars identify promising topics of inquiry, this “lag” time problem suggests that citations—while a helpful proxy—need to be supplemented with other indicators, including those that may not be even dependent on the arduous (and often lengthy) process of getting one’s work published in a journal. A recent review of publications in the International Journal of STEM Education shows the value of using different indicators for publication performance measurements, such as altmetrics (Li, 2022 ). Finding other ways to locate the field’s promising topics will benefit researchers and journals such as ours which can play an important role in providing a platform for sharing and promoting integrated research in STEM education.

Data Availability

The data and materials used and analyzed for the report were obtained through searching the Web of Science database, and related journal information are available directly from these journals’ websites.

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The authors wish to thank Jeff Davis and the staff at Springer for their support in publishing this article.

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Li, Y., Wang, K., Xiao, Y. et al. Trends in Highly Cited Empirical Research in STEM Education: a Literature Review. Journal for STEM Educ Res 5 , 303–321 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41979-022-00081-7

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STEM Education Research

Science isn’t merely for scientists. Understanding science is part of being a well-rounded and informed citizen. Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education research is dedicated to studying the nature of learning, the impact of different science teaching strategies, and the most effective ways to recruit and retain the next generation of scientists.

Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian STEM education researchers are engaged in a number of projects:

Developing research-based tests for use in evaluating students’ knowledge of science concepts. These tests are designed to check for common differences in the way non-scientists understand a subject as compared to scientists. When offered at the beginning and end of science courses, they assess whether instruction has resulted in students' conceptual growth. The tests are freely available for education researchers and teachers, and cover the full range of elementary, secondary, and university courses in science. Misconception-Orientation Standard-Based Assessment Resources for Teachers (MOSART)

Studying ways to improve students’ preparation for introductory STEM courses in college. Students arrive at college with varying pre-college educational experiences, which often influence how well they do in their first STEM classes. To keep interested students in STEM programs, researchers look at measurable factors that predict improved performance. Factors Influencing College Success in STEM (FICS)

Discerning factors that strengthen students’ interest in pursuing a STEM career. Education researchers look at a whole range of pre-college experiences in and out of school that can affect students’ interest in pursuing STEM careers, in order to see both what encourages and what drives them away. Persistence in STEM (PRiSE)

Examining predictors of student outcomes in MOOCs. Many universities have implemented MOOCs to provide academic resources beyond the university, but the research on how well they perform compared with ordinary classes is scant. In addition, MOOCs are frequently plagued by students dropping out. By studying actual implementations of MOOCs, SED researchers hope to gather evidence to explain why many students don’t stick with the course through the end. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs)

Advancing Science Teaching and Learning

Public understanding of science is essential for our democratic society. At the same time, white female students and students of color are underrepresented across STEM fields, which is a problem both from equity and workforce demand perspectives. For these reasons, researchers at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian study how to improve science teaching and learning.

The Science Education Department (SED) at the Center for Astrophysics is dedicated to researching how people learn, and identifying measurable ways to evaluate learning for students in STEM classes. SED researchers have developed assessment tools designed to evaluate students’ conceptual knowledge for all levels from elementary school through university. These tests are freely available for teachers and other education specialists. Experts in the program also study the educational outcomes of massive open online courses (MOOCs) , which are widely used by universities despite the current lack of evidence on their effectiveness.

A current challenge of STEM education is the substantial underrepresentation of white female scientists and scientists of color across STEM fields, which limits the potential for innovation and excellence in scientific research. To address this problem, SED researchers study variables that predict persistence of students within the STEM pipeline, factors that impact achievement by students in STEM courses, and the development of science identity.

In addition to pursuing fundamental STEM education research, Harvard and Smithsonian educators translate these findings into practice by developing innovative science programs, curricula, interactive media, and technology-based tools for STEM learning. These research-based resources are used by educational audiences in the United States and around the world. The significance of SED’s work has been recognized in the form of grants from the National Science Foundation, NASA, and the National Institutes of Health.

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200+ Experimental Quantitative Research Topics For STEM Students In 2023

STEM means Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math, which is not the only stuff we learn in school. It is like a treasure chest of skills that help students become great problem solvers, ready to tackle the real world’s challenges.

In this blog, we are here to explore the world of Research Topics for STEM Students. We will break down what STEM really means and why it is so important for students. In addition, we will give you the lowdown on how to pick a fascinating research topic. We will explain a list of 200+ Experimental Quantitative Research Topics For STEM Students.

And when it comes to writing a research title, we will guide you step by step. So, stay with us as we unlock the exciting world of STEM research – it is not just about grades; it is about growing smarter, more confident, and happier along the way.

What Is STEM?

Table of Contents

STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. It is a way of talking about things like learning, jobs, and activities related to these four important subjects. Science is about understanding the world around us, technology is about using tools and machines to solve problems, engineering is about designing and building things, and mathematics is about numbers and solving problems with them. STEM helps us explore, discover, and create cool stuff that makes our world better and more exciting.

Why STEM Research Is Important?

STEM research is important because it helps us learn new things about the world and solve problems. When scientists, engineers, and mathematicians study these subjects, they can discover cures for diseases, create new technology that makes life easier, and build things that help us live better. It is like a big puzzle where we put together pieces of knowledge to make our world safer, healthier, and more fun.

• STEM research leads to new discoveries and solutions.
• It helps find cures for diseases.
• STEM technology makes life easier.
• Engineers build things that improve our lives.
• Mathematics helps us understand and solve complex problems.

How to Choose a Topic for STEM Research Paper

Here are some steps to choose a topic for STEM Research Paper:

Step 1: Identify Your Interests

Think about what you like and what excites you in science, technology, engineering, or math. It could be something you learned in school, saw in the news, or experienced in your daily life. Choosing a topic you’re passionate about makes the research process more enjoyable.

Step 2: Research Existing Topics

Look up different STEM research areas online, in books, or at your library. See what scientists and experts are studying. This can give you ideas and help you understand what’s already known in your chosen field.

Step 3: Consider Real-World Problems

Think about the problems you see around you. Are there issues in your community or the world that STEM can help solve? Choosing a topic that addresses a real-world problem can make your research impactful.

Step 4: Talk to Teachers and Mentors

Discuss your interests with your teachers, professors, or mentors. They can offer guidance and suggest topics that align with your skills and goals. They may also provide resources and support for your research.

Step 5: Narrow Down Your Topic

Once you have some ideas, narrow them down to a specific research question or project. Make sure it’s not too broad or too narrow. You want a topic that you can explore in depth within the scope of your research paper.

