SciGirls Strategies: Using Gender-Equitable Teaching Strategies and STEM Video Narratives to Engage Girls in Nontraditional STEM Fields

News
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STELAR congratulates ITEST PI Rita Karl and project staff members Bradley McLain and Alicia Santiago of SciGirls Strategies: Gender Equitable Teaching Practices in Career and Technical Education Pathways for High School Girls for their recent publication in Connected Science Learning! The project is featured in the second issue of the journal, which is focued on professional development experiences. SciGirls Strategies appears as an "Emerging

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POD Program Fuels Student Enthusiasm for STEM and GIS

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Congratulations to ITEST PI Lori-Rubino Hare and her Power of Data colleagues on their article in Directions Magazine, the geospatial industry’s oldest and most respected source of information and news. The below is a brief excerpt, be sure to read the full article: http://www.directionsmag.com/entry/pod-program-fuels-student-enthusiasm… 27,000 middle and high school students rolling their eyes as they are asked the

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Education and The Barcode of Life (eBOL)

Curricular Materials

The Education and Barcode of Life (eBOL) Community Web Portal provides educators with the key tools needed to bridge biodiversity research and education, and place their students at the nexus of science, nature, and technology.

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Active Learning Approaches to Integrating Technology into Middle School Science Curriculum Based on 21st Century Skills

Publication

Chapter in X.Ge, D. Ifenthaler, & J.M. Spector (Eds.). Full Steam Ahead: Emerging Technologies for STEAM. New York: Springer Academic.Book description: This theory-to-practice guide offers leading-edge ideas for wide-scale curriculum reform in sciences, technology, engineering, the arts, and mathematics--the STEAM subjects. Chapters emphasize the critical importance of current and emerging digital technologies in bringing STEM education up to speed and implementing changes to curricula at the classroom level. Of particular interest are the diverse ways of integrating the liberal arts into STEM

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Coupling Geospatial and Computer Modeling Technologies to Engage High School Students in Learning Urban Ecology

Publication

Chapter 11 in M. Urban and D. Falvo (Eds) Improving K-12 STEM Education Outcomes through Technological Integration. IGI Global: Hershey, PA.Book description: The application of technology in classroom settings has equipped educators with innovative tools and techniques for effective teaching practice. Integrating digital technologies at the elementary and secondary levels helps to enrich the students' learning experience and maximize competency in the areas of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. "Improving K-12 STEM Education Outcomes through Technological Integration" focuses

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To Customize or Not to Customize? Exploring Science Teacher Customization in an Online Lesson Portal

Publication

New technologies are increasingly giving science teachers the ability to access and customize science lessons. However, there is substantial debate in the literature about whether and under what conditions teacher customization benefit student learning. In this study, we examined teacher customization of inquiry-based science lessons from an online lesson portal. We found that students who completed teacher-customized lessons had greater improvements in science content understanding than students who completed non-customized lessons. To expand upon this finding, we examined four case studies

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Confronting Barriers to Teaching Elementary Science: After-School Science Teaching Experiences for Preservice Teachers

Publication

This qualitative study examines the transition of eight elementary preservice teachers into student teaching after participating in a science methods course that included a significant amount of teaching after-school science to elementary grade students. These eight participants had a chance to practice teaching inquiry-based science and to reform their own perceptions of science teaching and learning through an eight-week after-school science program situated within their elementary science methods course. Data were collected through observations, reflections, and participant interviews over

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Curricular Influences on Female Afterschool Facilitators’ Computer Science Interests and Career Choices

Publication

Underrepresented populations such as women, African-Americans, and Latinos/as often come to STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) careers by less traditional paths than White and Asian males. To better understand how and why women might shift toward STEM, particularly computer science, careers, we investigated the education and career direction of afterschool facilitators, primarily women of color in their twenties and thirties, who taught Build IT, an afterschool computer science curriculum for middle school girls. Many of these women indicated that implementing Build IT

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Preparing Teachers to Use GIS: The Impact of a Hybrid Professional Development Program on Teachers’ Use of GIS

Publication

This article reports the findings of a 3-year study of a hybrid professional development program designed to prepare science and mathematics teachers to implement GIS in their classrooms. The study was conducted as part of the CoastLines Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers project funded by the National Science Foundation. Three cohorts of teachers participated in the program, with each participant receiving 40 h of synchronous online instruction and 80 h of in-person instruction and support over an 8-month period. Data from surveys of participants both before and after

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National Science Foundation STEM + Computing Partnerships (STEM+C) Program Solicitation

Opportunities

As computing has become an integral part of the practice of modern science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), the STEM + Computing Partnerships program seeks to address the urgent need to prepare students from the early grades through high school in the essential skills, competencies, and dispositions needed to succeed in a computationally-dependent world.

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