Career Exploration Lab: 3D Printing and STEM Engagement for High School Students with Visual Impairments and their Educators

2020 - 2024

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). For these students with visual impairments (VI), the possibility of a future in astronomy, or any science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) field, seems daunting.

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Empowering Informal Educators to Prepare Future Generations in Wireless Radio Communications with Mobile Resources

2020 - 2024

Wireless radio communications, such as Wi-Fi, transmit public and private data from one device to another, including cell phones, computers, medical equipment, satellites, space rockets, and air traffic control. Despite their critical role and prevalence, many people are unfamiliar with radio waves, how they are generated and interact with their surroundings, and why they are the basis of modern communication and navigation.

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Middle School Teacher and Student's Experiences with Artificial Intelligence via Computational Cameras

2020 - 2024

Artificial intelligence (AI) technology applied to images and video is transforming society with broad applications to many social and economic sectors. To develop a citizenry that will participate in this technological revolution, it is essential to develop learning experiences for K-12 learners on the foundations of AI literacy in order to adequately prepare the workforce of the future. Supporting the teaching of AI concepts in the K-12 curriculum requires integrating knowledge from multiple disciplines.

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

2020 - 2024

This project will develop and study an innovative community-based engineering education model to support science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) knowledge, identity, and career awareness of rural, economically disadvantaged students. The project leverages strategic partnerships between North Carolina State University, Edgecombe School District, and local industry to create an Engineering Design and Exploration course.

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Engaging Secondary Female Students in Ubiquitous Intelligence and Computing

2020 - 2024
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UNLV ITEST Project

The underrepresentation of female students in computing and engineering fields can be attributed to different factors such as gender stereotypes or unfamiliarity with computing and engineering fields. This project will occur in a region in which many secondary female students have not had opportunities to take STEM and Information and Communication Technologies courses. The project aims to broaden the participation of secondary female students in STEM and Information and Communication Technologies fields by engaging them in ubiquitous intelligence and computing.

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Enhancing Engagement and Conceptual Understanding of Fractions for Students with Learning Disabilities using the Model Mathematics Education Curriculum

2020 - 2024

The Enhancing Engagement and Conceptual Understanding of Fractions for Students with Learning Disabilities using the Model Mathematics Education Curriculum is a Developing and Testing Innovations (DTI) project in the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program. This project advances efforts of ITEST program by developing an integrated curriculum for 4th - 6th grade students with learning disabilities and difficulties to increase engagement in and understanding of fraction concepts.

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New Possibilities for Broadening the Impacts of Middle School Engineering through a Partnership between Teachers and Underrepresented Undergraduates in STEM

2019 - 2023

Many schools include engineering design tasks in the science curriculum as one way to provide opportunities for middle school students to contribute to finding solutions to real-world problems. However, students who attend high needs schools often have few opportunities to make such contributions. This condition exists because sometimes teachers in high needs schools have difficulty creating learning environments where students feel confident enough to engage in the engineering design process.

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Case Study of Experiential, Capstones in Industry: Understanding High School Students Interest and Preparation for STEM Careers

2019 - 2022

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.

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Digital technology integration and engineering contexts to support elementary students' systems thinking

2019 - 2023

This project 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, and mathematics (STEM). Research has indicated limited digital technology use and engineering instruction among elementary teachers. This project addresses two of the seven ITEST guiding questions: student experiences with emerging technologies and instructional and curricular innovations.

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