Here we will discuss 200+ Experimental Quantitative Research Topics For STEM Students: 

Qualitative Research Topics for STEM Students:

Qualitative research focuses on exploring and understanding phenomena through non-numerical data and subjective experiences. Here are 10 qualitative research topics for STEM students:

• Exploring the experiences of female STEM students in overcoming gender bias in academia.
• Understanding the perceptions of teachers regarding the integration of technology in STEM education.
• Investigating the motivations and challenges of STEM educators in underprivileged schools.
• Exploring the attitudes and beliefs of parents towards STEM education for their children.
• Analyzing the impact of collaborative learning on student engagement in STEM subjects.
• Investigating the experiences of STEM professionals in bridging the gap between academia and industry.
• Understanding the cultural factors influencing STEM career choices among minority students.
• Exploring the role of mentorship in the career development of STEM graduates.
• Analyzing the perceptions of students towards the ethics of emerging STEM technologies like AI and CRISPR.
• Investigating the emotional well-being and stress levels of STEM students during their academic journey.

Easy Experimental Research Topics for STEM Students:

These experimental research topics are relatively straightforward and suitable for STEM students who are new to research:

•  Measuring the effect of different light wavelengths on plant growth.
•  Investigating the relationship between exercise and heart rate in various age groups.
•  Testing the effectiveness of different insulating materials in conserving heat.
•  Examining the impact of pH levels on the rate of chemical reactions.
•  Studying the behavior of magnets in different temperature conditions.
•  Investigating the effect of different concentrations of a substance on bacterial growth.
•  Testing the efficiency of various sunscreen brands in blocking UV radiation.
•  Measuring the impact of music genres on concentration and productivity.
•  Examining the correlation between the angle of a ramp and the speed of a rolling object.
•  Investigating the relationship between the number of blades on a wind turbine and energy output.

Research Topics for STEM Students in the Philippines:

These research topics are tailored for STEM students in the Philippines:

•  Assessing the impact of climate change on the biodiversity of coral reefs in the Philippines.
•  Studying the potential of indigenous plants in the Philippines for medicinal purposes.
•  Investigating the feasibility of harnessing renewable energy sources like solar and wind in rural Filipino communities.
•  Analyzing the water quality and pollution levels in major rivers and lakes in the Philippines.
•  Exploring sustainable agricultural practices for small-scale farmers in the Philippines.
•  Assessing the prevalence and impact of dengue fever outbreaks in urban areas of the Philippines.
•  Investigating the challenges and opportunities of STEM education in remote Filipino islands.
•  Studying the impact of typhoons and natural disasters on infrastructure resilience in the Philippines.
•  Analyzing the genetic diversity of endemic species in the Philippine rainforests.
•  Assessing the effectiveness of disaster preparedness programs in Philippine communities.

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Good Research Topics for STEM Students:

These research topics are considered good because they offer interesting avenues for investigation and learning:

•  Developing a low-cost and efficient water purification system for rural communities.
•  Investigating the potential use of CRISPR-Cas9 for gene therapy in genetic disorders.
•  Studying the applications of blockchain technology in securing medical records.
•  Analyzing the impact of 3D printing on customized prosthetics for amputees.
•  Exploring the use of artificial intelligence in predicting and preventing forest fires.
•  Investigating the effects of microplastic pollution on aquatic ecosystems.
•  Analyzing the use of drones in monitoring and managing agricultural crops.
•  Studying the potential of quantum computing in solving complex optimization problems.
•  Investigating the development of biodegradable materials for sustainable packaging.
•  Exploring the ethical implications of gene editing in humans.

Unique Research Topics for STEM Students:

Unique research topics can provide STEM students with the opportunity to explore unconventional and innovative ideas. Here are 10 unique research topics for STEM students:

•  Investigating the use of bioluminescent organisms for sustainable lighting solutions.
•  Studying the potential of using spider silk proteins for advanced materials in engineering.
•  Exploring the application of quantum entanglement for secure communication in the field of cryptography.
•  Analyzing the feasibility of harnessing geothermal energy from underwater volcanoes.
•  Investigating the use of CRISPR-Cas12 for rapid and cost-effective disease diagnostics.
•  Studying the interaction between artificial intelligence and human creativity in art and music generation.
•  Exploring the development of edible packaging materials to reduce plastic waste.
•  Investigating the impact of microgravity on cellular behavior and tissue regeneration in space.
•  Analyzing the potential of using sound waves to detect and combat invasive species in aquatic ecosystems.
•  Studying the use of biotechnology in reviving extinct species, such as the woolly mammoth.

Experimental Research Topics for STEM Students in the Philippines

Research topics for STEM students in the Philippines can address specific regional challenges and opportunities. Here are 10 experimental research topics for STEM students in the Philippines:

•  Assessing the effectiveness of locally sourced materials for disaster-resilient housing construction in typhoon-prone areas.
•  Investigating the utilization of indigenous plants for natural remedies in Filipino traditional medicine.
•  Studying the impact of volcanic soil on crop growth and agriculture in volcanic regions of the Philippines.
•  Analyzing the water quality and purification methods in remote island communities.
•  Exploring the feasibility of using bamboo as a sustainable construction material in the Philippines.
•  Investigating the potential of using solar stills for freshwater production in water-scarce regions.
•  Studying the effects of climate change on the migration patterns of bird species in the Philippines.
•  Analyzing the growth and sustainability of coral reefs in marine protected areas.
•  Investigating the utilization of coconut waste for biofuel production.
•  Studying the biodiversity and conservation efforts in the Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park.

Capstone Research Topics for STEM Students in the Philippines:

Capstone research projects are often more comprehensive and can address real-world issues. Here are 10 capstone research topics for STEM students in the Philippines:

•  Designing a low-cost and sustainable sanitation system for informal settlements in urban Manila.
•  Developing a mobile app for monitoring and reporting natural disasters in the Philippines.
•  Assessing the impact of climate change on the availability and quality of drinking water in Philippine cities.
•  Designing an efficient traffic management system to address congestion in major Filipino cities.
•  Analyzing the health implications of air pollution in densely populated urban areas of the Philippines.
•  Developing a renewable energy microgrid for off-grid communities in the archipelago.
•  Assessing the feasibility of using unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) for agricultural monitoring in rural Philippines.
•  Designing a low-cost and sustainable aquaponics system for urban agriculture.
•  Investigating the potential of vertical farming to address food security in densely populated urban areas.
•  Developing a disaster-resilient housing prototype suitable for typhoon-prone regions.

