Technology

Integrated STEM education (iSTEM) is recognized for its potential to improve students’ scientific and mathematical knowledge, as well as to nurture positive attitudes toward STEM, which are essential for motivating students to consider STEM-related careers. While prior studies have examined the relationship between specific iSTEM activities or curricula and changes in student attitudes, research is lacking on how the aspects of iSTEM are operationalized and their influence on shifts in student attitudes towards STEM, especially when considering the role of demographic factors. Addressing this gap, our study applied multilevel modeling to analyze how different iSTEM aspects and demographic variables predict changes in student attitudes.

Students benefit from dialogs about their explanations of complex scientific phenomena, and middle school science teachers cannot realistically provide all the guidance they need. We study ways to extend generative teacher–student dialogs to more students by using AI tools.

In this brief, The Potential of Using AI to Improve Student Learning in STEM: Now and in the Future, the authors examine the promise of AI as learning partner for students that offers personalized support and scaffolding.

In this CADRE brief, the authors Jeremy Price and Shuchi Grover explore the exciting possibilities and critical challenges of generative AI (GenAI) for STEM teaching. They examine how GenAI may shape STEM classrooms in the near future and identify promising trajectories for integrating GenAI into STEM teaching, including the potential for personalized teaching approaches. This brief delves into the current state of GenAI research and development around five dimensions of STEM teaching: Justice, equity, and inclusion; curricular decision-making and lesson planning; pedagogy and instruction; assessing student work and progress; and teacher learning and leadership.

Throughout the brief, the authors reaffirm the essential role of teachers and emphasize the need to include teachers in the design, development, and study of GenAI tools that are intended to benefit STEM education. They also highlight areas of critical concern, urging those involved in research and development to prioritize GenAI efforts in addressing the substantive problems of practice central to STEM teaching with an overarching aim to create more inclusive learning environments.

Teachers play a central role in designing structures which encourage the development of students’ individual creative capacity and the classroom’s sense of community. We offer considerations for designing engaging and collaborative experiences in elementary and intermediate computing education.

Engineering projects, such as designing a solar farm that converts solar radiation shined on the Earth into electricity, engage students in addressing real-world challenges by learning and applying geoscience knowledge. To improve their designs, students benefit from frequent and informative feedback as they iterate. However, teacher attention may be limited or inadequate, both during COVID-19 and beyond. We present Aladdin, a web-based computer-aided design (CAD) platform for engineering design with a built-in artificial intelligence teaching assistant (AITA). We also present two curriculum units (Solar Energy Science and Solar Farm Design), where students explore the Sun-Earth relationship and optimize the energy output and yearly profit of a solar farm with the help of the AITA.

Engineering projects, such as designing a solar farm that converts solar radiation shined on the Earth into electricity, engage students in addressing real-world challenges by learning and applying geoscience knowledge. To improve their designs, students benefit from frequent and informative feedback as they iterate. However, teacher attention may be limited or inadequate, both during COVID-19 and beyond. We present Aladdin, a web-based computer-aided design (CAD) platform for engineering design with a built-in artificial intelligence teaching assistant (AITA). We also present two curriculum units (Solar Energy Science and Solar Farm Design), where students explore the Sun-Earth relationship and optimize the energy output and yearly profit of a solar farm with the help of the AITA.

StoryMaker is a powerful learning platform developed by PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs to build the next generation of media creators through media-making projects. These lesson plans and activities provide a strong foundation of storytelling and journalism skills to help students gain confidence, find their voice, and discover their place in the world.

This collection provides K-12 math and science curriculum units and practice guides authored by INE educators, as well as culturally responsive resources for educators and counselors.

This site provides three synchronous and six asynchronous culturally responsive lessons for integrating engineering in elementary classes.