Rate My Professor Nancy Songer

Songer’s research centers on science education, learning technologies, inquiry-based learning, and the assessment of complex scientific reasoning among K-12 students, with particular emphasis on urban STEM education, biodiversity, and ecological impacts of climate change. During her tenure at Drexel, she advanced initiatives such as the Kids as Urban Scientists project, which engaged West Philadelphia students in mapping biodiversity in the Philadelphia Promise Zone. Her influential scholarship includes highly cited works like “Are good texts always better? Interactions of text coherence, background knowledge, and levels of understanding in learning from text” (1996), “How do students’ views of science influence knowledge integration?” (1991), “Technology-rich inquiry science in urban classrooms” (2002), and the co-edited National Academies report “Science and Engineering for Grades 6-12: Investigations and Design at the Center” (2019). Songer has garnered major awards, including the National Science Foundation Presidential Faculty Fellowship (1995), election as an AAAS Fellow (2006), and a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Award (2019-2020). She chaired the National Academies committee on science education for grades 6-12 (2017-2019), served on panels assessing Next Generation Science Standards, and contributed editorially as Senior Associate Editor of the Journal of Research in Science Teaching (2010-2014). Songer has delivered invited lectures at AERA, NARST, and international conferences on STEM reform.