Project Profile

This project will advance efforts of the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program to better understand and promote practices that increase students' motivations and capacities to pursue careers in fields of science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) by engaging in hands-on field experience, laboratory/project-based entrepreneurship tasks and mentorship experiences.

Georgia Institute of Technology (U.S.) and Yildiz Technical University (Turkey) propose an international conference to provide a forum for ministers of education, researchers, and practitioners from countries with high- medium- and low-STEM achievement scores to assess the problem of achievement gaps in STEM disciplines from a global perspective and to develop more global solutions share information. This conference will identify major challenges and opportunities for addressing the achievement gap that exist among racial/ethnic, socio-economic status and gender and subsequently suggest solutions and strategies to provide all children equal opportunities to acquire knowledge and develop STEM skills. More specifically, the major goals of the conference are to: (a) identify major challenges and opportunities for addressing the achievement gap in STEM fields for high-, low-, and medium-achieving countries; (b) focus on underrepresented groups in high, low, and medium achieving countries in terms of STEM knowledge and skills needed for 21st century careers; (c) systematically assess conference outputs to identify research, practice, and policies that are effective or at least promising to address STEM achievement gaps; (d) develop solutions and strategies to provide all children with equal opportunities to acquire knowledge and develop STEM skills; and (e) provide an opportunity for countries with high-, low-, and medium- STEM achievement scores to share information and learn about achievement gap in STEM fields.

Six countries (South Korea, Singapore, Australia, United States, Turkey and the Ukraine) are selected to represent the range of achievement. Collaborations among multiple sectors, levels, and countries brought together by this conference will have a lasting impact on the development and enhancement of the quality of STEM education globally; this, in turn, will have direct positive effects on providing equal opportunities for all children in STEM fields. The conference will provide an opportunity to provide a better understanding of the structural issues of achievement gap in STEM through the presentations on policies, research, and practices from an international perspective.