Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month

As Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies begin to reshape modern society, educating younger students about AI has become a national priority for both the United States and its competitors. In these early days of K-12 AI education, little is known about how diverse student populations relate to AI and which instructional strategies are most likely to engage them. Since most K-12 teachers are not yet familiar with AI, research is also needed on how to develop their AI fluency and confidence.

The first pre-college programs that the National Science Foundation (NSF) administered when it restarted pre-college education funding in 1988 included the Young Scholars Program (YSP). The YSP reflected NSF’s intention to reach high-achieving students and to increase the likelihood that they would subsequently enter science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors and the STEM workforce. YSP targeted adolescents, grades 7-12, with summer, weekend, and after-school enrichment programs.

The Arizona State University Center for Games and Impact will collaborate with VME (Vme Media), E-Line Media, and HACU (Hispanic Association of Colleges & Universities) to develop a project designed to engage Hispanic middle-school students in learning about STEM careers. The project will initially stimulate career interest as youth reflect on game play using the Career Illumination Tool.

Boston University, in partnership with Sociedad Latina, will investigate the role that a middle school network science curriculum plays as both an input and outcome of science learning. This project is funded by the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program, which supports projects that build understandings of practices, program elements, contexts and processes contributing to increasing students' knowledge and interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and information and communication technology (ICT) careers.

This project aims to expand the implementation of a NSBE-supported program, "Summer Engineering Experiences for Kids" (SEEK), from 14 sites in 2016, to 31 by 2019; from 3,825 3rd-5th grade African American, Hispanic, and female students in 2015, to cumulative 27,000 across the nation over the three-year duration of the project.

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.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has emerged as a foundational technology that impacts on every sector of the economy and every corner of society. AI?s rapid expansion across fields and industries and its dramatic impact on the economy and national security necessitate developing a workforce knowledgeable and capable of working with AI. There is an urgent need to research K-12 students? capacity to learn AI concepts and processes and how best to support their development of AI skills and career interests.

The project is designed to prepare students for the future world of work that will require them to develop and integrate multiple areas of skill and knowledge that can be flexibly deployed across widely varying and ever-changing work requirements. The current education system emphasizes the development of skills and knowledge within specific disciplines, which does not reflect the multidisciplinary nature of future work.