SBIR Phase II: An interactive digital textbook that supports earth science learning

这个SBIR第一阶段项目将产生一个创新的阅读应用程序和行政门户，以支持科学学习。虽然科学教科书是一种核心课程资源，但这种资源往往难以获取，难以阅读。理科教材在句法(语法)和语义(词义)上都比较复杂。具体地说，初级和中级科学课本的撰写时间往往比发展阶段合适的时间晚了3到5年。由于这些复杂性，科学教科书经常淹没学生的工作记忆，阻止他们构建目标概念的准确心理表征。因此，该项目将开发和测试一款具有嵌入式阅读和语言支持的多平台、个性化的电子阅读器。这种努力的智力价值在于它有能力通过个性化和适应性的内容来提高科学理解能力。该项目将针对与地球和空间科学有关的下一代科学标准编写内容和评估。这些可定制的功能将使基础科学知识对学生更容易获得，也更有趣，因此对公众也是如此。鉴于这些好处，它有很强的潜力支持未来一代STEM专业人员和更具科学素养的公民。该项目将产生一个支持科学学习的多平台阅读应用程序。关键的创新将是使科学内容对学习者具有适应性和可调性。该第二阶段项目有五个技术目标：(A)开发和测试通过平板电脑和移动网络工作的电子阅读器；(B)开发和测试增强的阅读功能；(C)开发和测试行政和支付门户；(D)开发和管理与NGSS一致的内容和评估；(E)与学生和教师一起进行用户测试。在第二阶段，项目团队将解决将这项创新推向市场的一些技术挑战。交互式阅读应用程序的关键功能可能会造成不必要的内存负载。这一技术挑战将通过设计高度预处理和模块化的程序来克服。第二个挑战是为多层用户提供安全访问。这一技术挑战将通过设计该计划以允许安全的多组成员身份、确保数据可见性和安全性来克服。一个多元化的SquidBooks团队，拥有商业、软件设计和工程、教育研究和测量、科学教育、写作和科学方面的专业知识，将实现这个第二阶段项目的这些目标。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 SBIR Phase I project will produce an innovative reading application and administrative portal to support science learning. Although the science textbook is a central curricular resource, this resource is often inaccessible and difficult to read. Science textbooks are syntactically (grammatically) and semantically (word meaning) complex. Specifically, elementary and secondary science texts are often written 3 to 5 years beyond what is developmentally appropriate. Because of these complexities, science textbooks often overwhelm students' working memory, preventing them from constructing accurate mental representations of the target concepts. Thus, this project will develop and test a multiplatform, personalizable e-reader with embedded reading and language support. The intellectual merit of the effort resides in its ability to improve science comprehension through personalized and adaptive content. This project will produce content and assessments targeting the Next Generation Science Standards associated with Earth and Space Science. The customizable features will make fundamental science knowledge more accessible and interesting to students -- and thus the Public. Given these benefits, it has strong potential to support future generations of STEM professionals and a more scientifically literate citizenry.This project will produce a multiplatform reading application to support science learning. The key innovation will be to make science content adaptable and adjustable for learners. This Phase II project has five technical goals: (a) develop and test the e-reader to work via tablet and mobile web; (b) develop and test enhanced reading features; (c) develop and test administrative and payment portals; (d) develop and curate NGSS-aligned content and assessments; (e) conduct user testing with students and teachers. During Phase II, the project team will address some technological challenges in bringing this innovation to market. The key features of the interactive reading application create a potential for unnecessary memory load. This technological challenge will be overcome by architecting the program to be highly preprocessed and modular. A second challenge is providing secure access to multi-tiered users. This technical challenge will be overcome by architecting the program to allow for secure, multiple group membership, ensuring data visibility and security. A diverse SquidBooks team, with expertise in business, software design and engineering, educational research and measurement, science education, writing, and science will achieve these goals of this Phase II project.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.