Funded by the National Science Foundation, the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program was established in 2003 to address the looming shortage of technology workers in the United States. ITEST engages students and teachers in authentic, hands-on learning experiences in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (commonly referred to as 'STEM' or 'SET' ). ITEST helps students and teachers build the skills needed to succeed in a science- and technology-driven world.
As of early 2012, the program is in its ninth year. Over 195 individual projects across 43 states have been funded. It has impacted:
- over 225,800 students, grades 6-12
- over 8,000 teachers
- over 3,000 parents and caregivers
The ITEST Learning Resource Center (ITEST LRC) at Education Development Center assists the projects in building bridges between formal and informal learning by facilitating an inclusive community of practice. Findings and lessons learned are shared nationally to improve policy and practice. Visit the website with the link below, or view a 2 page overview (Snapshot).
(1) http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=5467 (2) http://itestlrc.edc.org/ (3) http://itestlrc.edc.org/sites/itestlrc.edc.org/files/Snapshot_2012_Final.pdf
Famous quotes containing the words innovative, technology, experiences and/or students:
“A conventional good read is usually a bad read, a relaxing bath in what we know already. A true good read is surely an act of innovative creation in which we, the readers, become conspirators.”
—Malcolm Bradbury (b. 1932)
“One can prove or refute anything at all with words. Soon people will perfect language technology to such an extent that they’ll be proving with mathematical precision that twice two is seven.”
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“So while it is true that children are exposed to more information and a greater variety of experiences than were children of the past, it does not follow that they automatically become more sophisticated. We always know much more than we understand, and with the torrent of information to which young people are exposed, the gap between knowing and understanding, between experience and learning, has become even greater than it was in the past.”
—David Elkind (20th century)
“I know that I will always be expected to have extra insight into black texts—especially texts by black women. A working-class Jewish woman from Brooklyn could become an expert on Shakespeare or Baudelaire, my students seemed to believe, if she mastered the language, the texts, and the critical literature. But they would not grant that a middle-class white man could ever be a trusted authority on Toni Morrison.”
—Claire Oberon Garcia, African American scholar and educator. Chronicle of Higher Education, p. B2 (July 27, 1994)