This Learning and Research Center will advance efforts of the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program to better understand and promote practices that increase students' motivations and capacities to pursue careers in fields of science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) by providing technical support to all ITEST projects, facilitating national dissemination of ITEST project outcomes, and further developing the ITEST research and development community.

Robotics and GPS/GIS in 4-H: Workforce Skills for the 21st Century is a-five year scale-up project to use 4-H clubs to prepare middle school youth for the STEM workplace. The project builds on and extends an existing research-based ITEST project by developing and testing new national curricula to introduce basic technology skills, foster problem solving and inquiry skills, and encourage teamwork.

This project will enable high school and middle school STEM teachers and students to conduct environmental research aided by the analysis of images from digital cameras, scanners, and the Internet. The project explores how digital image analysis can be applied to environmental quality issues that can readily be introduced into STEM courses, engaging students and encouraging them to think about related careers. The project will develop research agendas that will employ a variety of image analysis tools.

This project expands, implements and conducts research on a previously developed framework for providing indigenous students with the workforce skills and knowledge needed for future Earth system science careers. The framework proven effective for Inupiat students during the NSF/ITEST-funded Arctic Climate Modeling Program (ESI-0525277) will be scaled up to develop culturally responsive STEM instruction for 1500 Yup'ik and Native Hawaiian middle school students and their 60 teachers.

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 project is a three-year, youth-based program aimed at developing and enhancing students' interest in Science and Engineering (S & E) and Information Technology (IT). The objectives are to: (1) stimulate interest in S & E among students who are currently underrepresented in S & E and IT fields through the spirit of invention; and (2) provide students with skills in IT that will enable them to conduct needs analysis, design, fabrication and evaluation of devices that meet the needs of persons with disabilities or persons who are elderly.