Joseph Krajcik serves as director of the Institute for Collaborative Research in Education, Assessment, and Teaching Environments for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (CREATE for STEM) and is a faculty member in science education at the Michigan State University. CREATE is a joint effort between the College of Natural Science and the College of Education to improve the teaching and learning of science and mathematics K–college teaching.
Throughout his career he has focused on improving the teaching and learning of science by designing, developing, implementing, and testing innovative environments that match what is known about the how students learn. In CREATE for STEM, Professor Krajcik is equally concerned with improving the teaching and learning of mathematics K–16. He recently completed the Investigating and Questioning our World through Science and Technology Project (IQWST), a National Science Foundation (NSF) project that designed, developed, and tested the next generation of middle school curriculum materials to engage students in obtaining deep and meaningful understandings of core science ideas and practices. Joe is currently focusing on a new NSF project to develop and test materials to support high school students understanding of the sub-microscopic interactions that govern biological and chemical processes. He is served as the lead writer of the Physical Science Design Team to identify and describe the core ideas in physical science for the Framework for K–12 Science Education and as the lead writer to develop the Next Generation Science Standards. Professor Krajcik, along with Professor Angela Calabrese Barton from Michigan State University, serves as co-editor of the Journal of Research in Science Teaching.
He has authored and co-authored curriculum materials, books, software, and over 100 manuscripts, and makes frequent presentations at international, national, and regional conferences. Joe is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Educational Research Association. He served as president of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST), from which he received the Distinguished Contributions to Science Education Through Research Award in 2010. Joe was honored to receive a Distinguished Professorship from Ewha Womans University, Seoul, South Korea in 2009 and Guest Professorship from Beijing Normal University in Beijing, China in 2002. The University of Michigan also recognized Joe in 2010 for his work in graduate student education by presenting him with the University of Michigan Faculty Award for Distinguished Graduate Mentoring. In 2011, along with his colleagues, he received the University of Michigan Provost’s Teaching Innovation Prize. A former high school chemistry and physical science teacher for eight years in Milwaukee, WI, Professor Krajcik spent twenty-one years at the University of Michigan before joining Michigan State University in 2011. Joe received his Ph.D. in Science Education from the University of Iowa in 1986.