Lauren Zito
Papers
5
Total Citations
66
H-Index
4
About
Lauren Zito is an educational researcher whose work centers on democratizing access to engineering and computing for all students, particularly at the middle school level. Her primary research areas include transdisciplinary curriculum design, teacher professional development, and the integration of robotics into non-technical core subjects. Zito’s major contribution is the development and evaluation of the Arts & Bots Math and Science Partnership program, which embeds creative technological fluency projects—like robotics—into required English, health, and other non-STEM classes. This approach counters the self-selection bias of elective programs, ensuring that students of all abilities and interests engage with engineering. Her most-cited paper (27 citations) details training teachers for this integration, while a second highly cited work (20 citations) introduces an assessment tool for measuring middle school students’ attitudes toward robotics. Zito’s research demonstrates that robotics activities can build student confidence, creative problem-solving, and technological fluency. She also contributed to the design of Flutter, a novel sensor-driven robotics kit for elementary students, developed through participatory design with teachers. Her work has been recognized for its practical impact on broadening participation in STEM.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
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