EAGER:MAKER: Piloting a BioDesign Maker Space and Curriculum for K-12 STEM Learning

来自罗得岛设计学院的研究人员将创建一个BioDesign Maker Space，为K-12学生和其他学习者提供身临其境的环境，让他们参与动手设计项目，培养生物学和自然系统的工作知识。该空间将利用亲生物设计的策略，包括在自然世界中观察到的特征和模式，以提高学生的注意力，生产力和健康。为空间使用而开发的生物设计课程将探讨如何利用生态系统服务来设计解决空气和水污染以及粮食安全等城市问题的方案。来自地区公立学校的学生将获得在亲生物空间学习的累积好处，以及强调实用、基于探究的设计和设计思维方法的STEM学习方法。这一举措的智力价值在于其以生物为中心的方法来设计和建造学习、生活和工作环境，从而改善人类和环境健康。通过对自然在人类空间中的存在的新视角，以及工作室/创客空间教学法的力量，拟议的努力引入了一种创新的STEM教育方法，将人与自然的联系确定为使学生参与STEM领域不可或缺的一部分，并使他们做好准备迎接社会和环境挑战。该项目是NSF的Maker Dear Colleague Letter（DCL）投资组合（NSF 15-086）的一部分，该投资组合是计算机信息科学工程（CISE），教育和人力资源（EHR）和工程（ENG）董事会的合作投资。

Researchers from the Rhode Island School of Design will create a BioDesign Maker Space, providing an immersive environment for K-12 students and other learners to engage in hands-on design projects that cultivate a working knowledge of biology and natural systems. The space will leverage strategies from biophilic design, including features and patterns observed in the natural world shown to improve student focus, productivity and wellbeing. A BioDesign curriculum, developed for use in the space, will explore the use of ecosystem services to design solutions to urban issues such as air and water pollution and food security. Students from area public schools will receive the cumulative benefits of learning in a biophilic space and an approach to STEM learning that emphasizes practical, inquiry-based, design and design thinking methods. The intellectual merit of this initiative is in its bio-centric approach to the design and construction of learning, living and work environments, leading to improvements in human and environmental health. Through new perspectives on the presence of nature in human spaces, and the power of studio/Makerspace pedagogy, the proposed effort introduces an innovative approach to STEM education that identifies the human-nature connection as integral to engaging students in STEM fields, and preparing them to meet social and environmental challenges. A catalog of BioDesign Maker Space strategies, as well as curriculum modules, will be widely disseminated.This project is a part of NSF's Maker Dear Colleague Letter (DCL) portfolio (NSF 15-086), a collaborative investment of Directorates for Computer & Information Science & Engineering (CISE), Education and Human Resources (EHR) and Engineering (ENG).