Across the nation, teachers have shifted to delivering instruction remotely due to COVID-19. This transition to remote instruction has presented challenges for secondary science teachers who previously engaged their students in hands-on learning through empirical tests and observations of real-world phenomena, but whose students might not now have the equipment or materials in their homes to enable hands-on investigations.

This project will advance efforts of the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program to better understand and promote practices that increase student motivations and capacities to pursue careers in fields of science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) by developing and testing a middle school science curriculum focusing on water and water-related career awareness.

The aim of this project will be to help school students, particularly under-represented minorities and females, to access careers in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).  The strategy will be to study a demonstrated successful learning model that integrates traditional high school STEM curriculum with real world projects from the STEM business community. The study will illuminate how the components of the program work together to support students' motivation and preparation for STEM careers, in particular female and minority students.