SBIR Phase I: Screencast Integration with Scientific Probeware Systems

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This SBIR Phase I project is focused on helping students demonstrate critical thinking and reasoning skills for hands-on activities involving scientific probeware systems without requiring writing proficiency. A challenge facing educators is to ensure that instruction covers important content in a way that can reach all students. When teaching STEM concepts (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math), it is essential to provide opportunities to investigate questions about the world that students encounter in daily life in much the same way that scientists and mathematicians do; however, many students do not have the writing proficiency to express the complexity of their observations, become frustrated and lose interest in STEM subjects. This project is intended to increase the success rate at which students demonstrate, explain, and document their knowledge when working with probeware experiments. This project has the potential to help students to enjoy scientific experimentation and develop an interest in science strong motivators for pursuing opportunities in STEM careers. The success of this project will support the significant improvement of science and engineering education, and help the United States to increase the number of students who enter STEM fields to meet the rapidly expanding demand for scientists and engineers in the future. This technology, when commercialized, will provide school districts a student-centered, curriculum-agnostic learning and assessment tool that incorporates an innovative screencasting tool. Its use will support students? analysis and mastery of complex STEM concepts and practices when participating in experiments using scientific probeware, without requiring writing proficiency. The goal of the research is to develop a portable software tool that enables real time student documentation and effective teacher assessment of students? probeware STEM activities. The resulting learning tool will function as a portable application housed on a flash drive, capture student explanations and demonstrations in real time, and allow playback operation on electronic devices with a display screen without the need for an Internet connection. This portability will provide support for students during probeware experiments, then allow them to revisit an entire lab experience in real or accelerated time within or away from school. The innovation will enable tangible documentation for the types of science skills and practices that embody the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Phase I research will focus on demonstrating the feasibility and functionality for a portable application that builds upon prior NSF-funded core technology, measure the impact of the innovation on elementary, middle, and high school students? knowledge integration, explanatory behaviors, and science practices, and demonstrate its feasibility for using the device in student assessment.