Take Flight

Poster

Take Flight is a free adaptable school curriculum program developed by Learning Scientists at CAST, the organization that founded Universal Design for Learning (UDL), funded by the National Science Foundation.

Through Take Flight, teachers middle school teacher have access to the curriculum, tools and resources they need to integrate drones into their STEM curriculum to help their students develop STEM skills and increase their motivation to pursue STEM careers. 

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Build a Better Book Teen Internships: Connecting Technical Work to Social Needs

Poster

The Build a Better Book Teen Internship Program engages teens from underrepresented groups in an empathy-driven, professionally structured engineering design internship focused on the design and fabrication of accessible products for children who are blind or visually impaired. Participating teens gain technical and STEM workplace skills, and broaden their perception of engineering as a social and collaborative discipline with potential to improve people’s lives.

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Mixed Reality Based Interactive Cybersecurity Education for Middle School Students

Poster

The project is guided by three goals: (1) iteratively design a set of concrete and interactive MR activities addressing key cybersecurity concepts (e.g., steganography, phishing, and firewalls) with teacher and student input throughout the design process; (2) increase student knowledge of key cybersecurity concepts, understanding of the importance of cybersecurity, and interest in cybersecurity careers; and (3) produce a set of design principles for MR activities in computing.

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Transforming Preschoolers’ Spatial Orientation: Leveraging New Technologies for Learning in Early Childhood Classrooms and at Home

Poster

The development of spatial orientation (SO) is a strong predictor of math skills and later school success and academic achievement. Thus, fostering SO skills before children enter formal schooling provides them with a sound foundation for later mathematical learning. Our project is titled Transforming Preschoolers' Spatial Orientation: Leveraging New Technologies for Learning in Early Childhood Classrooms and at Home.

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SYNTHESIS: A quantitative meta-analysis and qualitative synthesis on the impacts of informal STEM and ICT programs on cognitive and social-emotional outcomes of youth participants

Poster

This project is a synthesis study to investigate the effectiveness of informal STEM and ICT programs to maximize impact and broaden participation of youth participants in STEM pathways. We focus on two research questions: (1) How and to what extent do informal, out-of-school time (OST) STEM and ICT learning experiences impact K-12 participants’ awareness, interest, and engagement in STEM majors and STEM careers?

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AI4GA: Developing Artificial Intelligence Competencies, Career Awareness, and Interest in Georgia Middle School Teachers and Students

Poster

We are co-designing and piloting a 9-week AI elective for Georgia middle school students with 8 teachers. Our co-design process is scaffolding our ability to truly design curriculum collaboratively. Through this project we aim to understand the types of resources teachers need to confidently teach AI and how to scaffold student learning and create engaging AI learning experiences. 

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Engaging Native American Students in STEM Career Development through a Culturally-Responsive After-School Program Using Virtual Reality Environments and 3D Printing

Poster

The project will develop and research an after-school program that is designed to increase the STEM career interests and motivations of Native American middle-school students. Students will use digital technologies, including virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and 3D printing, to solve spatial design problems presented through the project’s culturally responsive, problem-based learning education modules.

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