Resources

Designing and building robots to perform a series of increasingly complex tasks in an underwater environment is the vehicle to engage, interest, and cultivate 36 middle and high schools inlearning engineering, science and information technology. Using LEGO components and a hands-on, team-based, iterative design process, teachers and students learn how to build robotsthat must operate underwater in a three dimensional space. In building their robot to perform these tasks (proceed in straight line path across a pool, negotiate a slalom course, ascend/descendin a water column, and grab/deposit a

The BUILD IT project is a university-school collaboration to increase precollege student and teacher interest and achievement in engineering, science, mathematics, and information technology through a novel underwater robotics project that utilizes LEGO Mindstorms kits, theNXT programmable brick, and related equipment. The project is being implemented in 36 socioeconomically and academically diverse schools throughout New Jersey for students in Grades 7-12. Through a series of increasingly complex challenges, BUILD IT exposes students to science,mathematics, and engineering concepts such as

The University of Montana’s Paleo Exploration Project (PEP) was a professional development program for K-12 Montana teachers, which also provided authentic, field-based, residential summer research experiences for over 80 Montana middle school students. The program’s scientific focus was the ancient environments and fossils of eastern Montana, which to leveraged student’s innate interest in dinosaurs to build a deeper understanding of “doing science” and encouraged future pursuit of STEM coursework and careers.

The Paleo Exploration Project’s (PEP) Summer Internship Program was part of a multi-dimensional, regional, education outreach program conducted by The University of Montana (authors) and funded by the National Science Foundation. The objective of the program was to provide high school students from underserved, “frontier” communities in north central and eastern Montana, with hands-on work experience in paleontology at a field station or museum setting along Montana’s “Dinosaur Trail” (http://mtdinotrail.org/). The primary goals of the program were to increase students’ understanding of what

This book, co-authored by Sarita Pillai, Co-PI of the ITEST Learning Resource Center, highlights the impact of one of the most powerful instruments of change—education. The book blends historical analysis and dynamic interviews with people who made a difference— as policy moved beyond the classroom into homes, workplaces, and our very culture. By showing how hard-won changes in education have improved life in America, we hope to inspire and challenge others to craft their own vision of equity and justice and invent new ways to address barriers that persist across gender, race, and class—to

Interviews with high achieving middle school girls enrolled in a math and technology summer program showed that one fourth of the girls were interested in careers in IT. The girls were interviewed four years later when they were in high school. We found that all of them were still interested in math and most of them were taking, or had taken, advanced math courses. However, only several were taking or had taken a computer science course and only one girl expressed interest in pursuing a career in IT. They showed a general lack of information about computer science, computer scientists and

In this issue, linguist Susan Herring presents a survey of research on gender in computer-mediated communication on mailing lists and in discussion groups. Lisa King, the president of DC Web Women, discusses gender in online communities, which she distinguishes from public or semi-public discussion groups. Virginia Eubanks, editor of the cyberfeminist 'zine Brillo, begins with the claim that the Internet is actively and aggressively hostile to women and discusses her successes challenging the paradigms that actively exclude white women and people of color. Information scientist Elizabeth

The challenge of increasing girls' interest in and skills with computers has serious social and economic consequences if left unaddressed.The gender gap in computer interest and skills begins in the early grades (Becker and Sterling, 1987), persists in the home environment, and continues into adulthood (Giaquinta, Bauer & Levin, 1993), leaving girls with limited exposure to female role models with computer expertise.Meanwhile, as technology becomes part of the fabric of our society, computer skills are a more significant factor in the economic deprivation or advancement of large segments of