Engaging Secondary Female Students in Ubiquitous Intelligence and Computing through Constructive Learning Environment

PI: Dr. Mei Yang

Co-PIs: Dr. Venkatesan Muthukumar and Dr. Shaoan Zhang

Funding Agency: National Science Foundation Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) Program (Award #: 1949585)

The underrepresentation of female students in computing and engineering fields can be attributed to different factors such as gender stereotypes, unfamiliarity with computing and engineering fields, and geographical regions lacking in opportunities to take STEM and Information and Communication Technologies courses. The project aims to broaden the participation of secondary female students in STEM and Information and Communication Technologies fields by engaging them in ubiquitous intelligence and computing.

Collaborative Proposal GEOPAths: IN Recruiting through Location-based Curriculum and Field and Laboratory Research Experience for High School Students, Teachers and Undergraduates

PI: Dr. Pamela Burnley

Co-PIs: Dr. Ganging Jiang, Dr. Shichun Huang, Dr. Michael Nicholl, Dr. Tina Vo, and Dr. Henry Sun (Desert Research Institute)

Funding Agency: National Science Foundation Pathways into the Earth, Ocean, Polar, and Atmospheric & Geospace Sciences (GEOPAths) Program (Award #: 2119989)

Improvements to STEM K-12 education and increasing the number and diversity of young people headed into STEM careers have been identified as national priorities. This project seeks to address aspects of both of these priorities in the context of Geoscience education and workforce diversity. The project encourages high school students, including many from historically excluded groups, to become involved in the geosciences or other STEM disciplines by:

  1. Engaging them in lesson plans developed by participating teachers to explain the local landscape and natural environment in which they live,
  2. Offering them opportunities to participate in geoscience research projects at 51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ, and
  3. Building personal connections between students and faculty at 51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ.

Cultivating Tomorrow's Engineers through the Entertainment and Hospitality Landscape

PI: Dr. Emma Regentova

Co-PIs: Dr. Venkatesan Muthukumar, Dr. Jonathan Hilpert, and Dr. Si Jung Kim

Funding Agency: National Science Foundation Advancing Informal Science Learning (AISL) Program (Award #: 2115331)

This project aims to foster the development of STEM identity among a diverse group of middle school students and, in turn, motivate them to pursue STEM interests and careers. Vegas STEM Lab, led by a team of investigators from 51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ, employs a mix of online and on-site activities to introduce students to engineering methods in the context of the entertainment and hospitality industry that is the lifeblood of Las Vegas. Investigators collaborate with local resorts, multimedia designers, and arts institutions to offer field experiences for students to interview, interact with, and learn from local experts. The Lab helps youth overcome prevailing beliefs of STEM as boring and difficult, boost their confidence as STEM-capable individuals, and expose them to the exciting STEM careers available in their hometown.

Collaborative Research: Creating and Testing Data Science Learning Tools for Secondary Students with Disabilities

PI: Dr. Andy Stefik

Funding Agency: National Science Foundation Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) Program (Award #: 2048356)

The main goal of this collaborative project is to create and evaluate a universally accessible data science infrastructure for high-school-aged learners, with a focus on students with disabilities. Data science is critical in the development of industry-relevant computational thinking skills. Computing initiatives, including data science, are rapidly growing at the preschool-12th grade level because of the compelling career pathways that data science skills provide. A careful investigation into already-at-scale data science initiatives shows that such tools and curriculum are largely not accessible to individuals with disabilities, nor do they have a strong foundation of human factors evidence supporting their designs. These issues are crucial and must be resolved for workforce equity and a diverse science, technology, engineering, and mathematics pipeline.