NSF FF: Planning: Student AI Learning Innovation League for STEM Education

Award ID: 2627808

This FINDERS Foundry award improves STEM education and educator development by producing a model for instructional material, educator supports, and implementation guidance for informal and formal implementation of a validated model for AI literacy. The project engages learners, educators, and families in in the co-design of materials and assessments which improve STEM literacy and strengthen learner agency, confidence, persistence, and adaptability. The model also supports learners in a competitive STEM workforce by giving students early experience with AI literacy, collaboration, communication, entrepreneurship, and human-centered technology design. By building confidence and curiosity, the project aims to create a national model for studentdesigned AI learning, supporting strong STEM skills, ethical awareness, and future workforce readiness. This FINDERS Foundry award integrates learning science, metacognition, and student-centered design into a coordinated in-school and out-of-school model for AI literacy. By examining how students can understand human learning and machine reasoning together and then applying that knowledge to co-design AI-supported tools students help themselves and their peers become more effective learners, removing siloes from AI literacy as a stand alone skill acquisition framework. Results of the project generate evidence about feasibility, usability, implementation conditions, and student outcomes, including AI literacy, metacognitive awareness, data safety and privacy practices, collaborative problem-solving, and attitudes toward AI-supported learning. These findings will inform a scalable framework for future research and development on student-created AI learning tools and human-centered AI education. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Program Director: Lindsay Portnoy