Abstract
- Information technology (IT) skills consistent with the National Educational Technology Standards for Students (NETS-S) are often not well integrated with science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) course content. As a result, students make sparse connections between the acquisition and application of IT skills. The USeIT project addresses this problem by training teachers and students to use Squeak Etoys software to model STEM concepts. Novel interfaces developed by the USeIT project have facilitated the integration of sensor probes with the Squeak Etoys environment. Recent USeIT project work extends the interfaces to include device controllers, thus enabling a complete control loop. The enhanced Etoys environment highlights the vital connections between technology, science, engineering, and mathematics and the integrative nature of information technology.