This project develops an interdisciplinary and transformative in- and out of-school science education and technology program that engages high school aged youth and their teachers in 1) the production of food using hydroponics, and 2) the use of green energy technologies (solar, and wind) to power hydroponic systems. This distinctive program integrates food production, a novel model of parental outreach, a focus on green career development, and an authentic reason (growing their own produce for selling at a market) for learning how and why to use alternative energy technologies.

This is a four-year Information Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) scale-up project aimed at developing Computational Thinking (CT) with 200 teachers and 15,000 middle school students in nine states' diverse learning environments, such as urban, remote rural areas, and Native American communities. Embedded in existing computing education and STEM courses, the project-developed curriculum--Scalable Game Design (SGD)--introduces students to CT through game design and advances them to STEM simulation design.

The project aims at helping middle school students understand the relationship between energy, economics, and climate change by monitoring home-energy consumption. Students use energy-monitoring equipment to assess the amount of stand-by power consumed by their home appliances and entertainment devices when these units are powered off. Service-Learning is the theoretical foundation underlying the project, which is based on a student empowerment model that values their contributions to solve problems.

The TECHFIT project fosters middle school student enthusiasm for STEM disciplines. This is accomplished by equipping teachers with skills and tools to engage their students and show them how engineering technology knowledge can help them become innovators of interesting, fun, and valuable products. TECHFIT recruits teams of 2-5 science, technology, math, and physical education teachers from partner schools to complete a 6-day, professional development summer workshop.

The iDesign project engages underrepresented youth in creating computer games that are culturally and socially relevant. By engaging participants in the culture of information technology, the project is designed to move them from playing computer games to using tools that require programming and computation skills. The project culminates in the dissemination of a game-design curriculum that other after school programs can use.

This ITEST strategies project is providing high school students with experiences in robotics to galvanize their interest in STEM and prepare them for STEM programs at the college level. The project is delivering a pre-engineering experience, advanced math coursework, and project-based instruction. High school teachers receive technical training to build their STEM teaching competencies. Over 100 underrepresented students are being recruited from MC2 STEM High School in the Cleveland Metropolitan School District.

Bits-2-Bites is a strategies project that will engage middle school and high school students in learning to apply computational thinking and computer based tools to address STEM related community issues. Participants will learn about the biology and chemistry of food science, nutrition, food production, environmental sustainability, and how they relate to relevant community health issues such as the proliferation of obesity and diabetes.

Tuskegee University engages 150 students in grades 8-12 in three-week summer workshops featuring STEM content, web-design, the multi-disciplinary area of human-computer interaction, and career study seminars/webinars. Students design a website incorporating STEM content, and then use a technology called eye-tracker to test the effectiveness of their communication. The project design combines three aspects of best practices in learning and extends them to a technology-based pedagogy: writing-to-learn, learning-to-write, and project-based learning.

The Marine Advanced Technology Education (MATE) Center at the Monterey Community College in collaboration with Washington State University is engaging in a scale-up study of the remote operated vehicle (ROV) program to new audiences of middle and high school students and teachers. Using a train the trainers approach, the MATE ROV project is conducting at least 45 regional professional development workshops in 15 regions for a total of 500 teachers.

This project is developing and testing a collaborative game-based interactive environment where students, ages 12-18 form a product design team to create a concept model and pitch for a sport product design challenge. Participants, sport researchers, and product experts determine the best pitches with awards for top designs. SportsLab:2020 brings together pedagogical frameworks from game- and project-based learning together with design challenge curriculum that foster learning and understanding of 21st Century skills and STEM concepts.