This project will develop upper elementary school students’ abilities to work with Artificial intelligence (AI) in future careers. AI will be a critical tool for influencing and increasing productivity in the future of work. As such, it is increasingly important to introduce K-12 students to basic AI knowledge and skills, build familiarity with AI technologies, and train students to be competitive in the workforce. Through this project, a team of robotics and education researchers at Tufts University in Massachusetts and Maryville University in St.

Rehabilitation and assistive robots are becoming more prevalent as the population is aging. Healthcare technologies are rapidly evolving and becoming increasingly high-tech and reliant on sensors for biological data collection and human-robot interactions to augment human capabilities. Not only is the field changing, but the demand for a highly skilled workforce is growing rapidly.

Quantum information science (QIS) is imperative to economic and national security, commerce, and technology.  Development of a "quantum smart" workforce needs to begin before college. The logical venue for exposure to quantum might be a physics course, but numerous K-12 students attend schools where physics is not offered. Since most students will not major in physics, it is vital to expose K-12 students to quantum concepts that are relevant to everyday experiences with credit card security, phones, computers, and basic technology.

To compete in a continually changing and increasingly technology-focused career landscape, students will need a deep, conceptual, and applied understanding of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Yet, many students, especially students from underrepresented populations, perceive  STEM to be disconnected from their interests and career aspirations. New curricular approaches are needed, especially in mathematics, that increase students’ career interest and engagement in STEM, while also supporting the learning of rich and targeted STEM content.

The development of spatial orientation (SO) skills – the ability to identify the position of objects in space – is a strong predictor of math skills and later school success and academic achievement. However, even with the increasing evidence in the importance of SO skills for children, they are rarely included in kindergarten and primary school curriculum. This puts children at a severe learning disadvantage; children who lag behind their peers in school-entry mathematical skills are at high risk to continue to do so.

Across the nation, teachers have shifted to delivering instruction remotely due to COVID-19. This transition to remote instruction has presented challenges for secondary science teachers who previously engaged their students in hands-on learning through empirical tests and observations of real-world phenomena, but whose students might not now have the equipment or materials in their homes to enable hands-on investigations.

This project will advance efforts of the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program to better understand and promote practices that increase student motivations and capacities to pursue careers in fields of science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM). For these students with visual impairments (VI), the possibility of a future in astronomy, or any science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) field, seems daunting.

Wireless radio communications, such as Wi-Fi, transmit public and private data from one device to another, including cell phones, computers, medical equipment, satellites, space rockets, and air traffic control. Despite their critical role and prevalence, many people are unfamiliar with radio waves, how they are generated and interact with their surroundings, and why they are the basis of modern communication and navigation.

Artificial intelligence (AI) technology applied to images and video is transforming society with broad applications to many social and economic sectors. To develop a citizenry that will participate in this technological revolution, it is essential to develop learning experiences for K-12 learners on the foundations of AI literacy in order to adequately prepare the workforce of the future. Supporting the teaching of AI concepts in the K-12 curriculum requires integrating knowledge from multiple disciplines.

The project will develop and research a series of next generation augmented reality (AR) digital learning labs and incorporate the labs into an existing curriculum, STEM 21. AR has been proposed as an effective means of motivating previously disengaged students through authentic experiences. By focusing the intervention in high schools with a large proportion of underrepresented students1, the project addresses the lack of opportunities for underrepresented youth to be engaged in rigorous STEM learning that incorporates emerging technologies, aligned with 21st century workforce skills.