The Education Development Center's (EDC) ITEST Learning Resource Center plans to implement a 12-month conference grant designed to engage practitioner and research groups working in afterschool programs. EDC, in partnership with the National Girls Collaborative Project and MPR Associates, Inc., proposes to convene a 3-day meeting comprised of NSF-funded ITEST grantees, researchers in STEM workforce development and informal learning, STEM industry leaders, and philanthropic organizations.

The STEMware project brings together collaborators in science and education research, teaching, and industry. Modern biology related scenarios developed by educator-student-scientist partners will be utilized to create STEMware™ - immersive simulations for a virtual lab environment. This resource and supplemental curriculum will be distributed to afterschool programs, home computers, and school sites nationwide. The project incorporates an innovative professional and youth development program in the creation, implementation, and evaluation of STEM based “serious game” software.

SRI International (SRI), Girls Incorporated of Alameda County (GIAC), and TERC are collaborating to create and implement Girls InnovaTE3: Girls Innovating with Technology as Entrepreneurial Environmental Engineers. InnovaTE3, a Strategies project in NSF's ITEST program, is an out-of-school youth-centered curriculum for 8th through 11th grade girls.

The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) ITEST Youth Based Project will provide an in depth computer experience for 120 10th and 11th grade students and 12 teachers from minority and underserved schools in the Birmingham area. The program will initiate the students into visualization programming through a summer experience with Alice, and then during the school year allow them to explore the linear algebra basis behind this program.

Over a two-year period, this project will offer 70 middle and high school youths activities in information technology (IT) and science, technology engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. Three interlinked studios will support the workplan. The studios include the Studio@Museum located in the heart of the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History that will provide space for engaging in and displaying hands-on activities and the Studio@Timble Technical High School that will donate staff support and space for after school activities.

The Extreme Experience Lab program of the National Hispanic University and its Latino College Preparatory Academy, is a youth-based project designed to give 60 under-represented Hispanic high school students a two-year experience with three weekly meetings: FAB (building); LAB (data collection/measurement); and GAB (analysis and communicating) during the school year. A partnership with Overfelt High School will also enable the project to include students with disabilities.

Investigating Green Energy Technologies in the City (GET City) is a youth-based project designed to target underserved middle school students and introduce concepts in energy sustainability and environmental health. Partners include Michigan State University's College of Education and College of Engineering, Lansing Boys and Girls Club, Lansing Board of Water and Light, and Urban Options, a non-profit energy and environmental agency.

Eastern Michigan University (EMU), the City of Detroit Homeland Security and Emergency Management (CDHSEM), and Detroit Public Schools (DPS) are proposing the three-year Mayor's Youth Technology Corps (MYTC) Project in Detroit, MI. The MYTC project offers a collaboration of resources, support, and opportunities for strengthening science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education efforts. The MYTC project will recruit 100 students from all high schools in Metropolitan Detroit.

The WGBH/EDC ITEST Media Initiative is a collaboration between WGBH Educational Foundation and Education Development Center, Inc. to create a series of six individual project profile videos and multiple video clips submitted by projects and edited by WGBH.

This proposal addresses the need to make science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education, and information technology (IT) more culturally relevant for Anishinabe youths on the White Earth Reservation (WER). The objectives of the project are to improve youths’ skills, knowledge, and interests in STEM and IT fields. Teachers and staffs from targeted schools, professors from tribal colleges and local universities, community elders, and out-of-school staffs will participate in the project’s activities.