CAREER: Translating Innovations from the Sleep Laboratory to Enhance Classroom Education and Informal Science Learning

教师早期职业发展（Career）计划是一项国家科学基金会范围内的活动，为通过杰出的研究、优秀的教育以及在其组织使命范围内将教育和研究结合起来，以教师学者为榜样的初级教师提供奖励。该奖项授予贝勒大学（Baylor University）的一位科学家，其目标是通过弥合实验室和家庭睡眠科学研究之间的差距，改善本科阶段的STEM教育。1000万美国大学生经常遭受睡眠不足或质量差的困扰，这是一个全国性的问题，对健康、社会、经济和教育都有直接和长期的影响。最近的研究表明，睡眠问题在女性和少数族裔群体中尤为普遍，而这些群体在STEM领域的代表性一直不足，这标志着缓解长期以来被称为成就差距的教育挑战的新机会。为了解决这些全国性和长期存在的问题，该项目将：a)实验测试可变睡眠和轻度睡眠不足如何影响一个人学习具有挑战性的STEM内容的能力；b)调查在STEM课堂环境中实施的睡眠干预是否可以提高学习成绩并缩小成绩差距；C)通过多种多样的学生主导的社区外展活动和在当地博物馆举办永久性的睡眠展览，广泛传播改善睡眠的最佳方法。总的来说，该项目将有助于实现预期的社会成果，包括扩大教育实践，加强科学素养和公共传播，改善学生、家长和教师的福祉。该项目由EHR核心研究（ECR）计划资助，该计划支持推进STEM学习基础研究文献和扩大STEM领域参与的工作。该项目将结合实验和相关方法，了解睡眠限制和睡眠可变性如何影响STEM入门课程背景下的学习和压力。在多导睡眠描记仪监测的实验室环境中，参与者在尝试学习具有挑战性的有机化学内容之前，将按照固定的、受限的或可变的时间表睡觉。在一个自然的环境中，有机化学专业的学生将在整个学期佩戴腕带活动记录仪，以确定哪种睡眠模式可以预测学业成绩。在以课堂为基础的干预研究中，学生将被随机分配接受睡眠教育或睡眠教育辅以行为改变技术。目的是确定学生是否可以在高要求的STEM课程中改善睡眠，以及这样做是否有利于他们的学习成绩。对于所有的研究，这个项目将测试睡眠模式是否调解学业成绩与种族、民族和性别之间的关系。将进一步分析多导睡眠图、活动图和调查数据，以调查睡眠模式与STEM结果之间的纵向关联。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) program is a National Science Foundation-wide activity that offers awards in support of junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education, and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of their organizations. This award to a scientist at Baylor University has the goal of improving STEM education at the undergraduate level by bridging the gap between laboratory-based and home-based studies in sleep science. Ten million American college students regularly suffer from short or poor-quality sleep, a national problem that has immediate and long-term health, social, economic, and educational consequences. Recent work indicates that sleep problems are particularly prevalent in women and minority groups who historically have also been underrepresented in STEM fields, thereby signaling a novel opportunity to mitigate a longstanding educational challenge known as the achievement gap. To address these national and longstanding concerns, this project will: a) experimentally test how variable sleep and mild sleep loss affect one’s ability to learn challenging STEM content; b) investigate whether sleep interventions that are implemented in STEM classroom settings can improve academic outcomes and reduce achievement gaps; c) broadly disseminate the optimal means to improve sleep via a diversity of student-led community outreach activities and the development of a permanent sleep exhibit at the local museum. Collectively, the project will help to achieve desired societal outcomes including augmenting educational practices, strengthening science literacy and public communication, and improving the well-being of students, parents, and teachers. The project is funded by the EHR Core Research (ECR) program, which supports work that advances the fundamental research literature on STEM learning and broadening participation in STEM fields.This project will combine experimental and correlational methods to inform how sleep restriction and sleep variability impact learning and stress in the context of gateway STEM courses. In a polysomnography-monitored laboratory setting, participants will sleep on a consistent, restricted, or variable schedule prior to attempting to learn challenging organic chemistry content. In a naturalistic setting, students enrolled in organic chemistry will wear wristband actigraphy across the semester to determine which sleep patterns are predictive of academic outcomes. In classroom-based intervention studies, students will be randomly assigned to receive sleep education only or sleep education augmented with behavioral change techniques. The goal is to determine whether students can improve their sleep in the midst of demanding STEM courses, and if doing so benefits their academic performance. For all studies, this project will test whether sleep patterns mediate the relationship between academic achievement and race, ethnicity, and gender. The polysomnography, actigraphy, and survey data will be further analyzed to investigate longitudinal associations between sleep patterns and STEM outcomes.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.