ITEST Resources

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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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1 - 10 of 889

Data Science, AI, and You in Healthcare: Teaching Students About Medical Data Bias

Publications
Data science and artificial intelligence (AI) are poised to upend the way healthcare is delivered. But what happens when AI is trained on medical data that doesn’t reflect the population? A new semester-long course teaches high school students how embedded bias in machine learning affects healthcare discussions and decisions. The goals of the Data Science, AI, and You in Healthcare project include fostering community connections between educators, researchers, clinicians, and local stakeholders to prepare underrepresented students for STEM jobs—ultimately in fields where their background and
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Supporting Middle School Students’ Understanding of Time-Series Data With Graph Comparisons

Publications
After participating in an afterschool program where they used the Common Online Data Analysis Platform (CODAP) to study time-series data about infectious diseases, four middle school students were interviewed to determine how they understood features of and trends within these graphs. Our focus was on how students compared graphs. Students were readily able to compare cumulative/total infection rates among two countries with differently sized populations. It was more challenging for them to link a graph of yearly cases to the corresponding graph of cumulative cases. Students offered reasonable
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Review of Literature on Quantum Information Science and Technology Programs for High School Students

Publications
This review of literature critiques recent research (2019–2023) on quantum information science and technology (QIST) programs designed specifically for high school students. Since QIST research and applications are advancing rapidly with an accompanying global demand for QIST workforce development, it is important to understand how high school students may be introduced to QIST concepts and skills early in the academic pipeline. The review identifies best practices for QIST teaching and learning, how prerequisite mathematical skills are addressed, methodological approaches and limitations, as
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“You Can Actually Do Something”: Shifts in High School Computer Science Teachers’ Conceptions of AI/ML Systems and Algorithmic Justice

Publications
The recent proliferation of artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) systems highlights the need for all people to develop effective competencies to interact with and examine AI/ML systems. We study shifts in five experienced high school CS teachers’ understanding of AI/ML systems after one year of participatory design, where they co-developed lessons on AI auditing, a systematic method to query AI/ML systems. Drawing on individual and group interviews, we found that teachers’ perspectives became more situated, grounding their understanding in everyday contexts; more critical
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Youth as Advisors in Participatory Design: Situating Teens’ Expertise in Everyday Algorithm Auditing with Teachers and Researchers

Publications
Research on children and youth’s participation in different roles in the design of technologies is one of the core contributions in child-computer interaction studies. Building on this work, we situate youth as advisors to a group of high school computer science teacher- and researcher-designers creating learning activities in the context of emerging technologies. Specifically, we explore algorithm auditing as a potential entry point for youth and adults to critically evaluate generative AI algorithmic systems, with the goal of designing classroom lessons. Through a two-hour session where
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Understanding teens’ self-beliefs when learning to construct and deconstruct AI/ML systems: Developing a survey instrument

Instruments
Despite growing calls to foster AI literacy, there are few available survey instruments designed for children and youth that study computational empowerment alongside construction and deconstruction activities. In such activities, learners’ beliefs about their abilities and attributes can impact their engagement. In this paper, we introduce and validate a survey instrument with constructs related to construction (creative expression and problem-solving self-beliefs) and deconstruction (auditing self-efficacy and fascination with auditing), along with more general self-beliefs related to design
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STEM Partnership Toolkit

Curricular Materials
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STEM Career Connections Logo
The STEM Partnership Toolkit was created to share tools and strategies around the practice of connecting STEM education to community partnerships that enrich learning experiences for youth. This toolkit describes how in-school and out-of-school STEM educators and professionals worked with our research team to establish and integrate community STEM education partnerships into their existing STEM programs. The toolkit provides the STEM Career Connections model, practice briefs focusing on specific issues, and links to other resources, including a resource pack, publications, and newsletters. We
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STEM Career Connections Resource Pack

Curricular Materials
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STEM Career Connections Logo
The STEM Career Connections project developed educational materials to support implementation of the STEMCC model within both formal and informal education settings, included here as the Resource Pack. The technology curricula and career connections activities define what youth were actually doing throughout the STEMCC project, while the community partnerships, detailed in the STEM Partnership Toolkit, provided the backbone to shape youth experiences. The Resource Pack contains STEM career connections activities as well as links to the technology curricula that were implemented during the
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Effects of Designing a Narrative-Based Video Game on High School Students’ Climate Change Perspectives

Publications
This study examined how high school students’ participation in designing an extended reality (XR) video game influenced their understanding of climate change. The Make Games, Save the World program, supported by a National Science Foundation grant, engaged students, from backgrounds underrepresented in STEM fields, in a year-long, out-of-school initiative. Working collaboratively in narrative and design teams, students created a story-driven game set in a fictional future world impacted by extreme heat and water scarcity. To assess changes in understanding, participants completed Personal
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