The CISTEME365 project headquartered at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign hypothesizes that experiences with cutting-edge technology must exist all year-round to effect significant improvement. Thus, the fundamental project goal is to enable middle and high school Underrepresented Students (URSs) in STEM (female, underrepresented minority, and/or low-income) to participate in sustained, intensive, hands-on STEM learning experiences.

This poster describes our NSF ITEST Project on culturally responsive STEM education and the power of students' stories about STEM in their homes and communities to not only engage students more deeply in their STEM learning, but also to help students, eductors and parents expand their understandings of where STEM can be found in the world and valued knowledge that exists in all communities.  

This project aims to adapt the Geospatial Semester for Career and Technical Education in a large urban district through effective teacher professional development and lesson design.

A STEM education program at the interface of biology and engineering, namely sensory biology and robotics. This program for high school students and in-service teachers engages them in activities that examine the interrelatedness between science and engineering using innovative technologies.

The Role Models in Elementary Engineering Education has been studying the interactions between elementary students and outreach ambassadors (undergraduate engineering students) in informal outreach setting.  The project used surveys, interviews and classroom video recordings to expand our understandings about how engineering outreach is enacted and how students' perceive that experience.  The findings to date have expanded knowledge about what matters to students and the role they see ambassadors filling.  The project has produced new survey instruments as well as tools that can support tra

A project designed to identify strategies to recruit, train, and retain Latinas into post-graduate education, STEM majors, and STEM careers.

This one page summary presents the work over the past year as we have transitioned from home-based instructional settings back to in-person and hybrid-settings in the context of engaging our partner youth in learnign about coding, transparent soil, and novel technologies.

This project aims to advance science-based STEM+C education and teacher training models with the addition of location-based curriculum for teachers and students in computer science topics and STEM+C career exploration.

This project takes a Civic Science approach to STEM, i.e., students engaging in science to promote the public good. Classes of students from minoritized backgrounds collaborate with community partners to identify, study, and act on environmental problems in their urban communities.

The WATERS project increases student interest in STEM careers while building environmental awareness about watersheds.