This 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.

We will develop a unique community-based ecosystem for teaching high school students about how the intersection between rapidly developing technologies such as data science and machine learning impact critical healthcare decisions. Students will learn and apply technological skills valued for high-paying jobs within our workforce and proving the importance of diversity.

A STEM education program at the interface of biology and engineering, namely sensory biology and robotics. This program for high school students and in-service teachers engages them in activities that examine the interrelatedness between science and engineering using innovative technologies.

EdAI investigates how best to prepare teachers to implement the Developing AI Literacy (or DAILy) curriculum in regular school day classrooms. We seek to understand what supports and teaching practices are effective and necessary for middle school teachers to implement the curriculum and positively impact student’s learning if AI.

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.

The project engages high school students in exploring science-based climate scenarios and co-creating an interactive digital narrative. Project research investigates outcomes related to the project goal to improve STEM career aspirations among Latinx teens.

Learn about the universally-designed ModelME fraction curriculum with embedded Dream2B game.

The ITEST / CCERS project, Phase II continues to focus with the aim of better understanding and promoting equitable practices that increase student motivation and preparation to pursue careers in the STEM fields by expanding and testing an innovative curriculum model that features locally relevant problem-based learning with students in underrepresented populations.