STEM Learning and Research (STELAR) Center

Challenge

To ensure a vital STEM economy, our country must provide effective STEM learning opportunities, inside and outside of school. It is key to improve STEM learning to help K-12 students build the competencies they will need to thrive in the workforce, give students a chance to explore careers in STEM, and prepare students to be the next generation of innovators and inventors.

EDC leads the STEM Learning and Research (STELAR) Center for the National Science Foundation’s Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program. The ITEST program supports the research and development of innovative models for engaging K-12 students in authentic experiences that build their capacity to participate in the STEM and information and communications technology (ICT) workforce of the future. STELAR builds capacity and shares the results of ITEST projects to deepen the impact of the ITEST program.

Key Activities

STELAR builds the capacity of the ITEST community of practice and broader field of STEM education and workforce development through webinars and online meetings, annual principal investigator (PI) meetings, and resources. Through STELAR, EDC offers the following technical assistance (TA) that facilitates ITEST projects’ success:

• Provide technical support that helps ITEST projects develop and articulate innovative models for STEM learning environments
• Synthesize and widely share ITEST projects’ findings nationally to advance knowledge of effective strategies to improve students’ STEM learning and career exploration
• Conduct outreach to expand participation in the ITEST community for individuals from organizations and communities not currently represented in the ITEST portfolio of projects

Our Impact

Since 2003, beginning with our leadership of the ITEST Learning Resource Center and continuing through our leadership of STELAR, EDC has provided highly regarded TA to more than 500 ITEST projects, serving approximately 1,588,363 youth, 63,034 educators and 20,053 parents and caregivers.