Welcome to the ITEST Resource Library
The curricula, instruments, and publications included in this library were submitted by ITEST projects and are relevant to the work of the NSF ITEST Program. Use the filters to the right to find relevant materials. A PDF and/or URL to the original resource are included within the resource description whenever possible. In some cases, full text publications are located behind publishers’ paywalls and a fee or membership to the third party site may be required for access.
Please note: permission for the use of instruments must be requested through the publisher or author listed in each entry, and cannot be granted by STELAR.
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SciGirls Strategies Implementation Evaluation Report
PublicationsFor the SciGirls Strategies supplemental activity, ten educators were trained to be SciGirls Strategies trainers during June 2019 (see the Training Evaluation Report). During that time, they developedaction plans for their local teacher training. The goal was for each Trainer to train ten or moreteachers in their local schools/districts. Trainers could plan and schedule their workshops to fittheir local context in order to accomplish the objectives of building teacher’s confidence andskills in using gender equitable and culturally responsive teaching strategies. After the trainingworkshop, the
SciGirls Strategies Training Evaluation Report
PublicationsFor the SciGirls Strategies supplemental activity, ten educators were trained to be SciGirls Strategies Trainers in June 2019. SciGirls Strategies Trainers participated in a four-day (36 hour) in person training Tuesday through Friday, June 25-28, 2019 at Twin Cities PBS in St. Paul. The Gender Equitable Teaching and Advising Strategies (GETAS) training workshop included information on the newly updated (in 2019) SciGirls Strategies: How to Engage Girls in STEM which includes gender equitable and culturally responsive teaching strategies to advise, encourage, recruit and retain girls into CTE
Student’s Spatial Learning Attitudes (SLA)
InstrumentsThe Student’s Spatial Learning Attitudes (SLA) instrument is valid and reliable instrument designed for secondary students to share their ideas about spatial learning that involves using maps and technologies (e.g., mobile devices and computers that use map-based imagery) for learning . The instrument underwent a validation process with experts in the STEM education and the geospatial technology teaching and learning field. Further, to ensure that the items were comprehensible for English language learners, the items were reviewed by an educator with expertise with teaching English learners
Student Interest in Science, Technology and Geospatial Technology (STEM-GEO)
InstrumentsThe Student Interest in Science, Technology and Geospatial Technology (STEM-GEO) instrument is valid and reliable instrument designed to measure secondary students’ STEM-related learning interest, interest in using technology to learn science, STEM-related career interests, and attitudes about geospatial technology. The instrument underwent a validation process with experts in the STEM education and the geospatial technology teaching and learning field. Further, to ensure that the items were comprehensible for English language learners, the items were reviewed by an educator with expertise
Integrating Science Into Afterschool: A Three-Dimensional Approach To Engaging Underserved Populations In Science - Final Report
PublicationsThe initiative called Integrating Science Into Afterschool: A Three-Dimensional Approach to Engaging Underserved Populations in Science set out to promote science learning in three out-ofschool settings (afterschool programs, home, and community), to promote rich and varied science experiences to underserved Philadelphia communities, and to assess the value of this model for the broader field of out-of-school time and informal learning in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). The project was funded through the National Science Foundation’s Innovative Technology Experiences
Integrating STEM Into Afterschool: Lessons Learned for Educators In and Out of School
PublicationsIn 2013 The Franklin Institute, a leading science museum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, received a grant from the National Science Foundation (#1138911) to reach under-resourced urban communities by strengthening the capacity of afterschool centers to offer STEM programming. Integrating Science Into Afterschool: A Three-Dimensional Approach to Engaging Underserved Populations In Science, or “STEM 3D,” was a five-year project that aspired to integrate STEM learning across afterschool, home, and community as a strategy for building positive science identities and creating viable STEM pathways
Investigating Urban Trees
PublicationsMobile geospatial technologies enable high school students to engage in authentic scientific data collection and analysis that promote spatial-thinking and reasoning skills, as well as problem-solving in a school’s local environment. We developed and implemented an Ecological Services investigation aligned to the Next Generation Science Standards in an urban high school with a large population of economically disadvantaged students. The investigation includes local field data collection with mobile devices and classroom data analysis using a freely available Web Geographic Information System
E-textile Survey Instrument
InstrumentsE-textile Survey Instrument, developed for Exploring Computer Science E-textiles Unit. Stitching the Loop: An Electronic Textiles Unit in Exploring Computer Science is a curriculum unit for students to explore electronic textiles (e-textiles): articles of clothing, accessories, or home furnishings with embedded electronic and computational elements. After conducting various studies on curriculum design, teaching strategies, student learning, and portfolio designs, this unit is ready for download and classroom implementation by ECS teachers.
Development of Parents’ Engineering Awareness Survey (PEAS) According to the Knowledge, Attitudes, and Behavior Framework
InstrumentsWith increased interest in promoting engineering as a field of study and career pathway to both college and pre-college student, it is important to understand the many factors that impact students’ learning and decision-making processes. In this paper, one of the important environmental factors surrounding students was selected as a main research subject: parents and other similar caregivers. Parents play a significant role in mediating between teachers and students as well as motivating children’s interest in engineering. To better understand the influence of parents in children’s engineering
Draw an Engineer Test (DAET): Development of a Tool to Investigate Students’ Ideas about Engineers and Engineering
PublicationsThe public has an incomplete understanding of engineers and engineering as a profession. In discussions about the public’s understanding of engineers, many have referenced the “conventional” stereotype of engineers as train operators. Though this stereotype may exist among students as well as the public, few investigations to date have focused on students’ ideas about engineers and engineering. The recent introduction ofengineering into the K-12 curriculum in Massachusetts has increased interest among educators in assessing students’ knowledge of engineering as a result of intervention and