Experimental Quantitative Research Topics for STEM Students:

Experimental quantitative research involves the collection and analysis of numerical data to conclude. Here are 10 Experimental Quantitative Research Topics For STEM Students interested in experimental quantitative research:

•  Examining the impact of different fertilizers on crop yield in agriculture.
•  Investigating the relationship between exercise and heart rate among different age groups.
•  Analyzing the effect of varying light intensities on photosynthesis in plants.
•  Studying the efficiency of various insulation materials in reducing building heat loss.
•  Investigating the relationship between pH levels and the rate of corrosion in metals.
•  Analyzing the impact of different concentrations of pollutants on aquatic ecosystems.
•  Examining the effectiveness of different antibiotics on bacterial growth.
•  Trying to figure out how temperature affects how thick liquids are.
•  Finding out if there is a link between the amount of pollution in the air and lung illnesses in cities.
•  Analyzing the efficiency of solar panels in converting sunlight into electricity under varying conditions.

Descriptive Research Topics for STEM Students

Descriptive research aims to provide a detailed account or description of a phenomenon. Here are 10 topics for STEM students interested in descriptive research:

•  Describing the physical characteristics and behavior of a newly discovered species of marine life.
•  Documenting the geological features and formations of a particular region.
•  Creating a detailed inventory of plant species in a specific ecosystem.
•  Describing the properties and behavior of a new synthetic polymer.
•  Documenting the daily weather patterns and climate trends in a particular area.
•  Providing a comprehensive analysis of the energy consumption patterns in a city.
•  Describing the structural components and functions of a newly developed medical device.
•  Documenting the characteristics and usage of traditional construction materials in a region.
•  Providing a detailed account of the microbiome in a specific environmental niche.
•  Describing the life cycle and behavior of a rare insect species.

Research Topics for STEM Students in the Pandemic:

The COVID-19 pandemic has raised many research opportunities for STEM students. Here are 10 research topics related to pandemics:

•  Analyzing the effectiveness of various personal protective equipment (PPE) in preventing the spread of respiratory viruses.
•  Studying the impact of lockdown measures on air quality and pollution levels in urban areas.
•  Investigating the psychological effects of quarantine and social isolation on mental health.
•  Analyzing the genomic variation of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and its implications for vaccine development.
•  Studying the efficacy of different disinfection methods on various surfaces.
•  Investigating the role of contact tracing apps in tracking & controlling the spread of infectious diseases.
•  Analyzing the economic impact of the pandemic on different industries and sectors.
•  Studying the effectiveness of remote learning in STEM education during lockdowns.
•  Investigating the social disparities in healthcare access during a pandemic.
• Analyzing the ethical considerations surrounding vaccine distribution and prioritization.

Research Topics for STEM Students Middle School

Research topics for middle school STEM students should be engaging and suitable for their age group. Here are 10 research topics:

• Investigating the growth patterns of different types of mold on various food items.
• Studying the negative effects of music on plant growth and development.
• Analyzing the relationship between the shape of a paper airplane and its flight distance.
• Investigating the properties of different materials in making effective insulators for hot and cold beverages.
• Studying the effect of salt on the buoyancy of different objects in water.
• Analyzing the behavior of magnets when exposed to different temperatures.
• Investigating the factors that affect the rate of ice melting in different environments.
• Studying the impact of color on the absorption of heat by various surfaces.
• Analyzing the growth of crystals in different types of solutions.
• Investigating the effectiveness of different natural repellents against common pests like mosquitoes.

Technology Research Topics for STEM Students

Technology is at the forefront of STEM fields. Here are 10 research topics for STEM students interested in technology:

• Developing and optimizing algorithms for autonomous drone navigation in complex environments.
• Exploring the use of blockchain technology for enhancing the security and transparency of supply chains.
• Investigating the applications of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) in medical training and surgery simulations.
• Studying the potential of 3D printing for creating personalized prosthetics and orthopedic implants.
• Analyzing the ethical and privacy implications of facial recognition technology in public spaces.
• Investigating the development of quantum computing algorithms for solving complex optimization problems.
• Explaining the use of machine learning and AI in predicting and mitigating the impact of natural disasters.
• Studying the advancement of brain-computer interfaces for assisting individuals with
• disabilities.
• Analyzing the role of wearable technology in monitoring and improving personal health and wellness.
• Investigating the use of robotics in disaster response and search and rescue operations.

Scientific Research Topics for STEM Students

Scientific research encompasses a wide range of topics. Here are 10 research topics for STEM students focusing on scientific exploration:

• Investigating the behavior of subatomic particles in high-energy particle accelerators.
• Studying the ecological impact of invasive species on native ecosystems.
• Analyzing the genetics of antibiotic resistance in bacteria and its implications for healthcare.
• Exploring the physics of gravitational waves and their detection through advanced interferometry.
• Investigating the neurobiology of memory formation and retention in the human brain.
• Studying the biodiversity and adaptation of extremophiles in harsh environments.
• Analyzing the chemistry of deep-sea hydrothermal vents and their potential for life beyond Earth.
• Exploring the properties of superconductors and their applications in technology.
• Investigating the mechanisms of stem cell differentiation for regenerative medicine.
• Studying the dynamics of climate change and its impact on global ecosystems.

Interesting Research Topics for STEM Students:

Engaging and intriguing research topics can foster a passion for STEM. Here are 10 interesting research topics for STEM students:

• Exploring the science behind the formation of auroras and their cultural significance.
• Investigating the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy in the universe.
• Studying the psychology of decision-making in high-pressure situations, such as sports or
• emergencies.
• Analyzing the impact of social media on interpersonal relationships and mental health.
• Exploring the potential for using genetic modification to create disease-resistant crops.
• Investigating the cognitive processes involved in solving complex puzzles and riddles.
• Studying the history and evolution of cryptography and encryption methods.
• Analyzing the physics of time travel and its theoretical possibilities.
• Exploring the role of Artificial Intelligence  in creating art and music.
• Investigating the science of happiness and well-being, including factors contributing to life satisfaction.

Practical Research Topics for STEM Students

Practical research often leads to real-world solutions. Here are 10 practical research topics for STEM students:

• Developing an affordable and sustainable water purification system for rural communities.
• Designing a low-cost, energy-efficient home heating and cooling system.
• Investigating strategies for reducing food waste in the supply chain and households.
• Studying the effectiveness of eco-friendly pest control methods in agriculture.
• Analyzing the impact of renewable energy integration on the stability of power grids.
• Developing a smartphone app for early detection of common medical conditions.
• Investigating the feasibility of vertical farming for urban food production.
• Designing a system for recycling and upcycling electronic waste.
• Studying the environmental benefits of green roofs and their potential for urban heat island mitigation.
• Analyzing the efficiency of alternative transportation methods in reducing carbon emissions.

