2022 NSF ITEST PI Meeting

Online program image for PI Meeting

Welcome to the online program for the 2022 NSF ITEST Principal Investigator Meeting!

Below you will find tabs showcasing information about the event, including our meeting themes, agenda with links to presentations and recordings, our virtual poster session, and a resource library created from resources shared during the event.

Featured Highlights & Keynotes: 

Opening Remarks by ITEST Leadership and EDU Assistant Dir. James L. Moore

Kumar Garg, Vice President of Partnerships and Managing Director of Schmidt Futures

Jeannine Dingus-Eason, Dean of the Feinstein School of Education and Human Development, Rhode Island College

NSF Town Hall with EDU DRL Division Director Evan K. Heit & ITEST Program Officers

Robert Simmons III, Head of Social Impact and STEM Programs, Micron Technology

View additional session materials and recordings below.

Questions, please contact us at stelar@edc.org.

 

Themes and Topics

The 2022 PI meeting will be a thematic working meeting focused on field building and experience sharing. Projects will be asked to come prepared to share their ongoing/formative experiences about their incomplete work. During the meeting projects will engage in sharing and reflection around the meeting themes listed below, with the goal of gathering input, getting unstuck, collecting insights, and receiving advice. Projects will be asked to reflect on and identify best practices and share how they will incorporate this guidance to strengthen their current project work. Throughout the meeting STELAR will capture these lessons, with the goal of producing a set of guidelines, lessons learned, and "dos and don’ts" from the community.

Day 1: Research Methods & Technology Integration

  • Emerging Theoretical Concepts, Instruments, and Tools: This session will explore common and emerging approaches to conceptualizing key learner outcomes, as well as the process of instrument adaptation for a different project context and to address issues around Diversity, Inclusion, Equity, and Access (DIEA).
    • Emerging Theoretical Concepts and Tools: This session will explore common vs emerging approaches to conceptualizing key learner outcomes. What are the theoretical foundations for these outcomes? What are promising methods for eliciting evidence of these outcomes—contrasting effective vs efficient? What are some of the emerging intervention/assessment tools/techniques across projects?
    • Instrument Adaptation: While instruments developed in awards have often been innovative and field-advancing, PIs must often adapt these innovations to a different context with other characteristics, disciplines, and/or other career-objectives. This session will explore how successful adaptations have been modified, and the types of challenges that had to be addressed when using instruments developed by other projects including issues around Diversity, Inclusion, Equity, and Access (DIEA) when adapting instruments.
  • Technology Integration and Evidence of Learning: This session addresses the challenges and opportunities of integrating novel technology into disciplinary learning and varied learning contexts. What new visibility into learning and learning processes have you gained via integrating technology? What can the field learn from your experience to either avoid or adopt in their own work? What iterations or changes had to be made over the past year to support effective integration of technology in student and/or teacher learning? Did DEIA concerns change your approach to technological integration and/or research methods? What are the potential equity challenges and benefits that arise from using technology to document learning in new ways?

Day 2: Impact Generation

  • Partnerships: This session will explore the nature of effective partnerships. How have you approached partnership development in your project? What contributions have been made by your partnerships, such as with organizations, local stakeholder involvement, development of trust, shared language, and mutual ownership? How can projects develop diverse and multilevel partnerships, and what challenges and opportunities have research teams faced in this regard? Were there difficulties, challenges, surprises, rewards, lessons, or possibly unique advancements in relationships? Consider for discussion, the fields, occupations, and jobs that partnerships have afforded learners, including specific supportive pathways, internships, mentoring, and other opportunities for access to careers and further education.
  • Sparks and Levers: Career Interest, Identity, Engagement and Persistence
    ITEST projects must address career interest/awareness and related affective constructs; however, framing the role of interest/affect in learning can be challenging. This session focuses on frameworks/theories and related mechanisms that ‘spark’ interest and career awareness as a way to increase students’ motivation to pursue STEM/ICT careers.  Questions posed during this session include: What do we take as evidence that our explanatory frameworks and related mechanisms are effective in ‘moving the needle’ on interest? How might the sparking and development of interest vary across different communities, learning environments, or developmental stages? In what ways is developing STEM identity connected to sparking interest or awareness? What does interest look like in relation to technology use and STEM learning?
  • Diversity, Inclusion, Equity, and Access (DIEA): This session will discuss the successes and challenges to advancing Diversity, Inclusion, Equity, and Access (DIEA) in your project. Have you been able to recruit the underserved and underrepresented participants as you originally proposed? What have been your successes and challenges? How do you outreach and reach out when you face attrition? What are the surprises in both recruiting and your conjectured interventional designs that have worked or failed with the learner/teacher population? 

