ITEST Projects

The STEM Learning and Research (STELAR) Center is the resource center for the NSF ITEST program, housed at Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC) and funded from 2013 to 2019 (formerly the ITEST Learning Resource Center - LRC).

Uses MATE's underwater robotics competition to engage and support the participation of middle and high school students in STEM. Provides professional development, curriculum, and other resources to teachers. Involves industry professionals and parents.

The iDesign project engages underrepresented youth in creating computer games that are culturally and socially relevant. By engaging participants in the culture of information technology, the project is designed to move them from playing computer games to using tools that require programming and

The project aims at helping middle school students understand the relationship between energy, economics, and climate change by monitoring home-energy consumption. Students use energy-monitoring equipment to assess the amount of stand-by power consumed by their home appliances and entertainment

The Memphis Virtual STEM Academy at East High School project investigates the implementation of a virtual STEM curriculum that utilizes self-paced modules, face-to-face STEM laboratory projects, and field experiences designed to help students (grades 9-12) understand pre-engineering concepts and

Over 70 teachers, 1800 high school students and 900 middle school students in urban and suburban RI and CT districts during the course of the program will interact with cutting edge research technologies related to exploring the global ocean.

This project is developing and testing a collaborative game-based interactive environment where students, ages 12-18 form a product design team to create a concept model and pitch for a sport product design challenge. Participants, sport researchers, and product experts determine the best pitches

In existing CryptoClub after school programs, middle school students use mathematics to make and break secret codes. The CryptoClub website has tools for encrypting, messages to crack, treasure hunts and other activities. In this project, the learning in fifteen Crypto Clubs is extended by having

The TECHFIT project fosters middle school student enthusiasm for STEM disciplines. This is accomplished by equipping teachers with skills and tools to engage their students and show them how engineering technology knowledge can help them become innovators of interesting, fun, and valuable products

Embedded in existing computing education and STEM courses, the project-developed curriculum--Scalable Game Design (SGD)--introduces middle school students to computational thinking through game design and advances them to STEM simulation design.