Experimental Research Topics for STEM Students About Plants

Plants offer a rich field for experimental research. Here are 10 experimental research topics about plants for STEM students:

• Investigating the effect of different light wavelengths on plant growth and photosynthesis.
• Studying the impact of various fertilizers and nutrient solutions on crop yield.
• Analyzing the response of plants to different types and concentrations of plant hormones.
• Investigating the role of mycorrhizal in enhancing nutrient uptake in plants.
• Studying the effects of drought stress and water scarcity on plant physiology and adaptation mechanisms.
• Analyzing the influence of soil pH on plant nutrient availability and growth.
• Investigating the chemical signaling and defense mechanisms of plants against herbivores.
• Studying the impact of environmental pollutants on plant health and genetic diversity.
• Analyzing the role of plant secondary metabolites in pharmaceutical and agricultural applications.
• Investigating the interactions between plants and beneficial microorganisms in the rhizosphere.

Qualitative Research Topics for STEM Students in the Philippines

Qualitative research in the Philippines can address local issues and cultural contexts. Here are 10 qualitative research topics for STEM students in the Philippines:

• Exploring indigenous knowledge and practices in sustainable agriculture in Filipino communities.
• Studying the perceptions and experiences of Filipino fishermen in coping with climate change impacts.
• Analyzing the cultural significance and traditional uses of medicinal plants in indigenous Filipino communities.
• Investigating the barriers and facilitators of STEM education access in remote Philippine islands.
• Exploring the role of traditional Filipino architecture in natural disaster resilience.
• Studying the impact of indigenous farming methods on soil conservation and fertility.
• Analyzing the cultural and environmental significance of mangroves in coastal Filipino regions.
• Investigating the knowledge and practices of Filipino healers in treating common ailments.
• Exploring the cultural heritage and conservation efforts of the Ifugao rice terraces.
• Studying the perceptions and practices of Filipino communities in preserving marine biodiversity.

Science Research Topics for STEM Students

Science offers a diverse range of research avenues. Here are 10 science research topics for STEM students:

• Investigating the potential of gene editing techniques like CRISPR-Cas9 in curing genetic diseases.
• Studying the ecological impacts of species reintroduction programs on local ecosystems.
• Analyzing the effects of microplastic pollution on aquatic food webs and ecosystems.
• Investigating the link between air pollution and respiratory health in urban populations.
• Studying the role of epigenetics in the inheritance of acquired traits in organisms.
• Analyzing the physiology and adaptations of extremophiles in extreme environments on Earth.
• Investigating the genetics of longevity and factors influencing human lifespan.
• Studying the behavioral ecology and communication strategies of social insects.
• Analyzing the effects of deforestation on global climate patterns and biodiversity loss.
• Investigating the potential of synthetic biology in creating bioengineered organisms for beneficial applications.

Correlational Research Topics for STEM Students

Correlational research focuses on relationships between variables. Here are 10 correlational research topics for STEM students:

• Analyzing the correlation between dietary habits and the incidence of chronic diseases.
• Studying the relationship between exercise frequency and mental health outcomes.
• Investigating the correlation between socioeconomic status and access to quality healthcare.
• Analyzing the link between social media usage and self-esteem in adolescents.
• Studying the correlation between academic performance and sleep duration among students.
• Investigating the relationship between environmental factors and the prevalence of allergies.
• Analyzing the correlation between technology use and attention span in children.
• Studying how environmental factors are related to the frequency of allergies.
• Investigating the link between parental involvement in education and student achievement.
• Analyzing the correlation between temperature fluctuations and wildlife migration patterns.

Quantitative Research Topics for STEM Students in the Philippines

Quantitative research in the Philippines can address specific regional issues. Here are 10 quantitative research topics for STEM students in the Philippines

• Analyzing the impact of typhoons on coastal erosion rates in the Philippines.
• Studying the quantitative effects of land use change on watershed hydrology in Filipino regions.
• Investigating the quantitative relationship between deforestation and habitat loss for endangered species.
• Analyzing the quantitative patterns of marine biodiversity in Philippine coral reef ecosystems.
• Studying the quantitative assessment of water quality in major Philippine rivers and lakes.
• Investigating the quantitative analysis of renewable energy potential in specific Philippine provinces.
• Analyzing the quantitative impacts of agricultural practices on soil health and fertility.
• Studying the quantitative effectiveness of mangrove restoration in coastal protection in the Philippines.
• Investigating the quantitative evaluation of indigenous agricultural practices for sustainability.
• Analyzing the quantitative patterns of air pollution and its health impacts in urban Filipino areas.

Things That Must Keep In Mind While Writing Quantitative Research Title 

Here are few things that must be keep in mind while writing quantitative research tile:

1. Be Clear and Precise

Make sure your research title is clear and says exactly what your study is about. People should easily understand the topic and goals of your research by reading the title.

2. Use Important Words

Include words that are crucial to your research, like the main subjects, who you’re studying, and how you’re doing your research. This helps others find your work and understand what it’s about.

3. Avoid Confusing Words

Stay away from words that might confuse people. Your title should be easy to grasp, even if someone isn’t an expert in your field.

4. Show Your Research Approach

Tell readers what kind of research you did, like experiments or surveys. This gives them a hint about how you conducted your study.

5. Match Your Title with Your Research Questions

Make sure your title matches the questions you’re trying to answer in your research. It should give a sneak peek into what your study is all about and keep you on the right track as you work on it.

STEM students, addressing what STEM is and why research matters in this field. It offered an extensive list of research topics , including experimental, qualitative, and regional options, catering to various academic levels and interests. Whether you’re a middle school student or pursuing advanced studies, these topics offer a wealth of ideas. The key takeaway is to choose a topic that resonates with your passion and aligns with your goals, ensuring a successful journey in STEM research. Choose the best Experimental Quantitative Research Topics For Stem Students today!

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• Blog Post Top STEM Topic Areas for a Strong Dissertation

Top STEM Topic Areas for a Strong Dissertation

Before you finish college, you’ll be required to complete a dissertation to help gauge the skills and knowledge you’ve gained in your area of study. If you’re a STEM student, you need to be smart to complete the dissertation, and this starts with your topic selection. We’ve selected some top science topics to make your dissertation strong and show your mastery of content.

What Dissertation Topic Selection Involves 

Your dissertation topic selection must be wise to make the subject of your dissertation precise. Topic selection isn’t something you do within two minutes or a day. You have to take your time, research well, question your mastery, and settle on a topic you understand well. Importantly, research winning topics that interest your audience and that have many related sources and materials.

Since your dissertation will have a recommendation, it’s important to understand what’s been done and what you’ve done to recommend what’s to be done in the future to improve the topic. A very broad topic isn’t good. You won’t get the time or resources to research and discuss every aspect of the subject matter. When selecting a dissertation topic, make it current and up to date. This also means you’ll get resources and relevant materials from previous works and use them to improve your work.

