GUTS y Girls is a three-year ITEST Strategies project targeting middle school girls in Santa Fe, Las Cruces, and Albuquerque, New Mexico. This project builds on a previously funded NSF Academies for Young Scientist award (06-39637) and includes partnerships between the Santa Fe Institute and MIT, University of New Mexico, New Mexico Tech, New Mexico State University, Santa Fe Complex, Girl Scouts of New Mexico Trails, the Supercomputing Challenge, regional educational organizations, and local schools.

I-C STEM In My FUTURE is a two-year, year-round, informal learning program for 80 students focusing on mathematics, the use of hand-held technology, computer literacy skills, technical training and career paths. The project will examine the impact of this technology-enriched intervention program on the STEM career interest of underrepresented minorities.

Tuskegee University proposes to use a low-cost flight simulation environment to enhance learning physics and mathematics for students in grades 8-12 in a rural community in Macon County schools in Alabama. It outlines a development strategy for module development that engages undergraduates and teachers in the development process followed by teacher implementation including teacher training and student workshops. The proposal design calls for adapting an innovative and successful strategy for engaging and teaching undergraduates to grades 8-12.

The goal of this ITEST scale-up project (ITSI-SU) is to address the need for research-based science materials and teaching techniques that generate demonstrable improvements in student science achievement in grades 3-12. The project will reach 264 teachers directly and 10,000 students in four states and has the capacity to reach another 1,500 teachers and 50,000 students nationwide in a dissemination phase, and still more if teachers and trainers adopt project-generated resources.

A pathway to STEM careers and college for inner-city high school students is built around the use of cutting-edge geospatial and computer modeling to investigate pressing urban ecological problems in their neighborhood. The work in a previous ITEST grant that demonstrated an increase in student self-efficacy and interest in science is expanded to integrate career discernment, college preparation, and engagement with innovative technologies.

From 2003 to 2012, the ITEST LRC at EDC, now STELAR, served as the NSF ITEST program's technical assistance and resource center.  It implemented collaboration and support opportunities to connect youth-based and comprehensive ITEST projects and to leverage lessons learned into new knowledge that was shared nationally.  The LRC also worked to tightenen the research/practice cycle and promote data-based decision-making.  It helped to create a national presence for the ITEST program as a primary resource for learning about, experiencing and using IT in STEM ini

“It’s About Discovery” is a partnership between The Ohio State University, University of North Carolina at Greensboro and Fayetteville State University that engages high school students and their teachers in critical thinking skills focusing on STEM content areas. The Ford Partnership for Advanced Studies (PAS) new science curriculum is the foundation for the project that includes students and teachers from Ohio and North Carolina.

This project will use the Marine Advanced Technology Education (MATE) Center's highly successful remotely operated vehicle (ROV) competition network to reach, engage, and support the participation of middle schools. They represent a critical point in the educational pathway where students, particularly from underrepresented groups, are most likely to lose interest in math and science. It will provide career information and guidance tools that enable students to make the transition from middle school through high school to college and into the workplace.

This collaborative project is conducting a research study to delineate the effective components of mentoring for underrepresented and non-underrepresented students in STEM, utilizing a robotics educational program. To understand STEM expectations of success and interests in pursuing STEM careers, it is imperative to understand the achievement-related choices people make when deciding what areas to study and what careers to pursue.

This project focuses on the critical drop-off point between elementary and middle school, often identified as the first major roadblock to the success and interest of students in STEM. To help elementary students successfully transition to middle school science, the Principal Investigator will design, implement and test a model after-school program (Middle School Science Readiness program) aimed at supporting science teaching and learning at this critical juncture.