Newsletter

We’re kicking off the new year with a look back at 2023 and the great new projects that received ITEST funding. Here’s a quick rundown:

• Promoting Students' Data Literacy through the Creation of Interactive Multimodal Representations of Biometric Data engages high school students in using technology to track and reflect on their own biological, behavioral, physical, or emotional data.
• Embodied Interactive Environment for Advancing Data Sensing and Computational Thinking Skills in the Built Environment investigates an immersive VR-based learning environment for developing middle-school students’ computational thinking skills and improving attitudes toward STEM-related careers in the construction industry. 
• Supporting Rightful Presence in Museum Spaces: Youth as Participatory Designers of Indigenous Mixed Reality Science Exhibits addresses the marginalization of Indigenous communities in informal science learning spaces by developing and studying a model to strengthen Indigenous youths’ disposition toward and capacity for STEM pathways. 
• Building STEM Skills by Integrating Data Literacy and Text Analytics in English Language Arts develops and researches the potential of integrated data literacy and text analytics instruction in middle-school English language arts to create greater participation in STEM fields and professions. 
• Making Mentors: Enhancing Access to STEM Careers for Autistic Youth through Mentorship Programs in Makerspaces scales up an earlier ITEST project to increase understanding of how maker programming can help young people on the autism spectrum gain the social, functional, and communication skills necessary for careers in design and engineering. 
• AI for the Workforce of Tomorrow: Attending to Ethics and Collaboration in Learning Artificial Intelligence for High School Aged Youth designs and studies an online course to build workforce skills, strengthening and broadening capacity for AI careers.
• Puffins: Exploring how Narrative, Data Science, and Artificial Intelligence Enhance the Study of Ecology in Middle School combines a scientific adventure story about puffin restoration with student-directed data investigations about the relationships between puffin health and environmental factors. 
• FuSe-TG: Electronic-Photonic Systems-on-Chip for Computation, Communication and Sensing plans to use initial proof-of-concept developments to teams with domain and application experts and establish a base research and educational portfolio to shape a center-scale co-design research effort. 
• COVID-Inspired Data Science Education through Epidemiology. Nationally, 400 underserved youth will engage in a 15-hour out-of-school multimedia program centered on a project-developed text that integrates data activities, modeling, animations, and career exploration.

Congratulations to all! We’re excited to see how your work progresses in the new year. 

For more information about any of these projects—or to access resources to help you write your own ITEST proposal—check our website.