Collaborative Research: Center for Mobile Hands-On STEM

由于支持学生实验室所需的资源，实验很少有足够的时间让学生自己探索概念。实验室设备也不能在规定的时间之外提供给学生，因为它需要太多的课程，在没有监督的情况下很难使用，而且在某些情况下太脆弱，很容易损坏。然而，电子小型化的持续革命使便携式，低成本，强大的实验平台成为可能，这些平台允许学生随时随地无处不在的实践经验-与校园或在线课堂上的讲座相结合，作为带回家的项目作业，或者当学生想要尝试自己的想法时。无处不在的动手实验使一种新的教学模式，促进理论，设计和实践的更完整的整合。移动的动手STEM（MOHS）项目是伦斯勒理工学院，格鲁吉亚理工学院，弗吉尼亚理工学院，奥尔巴尼大学，罗斯-休曼理工学院，霍华德大学和摩根州立大学之间的合作。该项目正在为移动的动手学习经验开发标准化评估工具，以衡量学生的学习情况及其是否易于教师采用。该项目正在建立一个由开发人员、用户、行业合作伙伴和商业设备供应商组成的实践社区，以便在大量不同的学校和各种便携式实验平台之间共享信息。在这一实践社区的基础上，该项目正在为目前使用移动的实践教育的教员和新教员举办讲习班，向他们介绍移动的实践学习。这种积极的传播策略使项目能够深入了解采用的障碍，并有助于形成广泛传播的下一步。

Due to the resources required to support student labs, experiments are rarely designed with sufficient time for students to explore concepts on their own. Nor is the laboratory equipment available to students outside of proscribed hours because it is needed for too many classes, is too hard to use without supervision, and is, in some cases, too fragile and easily damaged. However, the continued revolution in electronic miniaturization is making possible portable, low-cost, robust experimental platforms that allow for ubiquitous hands-on experiences for students anywhere and anytime - integrated with lectures in the classroom on campus or online, as assignments in take-home project, or when students want to try out their own ideas. Ubiquitous hands-on experiments enable a new pedagogical model that promotes a more complete integration of theory, design, and practice.The Mobile Hands-On STEM (MOHS) project is a collaboration among Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, University of Albany, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, Howard University, and Morgan State University. The project is developing standardized assessment tools for the mobile hands-on-learning experiences in order to measure student learning as well as its ease of adoption by instructors. The project is building a community of practice composed of developers, users, industry partners, and commercial device suppliers in order to share information across a large, diverse collection of schools and across a diverse set of portable experimental platforms. Building on this community of practice, the project is holding workshops for both instructors who currently use mobile hands-on education and for new instructors to introduce them to mobile hands-on learning. This proactive dissemination strategy gives the project insight into the barriers to adoption and helps form the next steps toward wide dissemination.