Joseph Krajcik

Michigan State University

Director and Professor

Joe Krajcik directs the CREATE for STEM (Collaborative Research for Education, Assessment and Teaching Environments) Institute at Michigan State University, where he is a University Distinguished Professor and the Lappan-Phillips Professor of Science Education. Throughout his career, he has focused on working with colleagues and science teachers to design and test project-based learning environments to reform science teaching practices and to research student learning and engagement. He has served on various national and international committees, such as the Framework for K – 12 Science Education, the 2028 NAEP Framework, and the 2025 PISA Framework. He also served as president of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST), from which I received the Distinguished Contributions to Science Education through Research Award in 2010l. From 2010 – 2015 he was co-editor of the Journal of Research in Science Teaching. In 2020, Joe was elected to the National Academy of Education and received the prestigious McGraw Prize for Innovation in Pre-K-12 Education. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed manuscripts and has a book on Project-based Learning, which is in its fifth edition. In 2022, he received an honorary doctoral degree from the University of Tartu in Estonia. He is currently a distinguished visiting professor at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa.