Biomimicry as an authentic anchor: Giving teachers the tools to adapt an interdisciplinary middle school curriculum

在中学中整合STEM科目有利于学生的学习，可以帮助学生为STEM工作场所做好准备。该项目为中学教师建立能力，以便与学生一起制定和调整STEM综合课程单元。 这些单位将专注于仿生学-检查自然界中发现的结构和功能，并将其应用于解决人类问题，结合科学，工程和技术。使用生物学作为工程设计和解决问题的基础，真实地反映了专业工程师和机器人专家的当前实践。 该项目使教师能够设计活动，是个人真实的学生，通过支持教师检查他们的学生的资产，需求和兴趣，并在单元设计的中心。该项目的模块化课程方法为不同学科的教师和学生提供了多个切入点，并允许教师选择他们舒适的技术复杂程度。 为教师提供制定综合STEM教学的工具，通过他们参与结构功能分析的交叉概念以及下一代科学标准中描述的科学，工程和计算的关键实践来支持学习。该项目正在开发一种专业发展模式，支持教师首先规划和调整具有凝聚力和模块化的课程材料，然后有效地使用这些材料来制定对学生来说专业和个人真实的综合科学和工程课程。研究人员预计，随着时间的推移，专业发展将提高教师乐于整合的技术水平。该项目与印第安纳州、缅因州和马萨诸塞州的20名教师和大约1000名学生合作。该项目采用混合方法研究设计，通过以下方式构建科学、工程和计算教育领域的新知识：（1）确定影响中学教师综合STEM教学规划的技能和资源;（2）描述材料设计和专业发展的情景和模块化方法如何支持教师的设计和教学选择;以及（3）记录跨学科的凝聚力和真实的学习体验的课程特征如何影响学生学习科学，工程和计算思维的内容和实践，包括结构功能分析的总体概念。探索研究preK-12计划（DRK-12）旨在通过研究和开发创新资源，模型和工具，显着提高preK-12学生和教师的科学，技术，工程和数学的学习和教学。DRK-12项目中的项目建立在STEM教育的基础研究以及为拟议项目提供理论和经验依据的先前研究和开发工作的基础上。该奖项反映了NSF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。

Integrating STEM subjects in middle school is beneficial for student learning and can help prepare students for the STEM workplace. This project builds capacity for middle school teachers to enact and adapt integrated STEM curriculum units with their students. The units will focus on biomimicry - examining structures and functions found in nature and applying these to solve human problems, which combines science, engineering, and technology. The use of biology as a basis for engineering design and problem-solving authentically mirrors current practice of professional engineers and roboticists. The project enables teachers to design activities that are personally authentic to their students, by supporting teachers to examine their students' assets, needs, and interests and center these during unit design. The project's modular curriculum approach provides multiple points of entry for teachers and students in different disciplines and allows teachers to choose the level of technological complexity they are comfortable enacting. Providing teachers with the tools to enact integrated STEM instruction supports learning through their engagement with the cross-cutting concept of structure-function analysis, as well as key practices in science, engineering, and computing as described in the Next Generation Science Standards. This project is developing a professional development model that supports teachers first to plan and adapt curriculum materials that are cohesive and modular, and then to effectively use the materials to enact integrated science and engineering lessons that are professionally and personally authentic to their students. The researchers expect that over time, the professional development will increase the level of technology that teachers are comfortable integrating. The project works with 20 teachers and approximately 1000 students at school sites in Indiana, Maine, and Massachusetts. This project employs a mixed-methods research design to build new knowledge in the fields of science, engineering, and computing education by: (1) identifying the skills and resources that impact middle school teachers' planning for integrated STEM instruction; (2) characterizing how a situated and modular approach to materials design and professional development supports teachers' design and instructional choices over time; and (3) documenting how the curriculum features of cohesion across disciplines and authentic learning experiences impact student learning of content and practices in science, engineering, and computational thinking, including the overarching concept of structure-function analysis. The Discovery Research preK-12 program (DRK-12) seeks to significantly enhance the learning and teaching of science, technology, engineering and mathematics 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.