iNeuron: A contemporary platform for neuroscience education

描述(由申请人提供)：Adventium Enterprise和明尼苏达大学(UMN)提议开发一个参与式教育工具包和课程，通过探索性和研究性学习教授神经科学和心理健康概念，将神经系统功能与工程、技术和数学概念相结合。INeuron(Tm)模拟神经元、突触和电路功能，并将使用课堂上越来越常见的移动计算设备提供一个引人入胜的、动手操作的、解决问题的学习环境。该项目将结合1)灵活的多模式软件体系结构的开发，该体系结构将教室级和分布式课堂学习环境集成在多个具有集中管理和协调的交互式手持设备上，以及2)一套身临其境的基于故事的神经科学挑战，通过将一组手持电子设备转变为功能连接的神经元来教授关键概念。通过参与解决这些挑战，学生们将加深他们对自己的大脑如何控制身体和认知功能以及如何随着学习而变化的理解。随后，学生认识到他们负责改变自己的大脑，这有望激励学习者在学校发挥自己的作用。我们的长期目标是增加中学生参与科学和工程问题解决活动，以建立21世纪经济所需的更高层次的思维技能。这项拟议的SBIR的目标是通过现有的在线渠道开发和部署一个交互式应用程序，使学生能够在进行神经系统功能建模和学习的同时透明地获得这些技能集。为了实现这些目标，Adventium Enterprise与明尼苏达大学的神经科学家进行了合作。Adventium有着积极参与教育项目的丰富历史，并拥有研究、开发和部署先进技术的经验。明尼苏达大学开发并评估了非常成功的BrainU系列科学教师专业发展研讨会，将神经科学和探究教育学结合在一起。总而言之，我们第一阶段的具体目标是开发软件应用程序，一系列符合教育标准的教案，并在课堂上评估实施的原型。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Adventium Enterprises and the University of Minnesota (UMN) propose to develop a participatory educational toolkit and curriculum to teach neuroscience and mental health concepts via exploratory and investigative learning that integrates nervous system function with engineering, technology and mathematics concepts. iNeuron(tm) models neuronal, synaptic, and circuit functions, and will provide an engaging, hands-on, problem- solving learning environment using mobile computing devices that are growing more common in classrooms. This project will combine development of 1) a flexible, multimodal software architecture integrating classroom level and distributed classroom learning environments hosted on multiple, interactive hand-held devices with centralized management and coordination and 2) an immersive story-based set of neuroscience challenges to teach key concepts by transforming a set of handheld electronic devices into functionally connected neurons. By engaging in solving these challenges, students will deepen their understanding of how their own brains control body and cognitive functions and change with learning. Subsequently, the students' understanding that they are in charge of changing their own brains is expected to motivate learners to apply themselves in school. Our long range goal is to increase secondary student involvement in scientific and engineering problem solving activities to build higher order thinking skills needed in the 21st century economy. The objective of this proposed SBIR is to develop and deploy, via existing online channels, an interactive application to enable students to transparently acquire these skill sets while engaged in modeling and learning about nervous system functions. To accomplish these goals, Adventium Enterprises has partnered with neuroscientists from the University of Minnesota. Adventium has a rich history of active participation in educational projects and experience researching, developing, and fielding advanced technology. The University of Minnesota has developed and evaluated the highly successful BrainU series of science teacher professional development workshops combining neuroscience and inquiry pedagogy. Together, our Phase 1 specific aims are to develop the software application, a series of lesson plans that meet educational standards, and evaluate the implemented prototype in a classroom.