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Prior research has found that teacher reflection is important for both teachers’ professional development and students’ learning, but frequent, effective reflection faces many obstacles. Could an analytics-based reflection tool help address these barriers? Reflecto is a novel teacher-facing tool designed to support teachers in reflecting (after-the-fact) on their classroom practices during sessions when students are engaged with intelligent tutoring systems. Whereas many teacher analytics tools support real-time decision-making in class, Reflecto aims to promote teacher agency through out-of-class teacher-initiated, data-driven exploration of possible trends in their classroom practice. Unlike many other analytics tools, it combines learning analytics and teaching analytics. 

The gap in the area of advanced manufacturing skilled workforce and the efforts in guiding veterans towards STEM careers are merged in the NSF funded project presented in this paper. While most of the products and STEM educational programs focused on a maker concept that are currently available are specifically designed for the young population, at various K-12 grade levels, to increase their interest in STEM and engineering careers, in particular, there is limited availability of such programs to address adult population. The study presented in this paper focuses on developing and implementing a series of workshops for veterans, using bio-inspired robots as a learning platform. The design, making and controlling of bio-inspired robots require knowledge of mechanical, electrical, computer, and material science engineering, and have the potential to spark interest in a wide variety of engineering pathways. The paper discusses the topics covered by the workshops, the scaffolding of the activities, and the assessment conducted on how the bio-inspired robotics activities may influence veterans’ attitude towards advanced manufacturing careers.