This is a project to engage students and teachers with the rapidly expanding science content available using information technology and through the cyberinfrastructure. Learners seldom have an opportunity to also be contributors, and underserved and disadvantaged students are most often bypassed for such opportunities. The project uses methods that the PI believes inspire student involvement and learning, engage teachers, and meet district/state/national standards.

The Barcode of Life Initiative (BOLI) is an international biodiversity collaboration that creates a genetic encyclopedia of Earth's plants and animals using short DNA sequences that uniquely identify species groups. The goal of this strategies project is to interest students in STEM careers by engaging them in an international project to provide identification of biological species.

This Rutgers University project, Conducting Authentic Molecular Biology and Genomics Research (MBGR) in High Schools, is a three-year strategies-based ITEST project that provides avenues for science teachers and their students to become part of, and contribute to, authentic research in biotechnology, molecular biology, and bioinformatics. Teachers and students will use Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to analyze their experimental findings and publish their results in databases used by scientists throughout the world.

This project will utilize computer graphics, game development and mutual mentoring as elements in an innovative Computer Science curriculum for two cohorts of underrepresented high school students. The design, development and implementation of this curriculum will be conducted through a partnership of California State Sacramento (the Department of Computer Science and the College of Education), Mathematics Engineering Science Achievement (MESA) and local K-12 schools.

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.

SRI and Girls, Inc. of Alameda County will develop a problem-based program for underserved middle-school girls. "Build IT" will serve 150 girls in three years providing each with 150 contact hours of programming. The program is designed to increase IT fluency, motivate girls to engage in IT related activities, encourage the pursuit of IT careers and increase interest in mathematics. Participants will progress through three stages: Apprentice, Journeygirl, and Specialist.

This comprehensive project for 60 middle and high school teachers (who will pass along their learning to 10,000 students) uses inquiry-based education developed from research projects at Moss Landing Marine Labs to teach biotechnology and IT skills. Participants learn how biotechnology is used to address scientific questions and how resulting data is analyzed, manipulated, displayed, and shared.

The Ocean Institute (OI), in partnership with Scripps Institution of Oceanography (Scripps), Capistrano Valley Boys & Girls Clubs (B&GC) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), is developing "SeaTech," a multi–year, Youth–based ITEST program providing 120 female and minority middle and high school students from underserved populations with 391 contact hours of information technology (IT)–intensive oceanographic research experiences.

XTech has developed a working prototype of a student production laboratory at the Exploratorium where middle school students have access to the tools, technology, and staff that will enable them to explore, create, and produce innovative and engaging technology-based projects. The Exploratorium partners on XTech with two community-based organizations – Aim High and First Graduate. During the intensive summer months, some XTech programming takes place at these partner organizations as well as at the Exploratorium.

Over three years, YouthLink will engage 120 teens in informal, IT-intensive educational experiences that promote IT skills identified by national NETS standards and develop student interest in IT-intensive study and careers. Historically underrepresented populations – low-income students, students of color, girls, disabled, teen parents, and second language learners – are recruited through established partnerships with San Francisco’s educational and non-profit organizations.