Collaborative Research: Expanding Socio-Environmental Science Investigations with Geospatial Technologies in High Schools
PosterThis project expands from a single site into a multi-university, multi-school teacher professional development and curriculum development initiative for geospatial integration into science, social studies, and STEM courses. Student outcomes addressed include spatial thinking and reasoning and STEM college and career interests.
Connecting Students with Autism to Geographic Information Science & Technology Careers
PosterThe goal of this project is to develop an innovative, research-based workforce development model for students with Autism Spectrum Disorder that (1) increases student self-regulation, interest, and motivation in Geographic Information Science & Technology (GIST), (2) expands students’ understanding of GIST/STEM concepts and skill sets, and (3) certifies students as FAA Drone Pilots (FAA Part 107).
Peering a Generation into the Future: NSF's Young Scholars Program (YSP) and the nation’s STEM workforce
PosterThis project is a multiyear study of the impact of an enrichment program that the US National Science Foundation (NSF) managed in the 1990s. The Young Scholars Program (YSP) involved around 18,000 7th–12th grade students and 600 separate grants between 1989 and 1996. The purpose of YSP was to introduce high-achieving middle and secondary school students to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields to encourage their entry into those fields and thus increase the size and quality of the nation’s STEM workforce.
Collaborative Research: STEM Career Connections
PosterThe goal for the STEM Career Connections project is to develop an innovative career readiness model for both in and out of school settings that will profoundly increase the knowledge of, and interest in, STEM and computing careers for middle school youth in a rural mountain community who are often underserved in STEM fields.
Synthesis: Impact of integrating innovative technologies in STEM classrooms on K-12 students' STEM career outcomes
PosterThis 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.
Integrating AI Machine Learning into the Teaching of Paleontology Using Fossil Shark Teeth in Middle Schools
PosterWe 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.
Employing Peer Mentoring to Empower Youth to Become 21st Century Energy Leaders
PosterThis poster describes a project to foster energy/climate-related STEM career knowledge and interest in diverse high school students in Minnesota through an engaging year-long experiential learning project that tests the effectiveness of near-peer mentors as STEM/energy education and career role models that enhance the STEM-relevant cognitive and social-emotional impacts of simulation- and project-based learning.
Embedding Life Design in Future Readiness Efforts to Promote Collective Impact and Economically Sustainable Communities: Conceptual Frameworks and Case Example
PublicationsThis is the first of two sequential papers describing the design and first-year implementation of a collaborative participatory action research effort between Sociedad Latina, a youth serving organization in Boston, Massachusetts, and Boston University. The collaboration aimed to develop and deliver a combined STEM and career development set of lessons for middle school Latinx youth. In the first paper, life design and the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals are described in relation to the rationale and the design of the career development intervention strategy that aims to help middle school
Computer Forensics Summer Academy & STEM CareerBuilder
Curricular MaterialsThe STEM CareerBuilder research and development (R&D) project aims to (1) explore what strategic government-university-industry partnerships and (2) study how technology-enriched interventions can encourage and support high school students with their pursuit of STEM education and careers. Multi-tier interventions with age-appropriate, interdisciplinary content, real-word context, and co-educational curricula include: Computer Forensics Summer Academy, mentoring, job shadowing, internships, research fellowships, and professional development. Activities Crime Scene Investigation Fingerprint