The World Smarts STEM Challenge is a virtual exchange that supports STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) education in the United States and Ghana. Middle and high school students from Washington, DC, and senior secondary school students from across Ghana come together virtually to solve global issues in their communities with STEM solutions inspired by the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

This Synthesis project uses meta-analysis and qualitative synthesis to examine the effects of integrating innovative technologies into K-12 STEM education on students’ STEM career-related outcomes, and if and in what ways intervention characteristics and educational settings moderate these effects.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic provides a starting point for empowering young people to understand uses of data science through epidemiology. Through this program, 650 plus underserved youth nationwide have engaged in a 20-hour out-of-school multimedia "Data Detectives Clubs" centered on a project-developed adventure novel, The Case of the COVID Crisis, which is integrated with data activities, modeling, animations, and career exploration.

Our project aims to promote middle school-aged girls' data science learning and interests through informal gameplay. We are designing a data-rich, multiplayer virtual world to support players in working with their own gameplay data as a resource for pursuing personally meaningful goals.

The New Hampshire Academy of Science ITEST grant began Sept. 1, 2022 and will enable wrap-around programming to provide underrepresented students in underserved rural communities with scientific research experiences along with mentorship and college prep throughout high school, starting at each grade level. We are currently developing recruitment strategies for our first two cohorts. 

The goal of this project is to investigate best ways to prepare the youth to confront future science and engineering problems. A team of educational researchers, science teachers, and scientists investigate the design of educational digital environments to promote engagement, interest, and learning in computation and science. Middle school aged learners are presented with science problems inspired by real-world challenges that are hard to solve and particularly suited to computational solutions with creative thinking skills.

We will collaborate with 3 annual teacher cohorts (80 teachers total) from Florida Title I middle schools to develop innovative STEM curriculum. This will be done via week-long summer PDs, scientist-teacher partnerships, periodic virtual sharing and planning meetings, and standards-based curricular instruction during the school year. Our project activities integrating fossil sharks and AI will reach at least ~2K to 4K students each year.

The goal of Project-Co-STEM is to develop a model for professional development and classroom implementation support that increases STEM learning opportunities for middle school youth from the rural communities and tribal nations of Northern Arizona.

WeatherX has provided data-rich science learning experiences for 12 teachers and over 470 middle school students in low-income rural districts in northern New Hampshire and Maine. In collaboration with students and teachers, we are learning how to make data science promote students’ understanding of and interests in important data practices.  This project is built on a strong foundation of partnerships including EDC, Mount Washington Observatory, Concord Consortium, University of Maine, and University of Washington.