CAPSULE, a capstone project-based learning model, brings the STEM/IT workforce experience to high school students and teachers through industry-driven projects and multimedia production. Materials developed at the Museum of Science and real-world problems solicited from local industry are formulated as projects to be used in a hands-on capstone elective course or in after school activities so that students can relate STEM concepts covered in the classroom to real world applications and learn the engineering design process (EDP).

The goal of this three-year, comprehensive ITEST project is to prepare diverse middle- and high-school students for careers in information technologies (IT) by engaging them in designing inquiry-based science activities that use computational models and real-time data acquisition and analysis. The project provides 126 hours of lab-based, credit-bearing activities for 90 teachers and support for classroom implementation. Participants meet for two weeks in the summer of 2007, twice face-to-face plus online during the academic year, and again the following summer for one week.

The ITEST Learning Resource Center at EDC hosted a convening designed to develop a theoretical framework to guide future research on youth motivation in STEM with a particular emphasis on populations most underrepresented in STEM. Two guiding questions were be the focus of the event: What is currently known about motivation in STEM for underrepresented youth? What can be done to cultivate new research around STEM motivation for underrepresented youth?

The project, “DataTools" (formerly named "Expanding the Data Cycle: Empowering Middle Level Teachers and Students to Integrate Information Technology, Data Skills and Science Content”) provides middle–school teachers with the ability to access and analyze Earth science datasets, use data analysis tools (IT), and adapt them in a way that addresses both the interests and curricular needs of their students. It also enables the students of the participants to use Earth science data in a meaningful way and teach them skills with IT tools that they will carry with them in the future.

Boston College partners with scientists, science educators, guidance counselors and public school teachers and students to develop, evaluate and disseminate IT materials for integration into existing field-based urban ecology modules (such as the Ecoscenario module in FOSS and the bioacoustics module in Active Physics) for grades 7–12 in six schools within the Boston Public School district. The goal is to use information technology to engage 100–400 students and approximately 100 teachers in real–life, field–based, local investigations in urban ecology.

Technology at the Crossroads" is a youth-based program that will engage middle school youth (with particular emphasis on girls) in the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Geographic Positioning Systems (GPS) and HTML programming for use in conducting environmental research in Boston. The program will be comprised of a spring after-school component, three-week summer camp (held on the campus of Simmons College) and a fall after-school component. Science skills to be learned include posing questions, making observations, collecting, and analyzing and interpreting data.

TechBoston and Northeastern University are working collaboratively in this comprehensive project to integrate an innovative robotics curriculum into science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) courses in the Boston Public Schools and in other racially diverse and economically disadvantaged Massachusetts school districts.

Community Science Investigators (CSI) is an ITEST Strategies project that brings together the Missouri Botanical Garden and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in offering year-long, career-focused technology experiences for 360 middle school youth and 36 teachers in an out-of-school setting. Through CSI, participants from St. Louis and Boston will learn to apply geospatial, simulation, and communication technologies as they address environmental and conservation-related issues.

The Conference on Cyberlearning Tools for STEM (CyTSE) brings together scientists, cyberlearning developers, educational researchers, STEM educators (formal and informal), curriculum developers and other stakeholders that contribute to the agenda on K-12 STEM cyberlearning and workforce preparation. Collaborators include Northwestern University, University of Colorado at Boulder, and the WGBH Educational Foundation. This informative meeting will be held as a NSTA pre-conference workshop.

The Science of Small Things is a youth based ITEST project that exposes 100+ low-income, urban, middle-school youth to nanotechnology and ensures that they develop the information technology skills and interests required to participate successfully in the emerging regional nanotechnology workforce.