The Wildlife Conservation Society and Good Shepherd Services (a youth development and education agency) are implementing and evaluating a school-to-career model program that consists of afterschool and weekend programming for high school students at four New York City area zoos and an aquarium, followed by post-participation tracking, support, and mentoring. The goal is to promote affective, cognitive and behavioral outcomes among 150 low-income minority youth necessary to pursue careers in the wildlife sciences.

Integrating Science into Afterschool, an ITEST Strategies project, builds upon prior NSF-funded work to develop a three-dimensional (3-D) strategy for engaging underserved youth, families, and afterschool facilitators in year-round science learning and exposure to careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). The project leverages community partnerships in urban Philadelphia, including The Franklin Institute, public sector entities and community organizations, to deliver the STEM education experience in the multiple access points of afterschool, home, and community.

GreenTECH is a three-year project focusing on green technology and careers at the high school level. Partners are: Solar One, a Green Energy Arts and Education Center; MOUSE (Making Opportunities for Upgrading Schools & Education), a youth development program that prepares young people to serve as technology experts; the Wallerstein Collaborative for Urban Environmental Education at New York University, and the New York City Department of Education (DOE).

A coalition of Carolina universities, school districts, state agencies, and businesses called the Carolinas Virtual World Consortium are promoting the use of 3 dimensional technologies in STEM education in middle schools through this ITEST strategies project. Middle school students attend summer workshops to learn about 3D modeling and design of virtual worlds, teachers join the students during the second week of workshops to learn about 3D technologies and how they can be implemented in the curriculum.

This project studies how to use co-robot systems and math-oriented co-robotics competitions to enhance student engagement, increase student motivation in learning Algebra and subsequent STEM subjects, and interest in pursuing STEM related careers and post-secondary study. The project leverages a unique robotics platform called Mobot (an intelligent modular system designed for K-12 education) to prepare a cohort of teachers to engage their students with relevant pedagogy that illustrates abstract math concepts with concrete applications using computing and robotics.

The Environmental Science Information Technology Activities (ESITA) youth-based project provides opportunities for students in grades 9 and 10 from disadvantaged backgrounds to learn about and use IT. During each of three years, 48 students will acquire and employ IT skills as they conduct air and water quality research in their communities and research attitudes toward, and feelings about, IT among their peers.

The IMMEX Fayette Consortium is a comprehensive project for urban students and teachers that provides students in grades 7–12 with a solid foundation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. This is a community-integrated model in which teams of teachers, students, business partners, and higher education faculty construct interactive, problem-solving simulations integrating standards-based curricular content and technology issues commonly encountered in STEM careers in technology institutes for teachers and students.

The Science Museum of Minnesota’s youth-based ITEST program engages inner city teens in creating a learning community for STEM education through creative technology projects led by adult professionals in sciences and the arts.

OMSI’s Salmon Camp Research Team is a youth-based advanced technology and natural science career exposure and training program offered in a year-round, multi-year format. It annually serves 180 reservation, rural, and urban secondary school students with Native American community affiliations and very low representation in IT-related career fields. The students work with researchers on computer modeling of complex ecological, hydrological, and geological problems.

This project focuses research on understanding what it takes to get underrepresented students to succeed in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) as its central goal. It is implementing and testing an instructional model for 2,000 6-8th grade students in ten Washington, DC public, charter schools to increase student interest in and pursuit of careers in engineering and other STEM areas, with a focus on energy and renewable resources. Students may also apply for out-of-school learning activities, including engineering clubs, summer institutes, and career exploration.