Day 3: Moving Forward

  • Scale-up - Experiences, successes, and challenges: What distinguishes innovations that are “ready” for scaling up? How do earlier-stage projects prepare the evidence base necessary for justifying a scale-up award? Is there a gap between the kinds of evidence many DTI projects gather and what is needed for SEI? What are common pitfalls in scale-up? What would have been helpful to know before trying running an SEI project?
  • Emerging Domains: This session will discuss three domains, Environmental science/climate science, Quantum computing, and Blockchain, that warrant special discussion in response to recent societal needs and emerging areas of equitable STEM-related careers. For each of the domains, one or two speakers will give remarks on the core issues and foundational knowledge that K12 education can incorporate for the preparation of future equitable STEM workforce. Q&A will follow each talk to engage the PI community.

Day 1: Tuesday, November 1, 12–4 PM ET
Research Methods & Technology Integration

Start Time Description
11 AM ET (Optional)

Pre-meeting virtual networking opportunity

Hosted by STELAR
12 PM ET

Welcome & Opening Remarks 

During this opening session, we will hear opening remarks from NSF leadership on the meeting themes and an overview of the past year’s ITEST award portfolio.

  • Meeting begins: Sarita Pillai, Principal Investigator, STELAR
  • Welcome from NSF ITEST:  Chia Shen, ITEST Program Co-Lead, NSF
  • Introducing the new EHR AD:  Evan Heit, EDU DRL Division Director, NSF
  • Opening remarks:  James L. Moore, EDU Assistant Director, NSF
  • NSF ITEST Overview:  Wu He, ITEST Program Lead, NSF
12:20 PM ET

Review of Meeting Structure & Goals

Sarita Pillai, Principal Investigator, STELAR
12:30 PM ET

Keynote 

Keynote speaker Kumar Garg, Vice President of Partnerships and Managing Director of Schmidt Futures, speaks to this year's themes and shares his perspective on trends and emerging opportunities.

  • Introduction: Wu He, ITEST Program Lead, NSF
  • Keynote speaker: Kumar Garg, Managing Director at Schmidt Futures
1 PM ET Break
1:10 PM ET

Session 1: Emerging Theoretical Concepts, Instruments, and Tools 

NSF Program Officers will introduce three ITEST Principal Investigators as they share their work around emerging theoretical concepts, instruments, and tools. Each brief presentation will be followed by a Q&A session and an opportunity to brainstorm collaboratively online using virtual stickies to exchange ideas.
2:10 PM ET

Poster Sessions & Networking
2:40 PM ET

Session 2: Technology Integration and Evidence of Learning 

NSF Program Officers will introduce four ITEST Principal Investigators who will briefly share challenges, successes and affordances as it relates to their work and pose questions for one another and for the audience to consider. The conversation will continue in two breakout discussions where participants will have the opportunity to respond to guiding questions around their topic of interest and brainstorm collaboratively online using virtual stickies to share ideas.
3:40 PM ET

End of Day Plenary 

This end of the day plenary will reflect on key takeaways from Day 1 and give participants and speakers alike the opportunity to share key takeaways, things that they learned, and/or things that were surprising. All will have the opportunity to share by using virtual stickies.
4 PM ET (Optional) NSF Program Officer Office Hours

