Dr. Daniel Haworth teaches high schoolers how fuel cells work. Dave Shelly--Campus Photography

"Kids like anything that moves, burns or blows up," says Dr. Daniel Haworth, Penn State associate professor of mechanical engineering. That might explain the popularity of Haworth's National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded Graduate Research and Education in Advanced Transportation Technologies (GREATT) program, which aims to excite K-12 students in the sciences.

Focusing on transportation safety issues, Haworth and graduate fellows provide teachers with educational tools, and students with demonstrations involving everything from hybrid electric vehicles to low-speed crash tests--to help teach science, technology, engineering and math. Established in 1999, the program has reached hundreds of teachers and thousands of students.

"NSF funds the project because there are fewer students continuing on with math and science," explained Haworth.

Students like its hands-on nature: "My students saw the science they were studying as having importance to the world outside of school," said Steelton-Highspire High School science teacher Larry Fenton.

Dr. Kay Wijekumar teaches a student how to use “Intelligent Tutor.” Photo by Lori Johnson

For fourth and fifth graders, the task of transitioning from reading simple storybooks to expository writing can be tricky. "It's hard for them to figure out what's most important," says Dr. Bonnie Meyer, professor of educational psychology at Penn State University Park. And getting constant guidance is not always possible.

Enter "Intelligent Tutor," a computer program designed to help children learn to read by teaching them to focus on how text is organized. The program features a realistic-looking talking head, or "agent," who speaks to the student about how to read and remember information while working through different passages on screen. Meyer and Penn State Beaver Assistant Professor of Information Sciences and Technology Dr. Kay Wijekumar--along with a team of faculty, students and tutors of the learning strategy--developed the program with a $1.2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education.

Wijekumar reports that children helped refine the program with suggestions during testing. "We incorporated writings on sports and famous contemporary figures in addition to textbook passages to help hold their interest and make the program more balanced," she said, adding that some of the testers started to relate so much to the brown-haired "agent" that they spoke back to him.

This year the Quaker Valley School District in Pittsburgh--whose four schools are Blue Ribbon Schools of Distinction--has incorporated into its curriculum the program, which includes about 50 lessons.

"When I heard about [Intelligent Tutor], I was extremely interested and encouraged by its potential," said Dr. Jeanne Johnson, principal at the school district's Osborne Elementary School. "Students are motivated by hands-on activities, and they are more willing to go online to practice something that they don't want to do with pencil and paper in the classroom."

Next year the Sharon and Farrell school districts, which surround Penn State Shenango, will introduce it to their students.