STEM and Health: Science Kits Integrating STEM Concepts with Human Health Issues

 描述(申请人提供)：解决人类健康问题通常涉及通过科学家、工程师和数学家的合作开发的技术。尽管STEM(科学、技术、工程和数学)协作是生物医学研究创新的一个重要方面，但许多学生仍然将科学、工程和数学作为独立学科学习。此外，许多教师在设计和准备动手STEM活动方面的时间和资源有限。该项目的目的是开发和评估科学外卖工具包的使用情况，将STEM概念融入与人类健康问题和解决方案有关的现实主题中。这些STEM和健康工具包将使中学科学教师能够轻松地将动手STEM活动整合到他们现有的课程中。这些工具包将提供一个完整的、预先打包的、即用即用的产品--包括让学生参与实践STEM学习的所有材料和用品。我们将通过教师焦点小组对工具包进行评估，并在中学课堂上使用。在第一阶段的SBIR项目中，我们将：1.开发三种不同的科学外卖STEM和健康工具包(包括工具包活动、材料和教师指南)，供中学生使用。2.为中学科学教师组织专题小组，对试剂盒的原型进行评估。3.在中学理科教室进行STEM和健康试剂盒的中试和现场测试。这项拟议的项目意义重大，因为它将增加中学教师对综合STEM活动的使用，为他们提供内容丰富的动手活动，并将其打包在即用工具包中。廉价、预先组装的科学外卖套装的便利性将使人们能够高效、经济地获得材料，用于实践综合STEM活动。该项目还将使我们能够探索克服中学教师在采用综合STEM活动并将其纳入课程时所面临的障碍所需的策略。这一拟议的项目具有创新性，因为STEM和健康工具包将使用现实生活中的情景和简单的动手活动，将STEM的内容和实践与健康科学教育相结合。这些工具包将与下一代科学标准和现有的中学科学课程相关联。STEM和健康工具包将鼓励学生学习使用生命科学、物理科学、技术、工程和数学来解决人类健康问题的现实应用。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Solving human health problems often involves technologies developed through the collaborative work of scientists, engineers, and mathematicians. Despite the fact that STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) collaboration is a crucial aspect of biomedical research innovations, many students are still learning science, engineering, and math as isolated disciplines. In addition, many teachers have limited time and resources for designing and preparing hands-on STEM activities. The purpose of this project is to develop and evaluate the use of Science Take-Out kits that integrate STEM concepts into real-life topics related to human health problems and solutions. These STEM and Health kits will be designed to enable middle school science teachers to easily integrate hands-on STEM activities into their existing curricula. These kits wil provide a complete, prepackaged, ready-to-use product - including all materials and supplies for engaging students in hands-on STEM learning. We will evaluate the kits through teacher focus groups and use in middle school classrooms. During this Phase I SBIR project we will: 1. Develop 3 different Science Take-Out STEM and Health kits (including kit activities, materials, and teacher guides) for use with middle school students. 2. Conduct focus groups for middle school science teachers to evaluate prototypes of the kits. 3. Pilot test and then field test the STEM and Health kits in middle school science classrooms. This proposed project is significant because it will increase middle school teachers' use of integrated STEM activities by providing them with content-rich, hands-on activities packaged in ready-to-use kits. The convenience of inexpensive, pre-assembled Science Take-Out kits will allow efficient and economical access to materials for hands-on integrated STEM activities. This project will also allow us to explore strategies needed to overcome the barriers that middle school teachers face when adopting and incorporating integrated STEM activities into their curriculum. This proposed project is innovative because the STEM and Health kits will use real-life scenarios and simple, hands-on activities to integrate STEM content and practices with health science education. These kits will correlate with the Next Generation Science Standards and existing middle school science curricula. The STEM and Health kits will encourage students to learn about the real-world applications of using life science, physical science, technology, engineering, and math to solve human health issues.