Careers

Crime Scene IT is funded by the National Science Foundation under the program called Information Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST). ITEST was established by the National Science Foundation in direct response to the concern about shortages of information technology workers in the United States. The ITEST program funds projects that provide opportunities for both school-age children and teachers to build the skills and knowledge needed to advance their study and to function and contribute in a technologically rich society. The ITEST program also funds a National Learning Resource Center to support, synthesize and disseminate the learning from the program to a wider audience.

Crime Scene IT will address the need for young people of diverse backgrounds in the IT professions. The National Science Foundation reports that in 2000 only 4.8 percent of all computer scientists were African American and 2.4 percent Hispanic (NSF 04-317, 2000). The NY State Department of Labor (Occupational Employment Statistics Survey, 2000) projects that computer and mathematical occupations will achieve 32.3% growth in the period of 2000-2010. Three of the projected top five fastest growing occupations in the New York City region are IT occupations.

New York City's teachers need to provide students with experiences that will encourage IT skills and interest in IT careers in order to fill these jobs. Simply providing public schools with computers and giving teachers professional development on computer skills and applications of information technology is not a robust enough solution. Teachers often don't have the technology tools necessary to implement activities. If they do have the tools, they often don't have the time to create the lessons and units that marry the tools and new IT skills with the specific STEM content they are committed to teaching. If they do have the time and the expertise to develop new material, they may not have administrative buy-in to deviate from prescribed standardized test-focused curriculum. (Office of Education Technology, 1999)

CSIT will be a national model for the creative integration of IT skills-learning into curriculum-based standards-compliant curriculum modules. Teachers, New York Hall of Science (NYHOS) staff specialists, and forensic science and IT experts will participate in the development of these resources assuring that they both meet classroom needs and address practical, career-based applications.