As the construction industry gears toward adopting data sensing technologies, there is a demand for creating and sustaining a workforce with skills for implementing the technologies and analyzing the resulting data to support decision-making. It is also essential to improve awareness of this Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) career option among all K-12 students, develop their understanding of the applications of data sensing technologies and improve their computational thinking skills in manipulating and using data.

This collaborative project is an informal science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) intervention that will uniquely combine partnerships between STEM and education faculty at the University of Houston (UH) with mentorship from the participants’ families and UH STEM undergraduate mentors to provide hands-on STEM experiences to fourth- and fifth-grade Students of Color. The project aims to increase awareness of and interest in STEM careers as a way to broaden participation in STEM careers.

Quantum information science (QIS) is imperative to economic and national security, commerce, and technology.  Development of a "quantum smart" workforce needs to begin before college. The logical venue for exposure to quantum might be a physics course, but numerous K-12 students attend schools where physics is not offered. Since most students will not major in physics, it is vital to expose K-12 students to quantum concepts that are relevant to everyday experiences with credit card security, phones, computers, and basic technology.

To compete in a continually changing and increasingly technology-focused career landscape, students will need a deep, conceptual, and applied understanding of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Yet, many students, especially students from underrepresented populations, perceive  STEM to be disconnected from their interests and career aspirations. New curricular approaches are needed, especially in mathematics, that increase students’ career interest and engagement in STEM, while also supporting the learning of rich and targeted STEM content.

This project will advance efforts of the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program to better understand and promote practices that increase student motivations and capacities to pursue careers in fields of science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM). For these students with visual impairments (VI), the possibility of a future in astronomy, or any science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) field, seems daunting.

This project will accomplish the exploratory groundwork needed to create Web Adventures Interactive (WAI), a set of interactive educational game websites, to study the effectiveness of the interactive features on science learning, motivation, and interest in science careers.

This project will advance efforts of the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program to better understand and promote practices that increase student motivations and capacities to pursue careers in fields of science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) by developing and testing an intervention system to engage students in meaningful STEM problem posing and solving and by providing an on-line tool to assist teachers in guiding the process.

This project will advance the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program's efforts to better understand and promote practices that increase student motivations and capacities to pursue careers in fields of science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM). The STEM Engagement through Mentoring (SEM) project adds to the current research landscape in two ways. First, it relies on an intentionally designed partnership among the University of Houston's College of Education, College of Natural Science & Mathematics, and College of Engineering.