Collaborative Research: Center for Mobile Hands-On STEM

由于支持学生实验所需的资源，设计的实验很少有足够的时间让学生自己探索概念。学生也不能在规定的时间以外使用实验室设备，因为上课时间太多，太难在没有监督的情况下使用，而且在某些情况下过于脆弱和容易损坏。然而，电子小型化的持续革命正在使便携式、低成本、坚固的实验平台成为可能，使学生随时随地都能获得无处不在的动手体验--与校园或在线课堂上的讲座整合在一起，作为带回家项目中的作业，或者当学生想要尝试自己的想法时。无处不在的动手实验促成了一种新的教学模式，促进了理论、设计和实践的更完整的整合。移动动手STEM(Mohs)项目是伦斯勒理工学院、佐治亚理工学院、弗吉尼亚理工学院、奥尔巴尼大学、罗斯-霍尔曼理工学院、霍华德大学和摩根州立大学的合作项目。该项目正在为移动动手学习体验开发标准化评估工具，以衡量学生的学习及其被教师采用的难易程度。该项目正在建立一个由开发人员、用户、行业合作伙伴和商业设备供应商组成的实践社区，以便在大量不同的学校和不同的便携式实验平台之间共享信息。在这一实践社区的基础上，该项目正在为目前使用移动实践教学的教师和新教师举办讲习班，向他们介绍移动实践学习。这一主动传播策略使项目深入了解采用的障碍，并有助于形成下一步走向广泛传播的步骤。

Due to the resources required to support student labs, experiments are rarely designed with sufficient time for students to explore concepts on their own. Nor is the laboratory equipment available to students outside of proscribed hours because it is needed for too many classes, is too hard to use without supervision, and is, in some cases, too fragile and easily damaged. However, the continued revolution in electronic miniaturization is making possible portable, low-cost, robust experimental platforms that allow for ubiquitous hands-on experiences for students anywhere and anytime - integrated with lectures in the classroom on campus or online, as assignments in take-home project, or when students want to try out their own ideas. Ubiquitous hands-on experiments enable a new pedagogical model that promotes a more complete integration of theory, design, and practice.The Mobile Hands-On STEM (MOHS) project is a collaboration among Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, University of Albany, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, Howard University, and Morgan State University. The project is developing standardized assessment tools for the mobile hands-on-learning experiences in order to measure student learning as well as its ease of adoption by instructors. The project is building a community of practice composed of developers, users, industry partners, and commercial device suppliers in order to share information across a large, diverse collection of schools and across a diverse set of portable experimental platforms. Building on this community of practice, the project is holding workshops for both instructors who currently use mobile hands-on education and for new instructors to introduce them to mobile hands-on learning. This proactive dissemination strategy gives the project insight into the barriers to adoption and helps form the next steps toward wide dissemination.