Top STEM Topic Areas for Dissertations Today

We’ve categorized these topics based on STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) categories. Note that some stem topics overlap, and it’s alright to write a dissertation on one category even if it is similar to a different STEM category. 

Top Science Topics

Depending on your area of science , you can select a dissertation topic from the following trending areas in science:

• Microbiology and Bioengineering like AAV gene therapy
• Climate change, Endangered Species, and sustainable agriculture 
• Infectious diseases, Epidemiology, and Viruses
• Cancer Biology 
• Behavioral Biology and economics, such as in marketing, media, and political misinformation 
• Data science
• Astrobiology
• Music therapy 

Top Technology Topics

Technology is comprehensive but has a point of convergence. Depending on your area of technology, you can research topics from the following technology trends and developments:

• Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning
• Blockchain and cryptocurrency 
• Edge Computing
• Quantum Computing
• Internet of Things (IoT)
• Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality

Top Engineering Topics

Like technology, engineering is wide with many topics but has a point of convergence. Some engineering topics also overlap with technology and science topics. Here are the  top engineering topics and emerging industries that you can research and write on

• Financial engineering, such as blockchain 
• Robotics and automation. This includes AI and machine learning in science.
• Micromanufacturing
• Autonomous/self-driving vehicles
• Nanotechnology and new materials 
• Clean energy/environmental protection engineering
• Bioengineering and engineering of complex diseases 
• Nuclear engineering
• Digital security

Top Mathematics Topics

All math topics are intertwined with numbers and algebra, but they diverge in purpose. Depending on your area of mathematics study and research, here are the top math trends that can make your dissertation strong: 

• Mathematical Finance
• Applied analysis and mathematics
• Scientific Computing and Numerical Analysis
• Algebra, Geometry, and Combinatorics
• Partial Differential Equations
• Mathematical Biology
• Differential Geometry and topology
• Martian gravity

STEM is a world of exciting discoveries, new developments, facts, theories, and research. As a student, writing a dissertation requires analyzing topics and looking for relevance, credible sources, and new developments to gain knowledge and prove mastery. 

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Austin is the principle web director for Untamed Science and Stone Age Man . He is also the web-director of the series for the High School biology, Middle Grades Science and Elementary Science content. When Austin isn't making amazing content for the web, he's out on his mountain bike or in a canoe.

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Best 151+ Quantitative Research Topics for STEM Students

In today’s rapidly evolving world, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) fields have gained immense significance. For STEM students, engaging in quantitative research is a pivotal aspect of their academic journey. Quantitative research involves the systematic collection and interpretation of numerical data to address research questions or test hypotheses. Choosing the right research topic is essential to ensure a successful and meaningful research endeavor. 

In this blog, we will explore 151+ quantitative research topics for STEM students. Whether you are an aspiring scientist, engineer, or mathematician, this comprehensive list will inspire your research journey. But we understand that the journey through STEM education and research can be challenging at times. That’s why we’re here to support you every step of the way with our Engineering Assignment Help service. 

What is Quantitative Research in STEM?

Table of Contents

Quantitative research is a scientific approach that relies on numerical data and statistical analysis to draw conclusions and make predictions. In STEM fields, quantitative research encompasses a wide range of methodologies, including experiments, surveys, and data analysis. The key characteristics of quantitative research in STEM include:

• Data Collection: Systematic gathering of numerical data through experiments, observations, or surveys.
• Statistical Analysis: Application of statistical techniques to analyze data and draw meaningful conclusions.
• Hypothesis Testing: Testing hypotheses and theories using quantitative data.
• Replicability: The ability to replicate experiments and obtain consistent results.
• Generalizability: Drawing conclusions that can be applied to larger populations or phenomena.

Importance of Quantitative Research Topics for STEM Students

Quantitative research plays a pivotal role in STEM education and research for several reasons:

1. Empirical Evidence

It provides empirical evidence to support or refute scientific theories and hypotheses.

2. Data-Driven Decision-Making

STEM professionals use quantitative research to make informed decisions, from designing experiments to developing new technologies.

3. Innovation

It fuels innovation by providing data-driven insights that lead to the creation of new products, processes, and technologies.

4. Problem Solving

STEM students learn critical problem-solving skills through quantitative research, which are invaluable in their future careers.

5. Interdisciplinary Applications 

Quantitative research transcends STEM disciplines, facilitating collaboration and the tackling of complex, real-world problems.

Also Read: Google Scholar Research Topics

Quantitative Research Topics for STEM Students

Now, let’s explore important quantitative research topics for STEM students:

Biology and Life Sciences

Here are some quantitative research topics in biology and life science:

1. The impact of climate change on biodiversity.

2. Analyzing the genetic basis of disease susceptibility.

3. Studying the effectiveness of vaccines in preventing infectious diseases.

4. Investigating the ecological consequences of invasive species.

5. Examining the role of genetics in aging.

6. Analyzing the effects of pollution on aquatic ecosystems.

7. Studying the evolution of antibiotic resistance.

8. Investigating the relationship between diet and lifespan.

9. Analyzing the impact of deforestation on wildlife.

10. Studying the genetics of cancer development.

11. Investigating the effectiveness of various plant fertilizers.

12. Analyzing the impact of microplastics on marine life.

13. Studying the genetics of human behavior.

14. Investigating the effects of pollution on plant growth.

15. Analyzing the microbiome’s role in human health.

16. Studying the impact of climate change on crop yields.

17. Investigating the genetics of rare diseases.

Let’s get started with some quantitative research topics for stem students in chemistry:

1. Studying the properties of superconductors at different temperatures.

2. Analyzing the efficiency of various catalysts in chemical reactions.

3. Investigating the synthesis of novel polymers with unique properties.

4. Studying the kinetics of chemical reactions.

5. Analyzing the environmental impact of chemical waste disposal.

6. Investigating the properties of nanomaterials for drug delivery.

7. Studying the behavior of nanoparticles in different solvents.

8. Analyzing the use of renewable energy sources in chemical processes.

9. Investigating the chemistry of atmospheric pollutants.

10. Studying the properties of graphene for electronic applications.

11. Analyzing the use of enzymes in industrial processes.

12. Investigating the chemistry of alternative fuels.

13. Studying the synthesis of pharmaceutical compounds.

14. Analyzing the properties of materials for battery technology.

15. Investigating the chemistry of natural products for drug discovery.

16. Analyzing the effects of chemical additives on food preservation.

17. Investigating the chemistry of carbon capture and utilization technologies.

Here are some quantitative research topics in physics for stem students:

1. Investigating the behavior of subatomic particles in high-energy collisions.

2. Analyzing the properties of dark matter and dark energy.

3. Studying the quantum properties of entangled particles.

4. Investigating the dynamics of black holes and their gravitational effects.

5. Analyzing the behavior of light in different mediums.

6. Studying the properties of superfluids at low temperatures.

7. Investigating the physics of renewable energy sources like solar cells.

8. Analyzing the properties of materials at extreme temperatures and pressures.

9. Studying the behavior of electromagnetic waves in various applications.

10. Investigating the physics of quantum computing.

11. Analyzing the properties of magnetic materials for data storage.

12. Studying the behavior of particles in plasma for fusion energy research.

13. Investigating the physics of nanoscale materials and devices.

14. Analyzing the properties of materials for use in semiconductors.

15. Studying the principles of thermodynamics in energy efficiency.

16. Investigating the physics of gravitational waves.

17. Analyzing the properties of materials for use in quantum technologies.

Engineering

Let’s explore some quantitative research topics for stem students in engineering: 

1. Investigating the efficiency of renewable energy systems in urban environments.

2. Analyzing the impact of 3D printing on manufacturing processes.

3. Studying the structural integrity of materials in aerospace engineering.

4. Investigating the use of artificial intelligence in autonomous vehicles.

5. Analyzing the efficiency of water treatment processes in civil engineering.

6. Studying the impact of robotics in healthcare.

7. Investigating the optimization of supply chain logistics using quantitative methods.

8. Analyzing the energy efficiency of smart buildings.

9. Studying the effects of vibration on structural engineering.

10. Investigating the use of drones in agricultural practices.

11. Analyzing the impact of machine learning in predictive maintenance.

12. Studying the optimization of transportation networks.

13. Investigating the use of nanomaterials in electronic devices.

14. Analyzing the efficiency of renewable energy storage systems.

15. Studying the impact of AI-driven design in architecture.

16. Investigating the optimization of manufacturing processes using Industry 4.0 technologies.

17. Analyzing the use of robotics in underwater exploration.

Environmental Science

Here are some top quantitative research topics in environmental science for students:

1. Investigating the effects of air pollution on respiratory health.

2. Analyzing the impact of deforestation on climate change.

3. Studying the biodiversity of coral reefs and their conservation.

4. Investigating the use of remote sensing in monitoring deforestation.

5. Analyzing the effects of plastic pollution on marine ecosystems.

6. Studying the impact of climate change on glacier retreat.

7. Investigating the use of wetlands for water quality improvement.

8. Analyzing the effects of urbanization on local microclimates.

9. Studying the impact of oil spills on aquatic ecosystems.

10. Investigating the use of renewable energy in mitigating greenhouse gas emissions.

11. Analyzing the effects of soil erosion on agricultural productivity.

12. Studying the impact of invasive species on native ecosystems.

13. Investigating the use of bioremediation for soil cleanup.

14. Analyzing the effects of climate change on migratory bird patterns.

15. Studying the impact of land use changes on water resources.

16. Investigating the use of green infrastructure for urban stormwater management.

17. Analyzing the effects of noise pollution on wildlife behavior.

Computer Science

Let’s get started with some simple quantitative research topics for stem students:

1. Investigating the efficiency of machine learning algorithms for image recognition.

2. Analyzing the security of blockchain technology in financial transactions.

3. Studying the impact of quantum computing on cryptography.

4. Investigating the use of natural language processing in chatbots and virtual assistants.

5. Analyzing the effectiveness of cybersecurity measures in protecting sensitive data.

6. Studying the impact of algorithmic trading in financial markets.

7. Investigating the use of deep learning in autonomous robotics.

8. Analyzing the efficiency of data compression algorithms for large datasets.

9. Studying the impact of virtual reality in medical simulations.

10. Investigating the use of artificial intelligence in personalized medicine.

11. Analyzing the effectiveness of recommendation systems in e-commerce.

12. Studying the impact of cloud computing on data storage and processing.

13. Investigating the use of neural networks in predicting disease outbreaks.

14. Analyzing the efficiency of data mining techniques in customer behavior analysis.

15. Studying the impact of social media algorithms on user behavior.

16. Investigating the use of machine learning in natural language translation.

17. Analyzing the effectiveness of sentiment analysis in social media monitoring.

Mathematics

Let’s explore the quantitative research topics in mathematics for students:

1. Investigating the properties of prime numbers and their distribution.

2. Analyzing the behavior of chaotic systems using differential equations.

3. Studying the optimization of algorithms for solving complex mathematical problems.

4. Investigating the use of graph theory in network analysis.

5. Analyzing the properties of fractals in natural phenomena.

6. Studying the application of probability theory in risk assessment.

7. Investigating the use of numerical methods in solving partial differential equations.

8. Analyzing the properties of mathematical models for population dynamics.

9. Studying the optimization of algorithms for data compression.

10. Investigating the use of topology in data analysis.

11. Analyzing the behavior of mathematical models in financial markets.

12. Studying the application of game theory in strategic decision-making.

13. Investigating the use of mathematical modeling in epidemiology.

14. Analyzing the properties of algebraic structures in coding theory.

15. Studying the optimization of algorithms for image processing.

16. Investigating the use of number theory in cryptography.

17. Analyzing the behavior of mathematical models in climate prediction.

Earth Sciences

Here are some quantitative research topics for stem students in earth science:

1. Investigating the impact of volcanic eruptions on climate patterns.

2. Analyzing the behavior of earthquakes along tectonic plate boundaries.

3. Studying the geomorphology of river systems and erosion.

4. Investigating the use of remote sensing in monitoring wildfires.

5. Analyzing the effects of glacier melt on sea-level rise.

6. Studying the impact of ocean currents on weather patterns.

7. Investigating the use of geothermal energy in renewable power generation.

8. Analyzing the behavior of tsunamis and their destructive potential.

9. Studying the impact of soil erosion on agricultural productivity.

10. Investigating the use of geological data in mineral resource exploration.

11. Analyzing the effects of climate change on coastal erosion.

12. Studying the geomagnetic field and its role in navigation.

13. Investigating the use of radar technology in weather forecasting.

14. Analyzing the behavior of landslides and their triggers.

15. Studying the impact of groundwater depletion on aquifer systems.

16. Investigating the use of GIS (Geographic Information Systems) in land-use planning.

17. Analyzing the effects of urbanization on heat island formation.

Health Sciences and Medicine

Here are some quantitative research topics for stem students in health science and medicine:

