Heidi Schweingruber

Heidi Schweingruber, PhD is the Director of the Board on Science Education at the National Research Council (NRC). She has been involved in many of the major projects of the board since it was formed in 2004. She co-directed the study that resulted in the report A Framework for K-12 Science Education(2011) which is the first step in revising national standards for K-12 science education. She served as study director for a review of NASA’s pre-college education programs in 2008 and co-directed the study that produced the 2007 report Taking Science to School: Learning and Teaching Science in Grades K-8. She was an editor on the NRC reports America’s Lab Report (2006), Mathematics Learning in Early Childhood (2009), Discipline Based Education Research (2012), STEM Integration in K-12 Education (2014),and Science Teachers' Learning (2016). She co- authored two award-winning books for practitioners that translate findings of NRC reports for a broader audience: Ready, Set, Science! Putting Research to Work in K-8 Science Classrooms (2008)and Surrounded by Science (2010). Prior to joining the NRC, Dr. Schweingruber worked as a senior research associate at the Institute of Education Sciences in the U.S. Department of Education where she administered the preschool curriculum evaluation program and a grant program in mathematics education. Previously, she was the director of research for the Rice University School Mathematics Project an outreach program in K-12 mathematics education, and taught in the psychology and education departments at Rice University. She has served on the advisory boards for the Merck Institute for Science Education, the Discovery Learning Research Center at Purdue University and Building Capacity for State Science Education an initiative of the Council of State Science Supervisors. Dr. Schweingruber holds a Ph.D. in psychology (developmental) and anthropology, and a certificate in culture and cognition from the University of Michigan.