National Science Foundation

History

NSF was established in 1950 by an act of Congress as an independent federal agency charged with ensuring the United States maintained a leadership position in scientific discovery and technology. Its ongoing mission as stated in the legislation is “to promote the progress of science; to advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare; to secure the national defense; and for other purposes.” [Page 643]Following the launch of Sputnik by the Soviet Union in 1957, the increased international focus on competitiveness in science and technology led to active political debate in the United States. The discussions led President Dwight D. Eisenhower to direct the NSF to concentrate its efforts on the dissemination of scientific information and endeavors in science and technology. To support these efforts, Congress dramatically increased federal funding for the Foundation, more than doubling the total appropriation and tripling funding designated for educational programs.

During the 1960s and early 1970s, NSF developed educational initiatives under the supposition that American schools were falling behind those of other nations in their ability to produce high-quality professionals in science, technology, and engineering. Educational curriculum development and implementation efforts attempted to reformulate traditional subject-oriented science curricula to adopt a more discipline-centered approach that exposed students to the basic ideas of each distinct discipline. A major trend of these efforts was to cut back the amount of curricular emphasis on basic factual information in favor of a focus on connections to more abstract scientific theories that experts believed were necessary for performing science in a professional capacity. This approach included reducing the role of “everyday science,” in which science education highlights the scientific principles involved in common devices and phenomena, and increasing emphasis on the development of scientific inquiry skills applied within discipline-specific courses and the articulation of theories and arguments that formed the basis of scientific conclusions.

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