1. Investigating the effectiveness of telemedicine in improving healthcare access.

2. Analyzing the impact of personalized medicine in cancer treatment.

3. Studying the epidemiology of infectious diseases and their spread.

4. Investigating the use of wearable devices in monitoring patient health.

5. Analyzing the effects of nutrition and exercise on metabolic health.

6. Studying the impact of genetics in predicting disease susceptibility.

7. Investigating the use of artificial intelligence in medical diagnosis.

8. Analyzing the behavior of pharmaceutical drugs in clinical trials.

9. Studying the effectiveness of mental health interventions in schools.

10. Investigating the use of gene editing technologies in treating genetic disorders.

11. Analyzing the properties of medical imaging techniques for early disease detection.

12. Studying the impact of vaccination campaigns on public health.

13. Investigating the use of regenerative medicine in tissue repair.

14. Analyzing the behavior of pathogens in antimicrobial resistance.

15. Studying the epidemiology of chronic diseases like diabetes and heart disease.

16. Investigating the use of bioinformatics in genomics research.

17. Analyzing the effects of environmental factors on health outcomes.

Quantitative research is the backbone of STEM fields, providing the tools and methodologies needed to explore, understand, and innovate in the world of science and technology . As STEM students, embracing quantitative research not only enhances your analytical skills but also equips you to address complex real-world challenges. With the extensive list of 155+ quantitative research topics for stem students provided in this blog, you have a starting point for your own STEM research journey. Whether you’re interested in biology, chemistry, physics, engineering, or any other STEM discipline, there’s a wealth of quantitative research topics waiting to be explored. So, roll up your sleeves, grab your lab coat or laptop, and embark on your quest for knowledge and discovery in the exciting world of STEM.

I hope you enjoyed this blog post about quantitative research topics for stem students.

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Applications of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) tools in microbiology of infectious diseases

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From Sacramento to Santiago: Exploring Shared Solutions for Sustainable Energy

Global affairs seed grant facilitates intercontinental materials science and engineering collaboration for energy-efficient technologies.

• by Jessica Heath
• May 10, 2024

When Yayoi Takamura , professor and chair of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of California Davis, traveled to Santiago, Chile, last fall, she was amazed at how similar it was to the Sacramento area.   

"Santiago is in the middle of a flat valley with the Andes to the east, a lot like Sacramento has the Sierra," she said. "You go to the west over some small hills, and you get to the wine region — that's Napa — and then you go to the coast, you have Valparaiso, which is very much like San Francisco."   

Takamura was in Santiago to meet with Heman Bhuyan, a professor of physics at Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, to discuss collaborating on a project researching thin films of complex oxides like titanium dioxide and tantalum pentoxide for use in sustainable energy technologies, such as photovoltaic solar cells and batteries.    

The promising project received a 2023-24 Seed Grant for International Activities from UC Davis Global Affairs . With this initial funding, Takamura and Bhuyan will collaborate across international borders to expand the fundamental knowledge of these complex oxides when they are synthesized at low temperatures.   

These lower synthesis temperatures would enable the incorporation of these complex oxides on a wide range of supports, such as glass or flexible polymer substrates.    

Bhuyan, an expert in plasma physics, has developed a plasma-enhanced pulsed laser deposition system that allows for synthesizing materials at temperatures as low as 300 degrees Celsius compared to 700 degrees Celsius needed for conventional pulsed laser deposition.   

This advantage arises due to two radiofrequency sources that can control the characteristics of the plume — which is evaporated from the solid material and deposited onto the substrate material —instead of relying on the laser alone. The additional energy from the radiofrequency sources means that the substrate does not need to be heated to such high temperatures to achieve thin films with good crystallinity, or structural order.   

The researchers aim to learn how the plasma-enhanced pulsed laser deposition conditions change the properties of the thin films and whether the materials are still good candidates for sustainable energy technologies.   

In addition to what they hope to glean from the research, Takamura said she looks forward to welcoming Bhuyan or one of his graduate students to UC Davis, hopefully in the summer and returning to Santiago this fall. More than that, Takamura reflects that tackling a subject of shared interest with international researchers who bring their own unique perspectives will only continue to move the field forward.   

"Different people have different viewpoints and different ways of approaching problems," she said. "Being able to see those different viewpoints is really valuable because when I'm just working on my own, I may just approach the project in the same way. Sometimes it just takes trying a different approach to break the boundaries and solve difficult problems."

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Mikkael Lamoca receives Fulbright scholarship to complete cutting-edge STEM cell research

Mikkael lamoca ‘24 (biomedical engineering), ‘24 ms (science, technology, and public policy) travels to singapore for fulbright scholarship research.

Mikkael Lamoca ‘24 (biomedical engineering), ’24 MS (science, technology, and public policy) will travel to Singapore to conduct research as part of his Fulbright scholarship.

Conducting hands-on research was a hallmark of the time Mikkael Lamoca ‘24 (biomedical engineering), ‘24 MS (science, technology, and public policy) spent at RIT. A Fulbright award presents him a new opportunity to conduct cutting-edge research at one of the top universities in Asia.

Meet the other 2024 Fulbright U.S. Student awardees

Joseph Casale will analyze aerial hyperspectral imagery to map the species of trees in Malaysia.

Peyton D’Anthony will teach English in Kosovo.

Emma Herz Thakur will create connections between artisans and museums in France.

Izzy Moyer will work with The State Archives in Dubrovnik, Croatia.

Sarah Sabal will pursue a graduate education in Taiwan.

Lamoca’s award will fund a 10-month research experience in the BioIonic Currents Electromagnetic Pulsing Systems (BICEPS) Laboratory at the National University of Singapore . He is one of a record six Fulbright U.S. Student awardees this year from RIT.

His research focuses on age-related neurodegeneration, which can be seen in Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, and other conditions. There is previous research regarding how STEM cell injections can help with these conditions, but, according to Lamoca, there is contradicting information and evidence which indicates this method may not be the best approach.

Instead, Lamoca will explore how magnetic stimulation can induce secretome production to achieve therapeutic neuroprotective effects.

“One of the biggest reasons I wanted to work with this lab is that I would be the first person there to do this type of research on neuroprotection, and that I would have access to work with the lab’s patented technology. This lab established all of the processes for magnetically induced secretome production, so I’m going to use their methods to see if it can be applied to neuroprotection efforts,” said Lamoca.

When looking for co-op opportunities during his second year at RIT, Lamoca, from Santa Clara, Calif., was introduced to RIT’s Tissue Regeneration and Mechanobiology Laboratory , led by Professor Karin Wuertz-Kozak . His friend, Iskender Mambertkadyrov ‘24 (biomedical engineering), ‘24 MS (science, technology, and public policy), recommended that he inquire about available opportunities in the lab and Lamoca flourished from there.

“Coming into my first year, I didn’t know much about research. My co-op with Professor Wuertz-Kozak was the first time I really started to dive into it. She was my first mentor. Working in her lab is where my love of research started, and I’ve been interested in doing more ever since,” said Lamoca. 

After completing his 10-month tenure at the BICEPS laboratory in Singapore, Lamoca hopes to continue his graduate education by earning a Doctorate of Medicine and of Philosophy (MD-Ph.D.) so can practice medicine while conducting research.

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Boston Teens Pitch Biotech Concepts to BU “Investors” at Biological Design Center’s STEM Pathways Event

Seniors from new mission high school compete in annual shark tank–like event, with help from bu undergrad and grad student mentors.

By Patrick L. Kennedy

Swallowing jitters and marshaling a semester’s worth of research, 11 teams of local high schoolers arrived at Boston University on a recent spring day to pitch products to a panel of BU faculty and affiliates playing the part of skeptical investors. It was the second annual Synthetic Biology Shark Tank Competition, which was held at the BU Life Sciences & Engineering Building April 26.

Mentored by undergrad and graduate students from BU’s College of Engineering, the 28 seniors from Boston’s diverse New Mission High School conceived of, and fleshed out, synthetic biology solutions to real-world problems. Among the products they pitched: crops modified to survive unseasonable cold snaps; marine bacteria engineered to clean up oil spills; and a microorganism that warns mountain climbers of impending altitude sickness.

No actual dollars were invested in these on-paper concepts, but the experience taught the students valuable skills and got them thinking like real engineers and biotech developers.

“Eventually, I want to run a lab that does its own research,” says Mario Fils, whose team proposed Jurassic Plastic (tagline: “Making Plastic Extinct”), a plastic-eating bacteria that would be deployed in landfills, where at least half of plastic waste ends up. “The deeper I got into it, the more I realized that this is a big, big issue. So I can see myself continuing this research and maybe even releasing the product that we came up with.”

Read the full story at BU Today

Related posts:.

• Grant to Fund Summer STEM Program for Underserved Teens
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From steel engineering to ovarian tumor research

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Ashutosh Kumar is a classically trained materials engineer. Having grown up with a passion for making things, he has explored steel design and studied stress fractures in alloys.

Throughout Kumar’s education, however, he was also drawn to biology and medicine. When he was accepted into an undergraduate metallurgical engineering and materials science program at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, the native of Jamshedpur was very excited — and “a little dissatisfied, since I couldn’t do biology anymore.”

Now a PhD candidate and a MathWorks Fellow in MIT’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Kumar can merge his wide-ranging interests. He studies the effect of certain bacteria that have been observed encouraging the spread of ovarian cancer and possibly reducing the effectiveness of chemotherapy and immunotherapy.

“Some microbes have an affinity toward infecting ovarian cancer cells, which can lead to changes in the cellular structure and reprogramming cells to survive in stressful conditions,” Kumar says. “This means that cells can migrate to different sites and may have a mechanism to develop chemoresistance. This opens an avenue to develop therapies to see if we can start to undo some of these changes.”

Kumar’s research combines microbiology, bioengineering, artificial intelligence, big data, and materials science. Using microbiome sequencing and AI, he aims to define microbiome changes that may correlate with poor patient outcomes. Ultimately, his goal is to engineer bacteriophage viruses to reprogram bacteria to work therapeutically.

Kumar started inching toward work in the health sciences just months into earning his bachelor's degree at IIT Bombay.

“I realized engineering is so flexible that its applications extend to any field,” he says, adding that he started working with biomaterials “to respect both my degree program and my interests."

“I loved it so much that I decided to go to graduate school,” he adds.

Starting his PhD program at MIT, he says, “was a fantastic opportunity to switch gears and work on more interdisciplinary or ‘MIT-type’ work.”

Kumar says he and Angela Belcher, the James Mason Crafts Professor of biological engineering and materials science, began discussing the impact of the microbiome on ovarian cancer when he first arrived at MIT.

“I shared my enthusiasm about human health and biology, and we started brainstorming,” he says. “We realized that there’s an unmet need to understand a lot of gynecological cancers. Ovarian cancer is an aggressive cancer, which is usually diagnosed when it’s too late and has already spread.”

In 2022, Kumar was awarded a MathWorks Fellowship. The fellowships are awarded to School of Engineering graduate students, preferably those who use MATLAB or Simulink — which were developed by the mathematical computer software company MathWorks — in their research. The philanthropic support fueled Kumar’s full transition into health science research.

“The work we are doing now was initially not funded by traditional sources, and the MathWorks Fellowship gave us the flexibility to pursue this field,” Kumar says. “It provided me with opportunities to learn new skills and ask questions about this topic. MathWorks gave me a chance to explore my interests and helped me navigate from being a steel engineer to a cancer scientist.”

Kumar’s work on the relationship between bacteria and ovarian cancer started with studying which bacteria are incorporated into tumors in mouse models.

“We started looking closely at changes in cell structure and how those changes impact cancer progression,” he says, adding that MATLAB image processing helps him and his collaborators track tumor metastasis.

The research team also uses RNA sequencing and MATLAB algorithms to construct a taxonomy of the bacteria.

“Once we have identified the microbiome composition,” Kumar says, “we want to see how the microbiome changes as cancer progresses and identify changes in, let’s say, patients who develop chemoresistance.”

He says recent findings that ovarian cancer may originate in the fallopian tubes are promising because detecting cancer-related biomarkers or lesions before cancer spreads to the ovaries could lead to better prognoses.

As he pursues his research, Kumar says he is extremely thankful to Belcher “for believing in me to work on this project.

“She trusted me and my passion for making an impact on human health — even though I come from a materials engineering background — and supported me throughout. It was her passion to take on new challenges that made it possible for me to work on this idea. She has been an amazing mentor and motivated me to continue moving forward.”

For her part, Belcher is equally enthralled.

“It has been amazing to work with Ashutosh on this ovarian cancer microbiome project," she says. "He has been so passionate and dedicated to looking for less-conventional approaches to solve this debilitating disease. His innovations around looking for very early changes in the microenvironment of this disease could be critical in interception and prevention of ovarian cancer. We started this project with very little preliminary data, so his MathWorks fellowship was critical in the initiation of the project.”

Kumar, who has been very active in student government and community-building activities, believes it is very important for students to feel included and at home at their institutions so they can develop in ways outside of academics. He says that his own involvement helps him take time off from work.

“Science can never stop, and there will always be something to do,” he says, explaining that he deliberately schedules time off and that social engagement helps him to experience downtime. “Engaging with community members through events on campus or at the dorm helps set a mental boundary with work.”

Regarding his unusual route through materials science to cancer research, Kumar regards it as something that occurred organically.

“I have observed that life is very dynamic,” he says. “What we think we might do versus what we end up doing is never consistent. Five years back, I had no idea I would be at MIT working with such excellent scientific mentors around me.”

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