The challenge, Maggie Goes to Mars, features a beagle (friendly canine), faced with the need to repair a crucial instrument on the Insight spacecraft that landed on Mars in 2018, in order to allow InSight to continue doing the job it was sent to do -- studying the inner core of Mars. The learning challenge launched in December 2020, with middle…

Mobile learning readiness as a new aspect of technology integration for classroom teachers is confirmed through the findings of this study to be significantly aligned with well-established measures based on older information technologies. The Mobile Learning Readiness Survey (MLRS) generally exhibits the desirable properties of step-wise increases…

Using innovative technologies to study Mars and the sun and other stars is one way to engage learners in learning more about our solar system and how it impacts us on a daily basis. The focus of this paper is to highlight several innovative technologies such as augmented reality and virtual reality that are easily accessible by educators and…

Researchers in this study looked at the effect of content-specific, technology-rich project-based learning activities on EC-8 pre-service teachers' competencies and skills, as well as pre-service teacher's attitudes toward science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Researchers employed a quantitative design involving participants in…

This article describes Energy for ME and Going Green! Middle Schoolers Out to Save the World, two Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education programs with the common goal of improving students' attitudes about scientific careers. The authors represent two project teams, each with funding from the National Science…

The purpose of this paper is to determine whether the changes that were found to occur pre- to post intervention in students' cognitive structures (Mills, 2013; Knezek, Christensen, Tyler-Wood, & Periathiruvadi, 2013) continued to persist two years later. Major findings were: a) semantic perception of science and STEM as a career became more…

In this article the authors present a confirmatory factor analysis of the Teachers' Attitudes Toward Computers (TAC) and the Teachers' Attitudes Toward Information Technology (TAT) scales by Christensen and Knezek (1996, 1998) using large samples from three states. The TAC was reduced from 98 items and nine factors to 35 items and eight factors,…

The Technology Proficiency Self-Assessment (TPSA) questionnaire was administered to 978 elementary and middle school teachers from Mexico City, and 932 elementary and middle school teachers from the Dallas, Texas, metroplex in the USA, in order to examine self-efficacy similarities and differences for technology proficiency self-appraisals in a…