The CryptoClub: Extending Learning with Student-Generated Tutorials

2013 - 2019

In existing CryptoClub after school programs, middle school students use mathematics to make and break secret codes. The CryptoClub website has tools for encrypting, messages to crack, treasure hunts and other activities. In this project, the learning in fifteen Crypto Clubs is extended by having the students generate tutorials that explain how they solve mathematics and cryptographic problems. The flexibility of the after school setting provides the opportunity to experiment with content and technology.

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The Eyes Say it All: Using web page design and eye-tracking technology to learn STEM concepts, research skills, and human factors

2013 - 2018

Tuskegee University engages 150 students in grades 8-12 in three-week summer workshops featuring STEM content, web-design, the multi-disciplinary area of human-computer interaction, and career study seminars/webinars. Students design a website incorporating STEM content, and then use a technology called eye-tracker to test the effectiveness of their communication. The project design combines three aspects of best practices in learning and extends them to a technology-based pedagogy: writing-to-learn, learning-to-write, and project-based learning.

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Scaling Up Success: Using MATE's ROV Competitions to Build a Collaborative Learning Community that Fuels the Ocean STEM Workforce Pipeline

2013 - 2021

The Marine Advanced Technology Education (MATE) Center at the Monterey Community College in collaboration with Washington State University is engaging in a scale-up study of the remote operated vehicle (ROV) program to new audiences of middle and high school students and teachers. Using a train the trainers approach, the MATE ROV project is conducting at least 45 regional professional development workshops in 15 regions for a total of 500 teachers.

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STEM Learning and Research (STELAR) Center: A Resource Center to Support Research and Development on STEM Careers

2013 - 2025

This Learning and Research Center will advance efforts of the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program to better understand and promote practices that increase students' motivations and capacities to pursue careers in fields of science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) by providing technical support to all ITEST projects, facilitating national dissemination of ITEST project outcomes, and further developing the ITEST research and development community.

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Innovative Flight Simulation Experiences for Students and Teachers

2009 - 2014

Tuskegee University proposes to use a low-cost flight simulation environment to enhance learning physics and mathematics for students in grades 8-12 in a rural community in Macon County schools in Alabama. It outlines a development strategy for module development that engages undergraduates and teachers in the development process followed by teacher implementation including teacher training and student workshops. The proposal design calls for adapting an innovative and successful strategy for engaging and teaching undergraduates to grades 8-12.

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National Robotics in 4-H: Workforce Skills for the 21st Century

2008 - 2014

Robotics and GPS/GIS in 4-H: Workforce Skills for the 21st Century is a-five year scale-up project to use 4-H clubs to prepare middle school youth for the STEM workplace. The project builds on and extends an existing research-based ITEST project by developing and testing new national curricula to introduce basic technology skills, foster problem solving and inquiry skills, and encourage teamwork.

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STEM Digital Images in Geoscience Investigations: Teaching Analysis with Light (STEM DIGITAL)

2010 - 2015

This project will enable high school and middle school STEM teachers and students to conduct environmental research aided by the analysis of images from digital cameras, scanners, and the Internet. The project explores how digital image analysis can be applied to environmental quality issues that can readily be introduced into STEM courses, engaging students and encouraging them to think about related careers. The project will develop research agendas that will employ a variety of image analysis tools.

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Barcoding Life's Matrix: Engaging Students as Citizen Scientists in the Barcode of Life Initiative

2011 - 2015

The Barcode of Life Initiative (BOLI) is an international biodiversity collaboration that creates a genetic encyclopedia of Earth's plants and animals using short DNA sequences that uniquely identify species groups. The goal of this strategies project is to interest students in STEM careers by engaging them in an international project to provide identification of biological species.

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UAB-Birmingham Consortium for Advanced Education in Computer Science

2008 - 2012

The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) ITEST Youth Based Project will provide an in depth computer experience for 120 10th and 11th grade students and 12 teachers from minority and underserved schools in the Birmingham area. The program will initiate the students into visualization programming through a summer experience with Alice, and then during the school year allow them to explore the linear algebra basis behind this program.

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