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.

NanoExperiences: Pathways to Workforce Success is an out-of-school program that supports high school students in Career and Technical Education to prepare for post secondary education in multiple STEM career pathways related to nanoscale science and technology (NS&T). The project builds on NS&T instructional materials developed and tested by Mid-Continent Research for Education and Learning (McREL), and others, on professional development being developed by McREL and on recent recommendations for structuring academically-focused out-of-school programs.

Robotics and GPS/GIS in 4-H: Workforce Skills for the 21st Century is a-five year scale-up project to use 4-H clubs to prepare middle school youth for the STEM workplace. The project builds on and extends an existing research-based ITEST project by developing and testing new national curricula to introduce basic technology skills, foster problem solving and inquiry skills, and encourage teamwork.

This project investigates the relationship between middle school students’ information technology skills, their success in an inquiry ocean science curriculum designed to target those skills, and their understanding of the new characteristics of 21st century science. It is concerned with the design of a curriculum and its impact on students of high compared with low digital literacy.

The Real World Externships project provides professional development for 150 mathematics and science teachers in grades 7-12 in Iowa. The teachers participate in externships with local science-based industries for six weeks during the summer. Teachers learn current applications of science and mathematics that they can use to enhance their teaching.

SCI-TALKS (Supporting Community Initiatives for Teaching, Learning, and Knowing Science), an ITEST strategies project, is designed to deliver after-school energy and environment (EE) education programs in community settings for rural low-income upper elementary students in West Virginia. The goal of SCI-TALKS is to provide pre-service and in-service teachers with professional development and technology resources to ensure that their students build workforce readiness skills through EE education program.

The primary goal of the STEM Teams strategies project is to build a bridge from isolated middle schools in rural NC to the high tech resources at research universities, to effectively teach STEM (science, mathematics, & technology) content and instill an understanding of the potential of STEM careers. The middle school teachers in the selected schools will be supported by an administrative team to guide, coach, and empower the teachers to make the most of the resources.

Studio STEM employs active, inquiry-based learning through engineering design activities to promote conceptual change and problem solving techniques using information and communications technology (ICT). The project aims to engage and encourage rural Appalachian middle grade students to pursue STEM using fundamental concepts in energy conservation and sustainability through an informal design-based studio. This setting allows students to creatively explore and share problems and solutions by documenting their experiences using personal blogs.

Tri-Regional Information Technology (Tri-IT), is a collaborative project building on the IT strengths at three diverse colleges located in the state of Florida. Tri-IT includes Florida State College at Jacksonville (FSCJ) in Northeast Florida, Florida A&M University (FAMU) in Northwest Florida and Seminole State College (SCC) in Central Florida. Tri-IT will address Florida's IT gender inequality in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) by serving a total of 180 high school girls.

The Network Science project is a three year ITEST strategies project designed to engage 120 disadvantaged high school students (grades 10-11) and up to 30 high school STEM teachers from Boston and New York urban schools in a network science research based program, using cutting edge computer modeling research technology.