Trans-disciplinary Education in Biology and Engineering Technology

该项目的重点是增加STEM的多样性，增加学生和教师在生物和工程领域的经验和能力。将开发和研究生物学和工程学交叉的综合教育项目--生物有机体和自主机器人中行为的感官指导。该项目将包括：(A)为12年级新生和在职中等教育教师提供为期三周的综合暑期方案；(B)为12年级学生开设大学学分课程和讲习班；以及(C)毕业后进行带薪暑期实习。在这些项目中，学生们将进行亲身实践的生物学调查，以了解动物如何感知和对环境做出反应。然后，他们将把科学原理与真正的工程技术结合起来，以动物为基础建造机器人并对其进行编程。机器人将配备传感器和行为，并执行学生设计的任务。随后的实习将有助于进一步将学生的生物和工程综合知识与现实世界的经验联系起来。在动物/机器人感知运动系统的框架下创建这个项目尤其及时，因为生物学和机器人正在产生令人兴奋的新兴技术，并且是主要的增长行业。该项目将推动学生和教师创新技术体验(ITEST)计划的努力，以更好地了解和促进提高学生在科学、技术、工程或数学(STEM)领域追求职业生涯的动机和能力的实践。研究旨在(1)提高STEM领域中未被充分代表的群体的意识和参与；(2)提高对生物、工程和技术领域和职业的兴趣、态度、知识和自我效能；以及(3)开发一种模式来教育学生和培训教师，使他们了解科学和工程之间的相互关系。该项目的形成性和总结性评价方法，包括调查、重点小组和对讲习班和实习经验的开放式评价，将用于研究这些问题。这项研究将有助于对综合STEM课程以及这些课程如何支持学生培养和保持在科学领域学习和工作的兴趣提供新的见解。该项目还鼓励代表性不足的年轻人参与批判性思维、解决问题和现实世界的生物和工程调查，这可能会导致他们追求STEM职业生涯。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project focuses on increasing diversity in STEM and increasing student and teacher experiences and competency in the fields of biology and engineering. An integrated education program at the intersection of biology and engineering - the sensory guidance of behavior in biological organisms and autonomous robots - will be developed and studied. The project will consist of: (a) an integrated three-week summer program for rising 12th-grade students and in-service secondary education teachers; (b) a college credit course and workshops for students during their 12th grade school year, and; (c) paid summer internships upon graduation. In these programs, students will engage in hands-on biological investigations to learn how animals sense and respond to their environments. They will then integrate scientific principles with authentic engineering technology to build and program robots based on animals. The robots will be equipped with sensors and behaviors and execute tasks designed by the students. Subsequent internships will serve to further connect student knowledge of integrated biology and engineering with real-world experiences. Creating this program under the framework of animal/robot sensorimotor systems is particularly timely since biology and robotics are producing exciting, emerging technologies and are major growth industries. This project will advance efforts of the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program to better understand and promote practices that increase student motivations and capacities to pursue careers in fields of science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM).The research seeks to (1) increase awareness and participation of underrepresented groups in STEM fields; (2) increase interest, attitudes, knowledge, and self-efficacy in biology, engineering, and technology fields and occupations, and; (3) develop a model to educate students and to train teachers in concepts that examine the interrelatedness between science and engineering. The project's formative and summative evaluation methods, including surveys, focus groups, and open-ended evaluations of workshop and internship experiences, will be used to study these issues. The research will contribute new insights into integrated STEM curricula and how they support students in developing and sustaining interests in learning and working in scientific fields. The project also engages underrepresented youth in critical thinking, problem-solving, and real-world investigations in biology and engineering that may lead them to pursue STEM careers.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.