The NSDL Youth Resources project (NYR) is designed to increase utilization of the NSDL by middle school students and their teachers by adding relevant, high-quality and engaging content. NYR is developing a Youth Online STEM Content-Selection Rubric and controlled vocabulary (CV) that enables NSDL collection owners to add quality content. The project focuses on the quality, accessibility and interactivity of content to determine what student's identify and conceptualize as high-quality online STEM content. In addition, the project focuses on intended uses of this content, and the key vocabulary student's use to find STEM resources. NYR brings together collaborators from formal and informal education across the NSDL community including the Middle School Portal 2; Math and Science Pathways (MSP2); and the Science and Math Informal Learning Education (SMILE) Pathway, as well as NSF ITEST projects. The NYR products constitute important contributions to the NSDL community that informs collection developers as they add resources to their STEM collections. It also enables them to ensure that the resources are easily accessible to students and teachers. Students and teachers are also involved in all aspects of the project's development and dissemination.