 

Day 2: Wednesday, November 2, 12–4 PM ET
Impact Generation

Start Time Description
11 AM ET (Optional)

Pre-meeting virtual networking opportunity

Hosted by STELAR
12 PM ET

Welcome: Review of Day 1 and Preview of Day 2
12:10 PM ET

Session 1: Partnerships 

NSF Program Officers will moderate a panel discussion of four ITEST Principal Investigators as talk about strategies for developing effective strategic partnerships. The conversation will focus on multilevel partnerships, implications of bringing partners; what is unexpected; addressing challenges and inequities; developing meaningful partnerships to remove barriers and provide inclusive environments; flexibility; effective communication. The panel will be followed by a Q&A session and a breakout discussion where participants will have the opportunity to respond to guiding questions around their topic of interest and brainstorm collaboratively online by using virtual stickies before bringing main ideas back to the larger group.
1:10 PM ET

Poster Sessions & Networking
1:40 PM ET

Session 2: Sparks & Levers: Career Awareness, Identity, Engagement and Persistence 

NSF Program Officers will moderate a panel discussion of five ITEST Principal Investigators as reflect on essential questions around the topic. Speakers have originated some of the most powerful and popular frameworks used by the field today. The conversation will address several essential questions that advance the field today. The panel will be followed by a Q&A session.
2:40 PM ET Break
2:50 PM ET

Session 3: Diversity, Inclusion, Equity, and Access (DIEA) 

This session will be a conversation between four people from two projects as they talk about their work with a focus on use of technology to support STEM education for learners with disabilities. NSF POs will moderate this discussion with facilitation by DIEA keynote speaker, Jeannine Dingus-Eason. The conversation will be followed by a Q&A session.
3:35 PM ET

Day 2 Keynote - Reflections on Diversity, Inclusion, Equity, and Access (DIEA) 

Keynote speaker Jeannine Dingus-Eason, Dean of the Feinstein School of Education and Human Development (FSEHD), Rhode Island College, will share suggestions for moving forward and share key takeaways to consider in relation to DIEA and STEM.

Jeannine Dingus-Eason, Dean of the Feinstein School of Education and Human Development (FSEHD), Rhode Island College
3:50 PM ET End of Day Plenary & Birds of a Feather Nominations
4 PM ET (Optional) End of Day Two Informal Gathering Rooms

 

Day 3: Thursday, November 3, 12–4 PM ET
Moving Forward

Start Time Description
11 AM ET (Optional) Pre-meeting virtual networking opportunity
12 PM ET

Welcome & Preview of Day 3 

Sarita Pillai, Principal Investigator, STELAR
12:05 PM ET

NSF Town Hall 

This Town Hall session will be hosted by EDU DRL Division Director Evan K. Heit with panel of ITEST Program Officers.
12:25 PM ET

Session 1: Scale-up Experiences, Successes, & Challenges 

NSF Program Officer & guest speaker will moderate a panel discussion of seven ITEST Principal Investigators & Co-PIs as they share successes and challenges in scaling their ITEST project work. The panel will be followed by a Q&A session and a breakout discussion where participants will have the opportunity to respond to guiding questions and brainstorm collaboratively online using virtual stickies to brainstorm and exchange ideas.
1:25 PM ET Break
 1:40 PM ET

Birds of a Feather Networking Activity

Based on topics nominated at the end of Day 2, participants will work collaboratively online to discuss their topic of interest in small groups.
2:10 PM ET

Session 2: Emerging Domains 

NSF Program Officers will moderate as we hear from five experts as they present on the core issues and foundational knowledge that K-12 education can incorporate for the preparation of future equitable STEM workforce. Each brief presentation will be followed by a Q&A session.
3:20 PM ET

Day 3 Keynote 

Keynote speaker Robert Simmons III, Head of Social Impact and STEM Programs, Micron Technology, will discuss outreach initiatives designed to expose and attract diverse high school students and first-year college students to STEM. This presentation will be followed by a Q&A session.
3:35 PM ET Closing Plenary
4 PM ET (Optional) NSF Program Officer Office Hours

Virtual Poster Session

Browse the 2022 NSF ITEST PI Meeting Posters.

