SBIR Phase I: Middle School Teacher- Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) Expert Mobile Matching Software Application

这项小企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目将为中学教师提供一个在线匹配工具，使他们能够与科学、数学、工程和技术（STEM）专家联系，并找到STEM基于项目的学习（PBL）产品。通过这个配对工具，教师将能够与不同的STEM专家进行虚拟连接，以进行教师和学生的指导、虚拟讨论和演示；为个人和团体项目寻找PBL产品；寻找熟悉PBL产品和项目的STEM专家。项目期间将招募STEM专家，重点是女性、残疾人、代表性不足的少数民族和退伍军人。中学是孩子教育和志向的关键阶段。该项目更广泛的影响是为教师和教室带来实时的、多样化的STEM专家面孔，从而增加孩子们的兴趣。在教育中使用“如果你能看到，你就能做到”的真理。该项目的中心目标是在STEM专家与中学教师和学生之间建立牢固且可衡量的联系，从而激励美国下一代STEM专家和教师。这个匹配工具解决了一个经过验证的教师需求，将工业和大学STEM专家与中学教师和学生联系起来。匹配工具还为PBL产品和项目提供匹配，从而简化了需要基于项目学习的下一代科学标准（NGSS）标准的采用。这个易于使用的专家匹配程序还将为不同的STEM专家提供一个视频门户，通过视频在教室电脑和移动设备上弹出。后端NGSS标签系统将汇总和测量从STEM社区直接向中学教师和学生传递的专家知识。匹配工具将包括两个仪表板，用于教师/学校报告和公司/基金会报告。随着该工具的广泛商业化，行业专家、教师和学生之间的联系将在头两年通过一个由10万多名STEM专家组成的网络，为1.2万多名中学教师提供行业STEM导师。由此产生的影响将激励学生学习STEM领域，并最终获得STEM工作。由此产生的市场影响是本地培养的STEM员工的增加，从而导致美国在许多关键经济领域的创新和全球竞争力的提高。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will produce an online Matching Tool for Middle School teachers to connect with Science, Math, Engineering and Technology (STEM) experts and find STEM Project-Based-Learning (PBL) products. With this Matching Tool, teachers will be able to connect virtually with diverse STEM experts for teacher and student mentoring, virtual discussions and presentations; find PBL products for individual and group projects; and locate diverse STEM experts who are familiar with PBL products and projects. STEM experts will be recruited during the project with an emphasis on women, people with disabilities, underrepresented minorities and veterans. Middle School is a key stage in children's education and aspirations. The broader impact of the project is to bring real-time, diverse faces of STEM experts both to the teacher and into the classroom thus increasing children?s self-esteem and interest in STEM by using the "if you can see it, you can be it" truth in education. The central goal of this project is to create strong and measurable links between STEM experts and Middle School teachers and students, thus inspiring America's next generation of STEM experts and teachers. This Matching Tool addresses a validated teacher need to connect industry and university STEM experts to Middle School teachers and students. The Matching Tool also provides matches to PBL products and projects, thus easing the adoption of Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) standards that require project-based learning. The easy-to-use expert matching program will also provide a video portal for diverse STEM experts to pop up via video on classroom computer and mobile devices. The backend NGSS tagging system will aggregate and measure expert knowledge transfer from the STEM community directly to Middle School teachers and students. The Matching Tool will include two Dashboards for Teacher/School reporting and Corporate/Foundation reporting. With widespread commercialization of the tool, the resulting connection between industry experts, teachers and students should provide industry STEM mentors to over 12,000 middle school teachers via a network of over 100,000 STEM experts in the first two years. The resulting impact will be to inspire students to study STEM fields and eventually secure STEM jobs. The resulting market impact is an increase in locally grown STEM employees, thus leading to an increase in American innovation and global competitiveness in many key areas of our economy.