Resources included in these libraries were submitted by ITEST projects or STELAR and are relevant to the work of the NSF ITEST Program. PDFs and/or URLs to the original resource are included in 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. Permission for use must be requested through the publisher or author listed in each entry.
Robots Underwater! Learning Science, Engineering and 21st Century Skills: The Evolution of Curricula, Professional Development and Research in Formal and Informal Contexts
PublicationThe underwater environment presents novel challenges that can facilitate unique learning experiences for students engaged in robotics programs. Although the number of underwater educational robotics programs is small by comparison to other forms of K-12 robotics initiatives, several do exist, which have varying learning goals, implementation approaches, and tools. This chapter describes an underwater robotics program using LEGO® MINDSTORMS® components and related materials for middle and high school students. The program, known as WaterBotics™, has undergone an extensive, four-year research
Transforming a Middle and High School Robotics Curriculum
PublicationThis paper will examine a robotics curriculum that is impacting educators and youth in both formal, middle and high school classrooms as well as in a variety of informal learning environments. We have made comparisons between formal and informal learning environments in an effort to understand the varying impacts of this novel program on student learning of science concepts, their skills and abilities in applying engineering design and problem-solving, and their awareness and interest in engineering careers and the individuals who pursue these careers. Data from teachers, informal educators
Adventures in Alice Programming
Curricular MaterialsITEST project Scaling up an Innovative Approach for Attracting Students to Computing shares its materials and lesson plans developed from its workshop series on its website. Originally used and created as part of a workshop series for middle school and high school teachers to learn how to incorporate Alice into their own lesson plans, the curricula provided are designed for use with middle school and high school students. Lesson plans range across all academic disciplines (math, science, english, foreign language, social studies/history, etc.) and across several age ranges (though the majority
GreenTECH Field Trips
Curricular MaterialsThe linked and attached field trip sites are recommended by ITEST project GreenTECH because they provide high school students with the opportunity to explore green technology facilities in the NYC-metropolitan area. This is not an exhaustive list.
GreenTECH Videos
PublicationWatch these three videos made by ITEST project GreenTECH! These videos give you insight into environmental engineering. In the first video, meet Adam, a mechanical engineer who works in an NYC power plant. The second video features Team Reakter, a team of green battery experts. Finally, the last video features Levi and Ozgem, two energy activists, who will show you how to get your community excited about saving energy.
STEM Career Interest Survey (STEM-CIS)
InstrumentsThe STEM Career Interest Survey (STEM-CIS) measures interest in STEM classes and careers, particularly in middle school students. Leveraging social cognitive career theory, the STEM-CIS contains four subscales: science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The STEM-CIS is a 44-item survey that uses a 5-point Likert scale. The linked site provides both the STEM-CIS and its documentation. Authors provide instrument validity and/or reliability information.
Science of Friendship
Curricular MaterialsIn this pilot Project GUTS unit, presented by ITEST project GUTS y girls, high school girls explore questions and test their own assumptions on why humans help some people and not others. Using methods and data from the social sciences (anthropology, sociology and psychology) and computer modeling in NetLogo, a text-based computer programming language, students investigate the role of cooperation in human interactions—and how cooperation plays a role in global issues such as resource management, health equity and climate change.The linked site includes a pacing guide and overview of the lesson
ARC-REESE Criteria & Guidelines for Rating the Methodological Rigor of Educational Research in STEM
PublicationARC was asked by NSF to conduct a pilot project to review the research methodologies employed by a sample of projects funded by the REESE (Research and Evaluation on Education in Science and Engineering) program. ARC convened an expert panel in consultation with NSF to develop standards and a rubric for rating the rigor of REESE projects’ methodologies, with the ultimate goal of reporting on the methodologies employed in the REESE program overall.Panelists concurred that the guidelines provided in the American Educational Research Association’s (2006) Standards for Reporting on Empirical
Students’ Adaptive Learning Engagement in Science (SALES) Questionnaire
InstrumentsThe Students’ Adaptive Learning Engagement in Science (SALES) Questionnaire was developed to measure salient factors related to the motivation and self-regulation of students in lower secondary science classrooms (grades 8-10). The SALES consists of 32 items, each measured on a 5-point Likert scale. The link provides access to the SALES and its documentation.Authors provide instrument validity and/or reliability information.
Wide Range Achievement Test--Fourth Edition (WRAT-4)
InstrumentsThe fourth edition of the Wide Range Achievement Test (the WRAT-4) is the latest offering in a test series first published in 1946. The WRAT-4 is a norm-referenced test that measures the basic academic skills of word reading, sentence comprehension, spelling, and math computation. It was standardized on a representative national sample of over 3,000 individuals ranging in age from 5 to 94 years. The normative sample was selected according to a stratified national sampling procedure with proportionate allocation controlled for age, gender, ethnicity, geographic region, and parental/obtained