Internet of Things Pedagogical Ecosystem for Integrated Computer Science and Software Engineering Education for Grades 9-12

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The Internet of Things (IoT) technology connects physical devices such as industrial machines, vehicles, kitchen appliances, medical devices to the internet to enable users, businesses, and computers to make data driven decisions. The IoT is a rapidly improving, transformative field that is bound to positively impact global job markets and industries. With continued advancement in science and technology comes the need to educate K-12 students in emerging technologies to better prepare them for future academic and professional pursuits. This project aims to develop, implement, and evaluate an Internet of Things (IoT) based educational curriculum and technology that provides grades 9-12 students with Computer Science (CS) and Software Engineering (SE) education. At its core, the IoT technology uses inexpensive microcomputers that run code to collect, analyze, and share data with other devices or users. Due to this inherent integration between hardware and software, IoT has the potential to serve as an excellent platform for teaching CS and SE to high school students. Grades 9-12 teachers and students from diverse and varied socioeconomic backgrounds will participate in this curricular experience through their STEM/CS/Engineering classes. Broad dissemination through online platforms, summer camps, and museums will be used to share content, testimonials, teaching strategies, and best practices to a wide audience in the K-12 education community. Over three hundred high school students and 27 teachers will be engaged directly in-class or via outreach activities. The skills and knowledge gained as part of this curricular experience will provide strong college and career readiness to high school students. The proposed IoT pedagogical ecosystem features an innovative approach to bringing CS and SE education to grades 9-12 by immersing students in the technical challenges of building web-connected physical computing systems. This project will focus on identifying critical elements for effective instructional design for CS and SE education by understanding student and teacher motivation. A key innovation of this effort will be the low-cost, IoT-hardware kits for project-based learning to create a hands-on experience in the classroom. The curriculum will involve real-world projects inspired by the National Academy of Engineering grand challenges that have direct applications in the industry (e.g., urban infrastructure, wearable technology, connected vehicles, connected health, and cybersecurity). Continuous and methodical assessment via rubrics and focus groups will enable data collection on students’ CS/SE/IoT knowledge and skills, teamwork skills, and overall engagement. Rigorous quantitative statistical analysis (parametric and non-parametric) and qualitative methods (first cycle and second cycle coding) will be used to answer three research questions: 1) What is the impact of IoT-based projects on students’ CS, SE, and hardware skills and knowledge? 2)What is the effect of IoT-based projects on students’ engagement and teamwork skills? 3) What factors of instructional design promote/hinder engagement? This project will cumulatively provide an evidence-based understanding of how effective IoT is as a means to provide high school students with critical and modern CS/SE skills and knowledge.This project is supported by NSF's Discovery Research PreK-12 (DRK-12) program, in the Directorate for Education & Human Resources. DRK-12 seeks to significantly enhance the learning and teaching of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) by preK-12 students and teachers through research and development of innovative resources, models and tools. Projects in the DRK-12 program build on fundamental research in STEM education and prior research and development efforts that provide theoretical and empirical justification for proposed projects.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.