Working with Diverse Populations

During this webinar we heard from ITEST projects that are developing innovative program models to successfully recruit, retain, and engage youth from underrepresented communities in authentic STEM learning experiences.

Presenters: Jacob Martinez, Project Director, Watsonville TEC, Animando a Estudiantes con Technologia (AET); Patrik Lundh, Education Researcher, SRI International, Girls InnovaTE3

Moderator: Sarita Pillai, ITEST Learning Resource Center at EDC

Presenters: Steve Bean/Jacob Martinez, Girl Game Company; Angela Calabrese Barton, GET City; Heather Almquist, Paleo Exploration

Presenters: Siobhan Bredin, ITEST Learning Resource Center at EDC; Cynthia Newson, ITEST Learning Resource Center at EDC; Dr. Kimberly A. Scott, COMPUGIRLS; Dr. Kevin Clark, Game Design Through Mentoring and Collaboration; Dr. Daryl Williams, National Science Foundation

Developed by a panel of experts, this practice guide brings together evidence and expertise to provide educators with specific and coherent evidence-based recommendations on how to encourage girls in the fields of math and science. The objective is to provide teachers with specific recommendations that can be carried out in the classroom without requiring systemic change. Other school personnel having direct contact with students, such as coaches, counselors, and principals may also find the guide useful.

Inclusion, Disabilities, and Informal Science Learning, a report by the CAISE Access Inquiry Group, offers a theoretical framework for thinking about inclusion of people with disabilities in informal science education (ISE), then reviews current practice in museums (broadly defined), in media and technology, and in youth and community programs.

This report on a webcast hosted by the ITEST Learning Resource Center identifies resources and key success strategies for engaging girls in STEM, offered by an expert panel of speakers from the ITEST community, private sector and research and policy fields.

In this Idea Brief, Principal Investigators from three youth-based ITEST projects discuss how community partnerships strengthen their efforts to recruit and retain diverse participants.

ITEST Data Brief Volume 1, Issue 3, June 2012

The National Science Foundation ITEST Program explicitly states its commitment to focus on students from groups underserved and underrepresented in STEM and ICT-intensive careers. The ITEST Management Information System (MIS) asked projects to identify characteristics of their student participants, and this Data Brief explores that information to see whether and to what degree projects are working with underserved and underrepresented students.

ITEST LRC Info Brief Volume 2, September 2004

This publication addresses the concept that equity in education refers not only to equal access or equal treatment, but to education that addresses the differing needs of different populations and that produces equitable outcomes, regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, disability, and class.

Preparing Tomorrow's STEM Workforce through Exploration, Equity, and Engagement is a product of the previous ITEST Learning Resource Center (LRC) and includes a series of six articles (plus a preface) highlighting key themes and lessons learned in the first five years of the ITEST program.

Today’s technology-based global economy places a high premium on STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education. Educators committed to increasing the interest and achievement of females in engineering struggle to find appropriate resources. The Gender and Science Digital Library (GSDL) from Education Development Center, Inc., (EDC) is a unique on-line collection of exemplary resources aimed at encouraging girls and women to pursue science and engineering education and careers.

Presenter: Dr. Angelicque Tucker Blackmon, National Science Foundation 

Summary: This presentation shares resources and approaches for culturally relevant science teaching, followed by specific examples of these approaches used by ITEST project staff Deborah Muscella of the Technology at the Crossroads Project in Boston and Simon Karpen of the SUCCEED Apprenticeship project in Raleigh, NC, and a question and answer session.

See link to webinar recording.

The Girl Game Company, an ITEST program, was featured among 38 best practice programs in the 2010 edition of the Bayer Corporation's Planting the Seeds for a Diverse US STEM Pipeline:  A Compendium of Best Practice K-12 STEM Education Programs.