Integrating AI Learning into Middle School Science through Natural Language Processing


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Project IntegrateAI is supporting middle school teachers in bringing authentic, inquiry-based natural language processing (NLP) experiences into science classrooms. For students, the project will provide innovative experiences that foster competencies and attitudes toward STEM careers.

CS Frontiers: Beyond CS Principles: Engaging Female High School Students in New Frontiers of Computing


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CS Frontiers Logo
Building on the foundations set by the AP Computer Science (CS) Principles course, this project seeks to dramatically expand access, especially for high school girls, to the most exciting and emerging frontiers of computing, such as distributed computation, the internet of things (IoT)..

CS Frontiers: Beyond CS Principles: Engaging Female High School Students in New Frontiers of Computing


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NetsBlox
CS Frontiers is a new high school computer science curriculum designed to dramatically expand access, especially for high school girls, to the emerging frontiers of computing, such as distributed computation, the internet of things (IoT), machine learning, and software engineering.

Engaging Native American Students in STEM Career Development through a Culturally-Responsive After-School Program Using Virtual Reality Environments and 3D Printing


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NAMSAS
The project will develop and research an after-school program that is designed to increase the STEM career interests and motivations of Native American middle-school students. Students will use digital technologies, including virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and 3D printing, to solve..

Beyond Access and Participation in CS for All: Measuring Equitable CS Learning Environments


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Two students engaged in a CS hackathon event.
This project will develop and study measures of culturally responsive-sustaining education (CR-SE) in computer science (CS)—providing vital tools and evidence to inform the growing CS education field.

Developing STEM Identity in Rural Audiences through Community-Based Engineering Design


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Rural STEM Learning Model
This project creates community-based engineering design experiences in advanced manufacturing aimed to build STEM content knowledge, identity and interest in STEM careers among underrepresented rural middle school (grades 6-8) students. The project also explores the impact of professional..

Supporting Science Inquiry, Interest, and STEM Thinking for Young Dual Language Learners (SISTEM)


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Preschool teachers' Inquiry Institute
SISTEM’s overarching goals are to (1) Increase DLL PreK families’ perceptions of themselves as partners in their children’s science learning and their engagement, confidence, and skills in supporting their children’s science inquiry; (2)Increase PreK DLL teachers’ perceptions of themselves as..

Network Science for All: Positioning High Need Youth for Success in Pursuing STEM Pathways


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What does a virologist do?
This collaborative project aims to establish STEM career identity among Latinx youth and help them identify the academic pathways needed to best position themselves for the future workplace. The project team leverages previously developed curriculum in the context of a network science lens and..

Bridging Communities with Student STEM Stories: Culturally-Responsive Strategies for Motivating STEM Engagement in Diversifying Public Schools


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Students engaged in a STEM Stories Assembly
This poster describes our NSF ITEST Project on culturally responsive STEM education and the power of students' stories about STEM in their homes and communities to not only engage students more deeply in their STEM learning, but also to help students, eductors and parents expand their understandings..

CAREER: Engaging Rural Students with Next Generation Physiological Interfaces


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Student wearing brain-computer interface
Relatively little research exists on the use of experiences with physiological sensors to support STEM education. In this work, we draw on techniques from physiological computing and computer science education to explore novel ways to build students' computational thinking skills.

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2022 ITEST PI Meeting Resources

Resource Title Resource Type
ITEST PI Meeting 2022 - Day 1, End of Day Plenary and Reflection Video
ITEST PI Meeting 2022 - Day 1, Welcome & Opening Remarks by EDU Assistant Dir. James L. Moore Video