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. 

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.

Project Overview: Advance robot-mediated learning in schools and investigate how collaborative tele-robots can facilitate optimal learning experiences.

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.

Communities of color across the nation face increasing challenges with affordable access to safe drinking water. Using data science to explore why, where and how this is happening, and what is being done about it, provides a powerful vehicle for the engagement of students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), and to help develop a digital work force with appropriate representation from the affected communities.

We create and study virtual simulations of peer collaboration in STEM fields, designed for youth in informal learning environments. Practice with the simulations will help teens from underrepresented groups build collaborative skills and career interest in STEM fields, especially those that use mathematics and require strong teamwork.

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. 

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.

This project will develop and study measures of culturally responsive-sustaining education (CR-SE) in computer science (CS)—providing vital tools and evidence to inform the growing CS education field.

This project creates community-based engineering design experiences in advanced manufacturing aimed to build STEM content knowledge, identity and interest in STEM careers among underrepresented rural middle school (grades 6-8) students. The project also explores the impact of professional development on rural middle school teachers' STEM content knowledge, self-efficacy and awareness of STEM careers.