Motivating Youth Through Authentic, Meaningful and Purposeful Activities: An Examination Through the Lens of Transformative Activist Stance

Publications

An ongoing and at times seemingly intractable issue in science education and STEM fields is the underperformance and underrepresentation of marginalized youth. This is often attributed to disconnect between school in general, school science specifically and the cultures that youth enact and experience in their daily lives. Although research demonstrates that youth become engaged in STEM when it is relevant to their well-being and that of their community, the question of what motivates underrepresented youth to pursue STEM interests is still not fully understood. This white paper argues for

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Innovative Uses of IT Applications in STEM Classrooms: A Preliminary Review of ITEST Teacher Professional Development

Publications

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program provides a unique opportunity to assess a broad spectrum of professional development projects that share key characteristics but were designed to meet distinct local school and community contexts. To better understand how innovative information technology (IT) classroom applications are integrated into teacher professional development and can ultimately lead to changes in teaching practices and increases in student performance, we conducted an exploratory study of NSF-funded ITEST

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