SBIR Phase I: Mobile Hands-On Empirical Solution in Science Education for Secondary School

SBIR第一阶段项目正在开发一个新的基于技术的学习生态系统，通过课堂参与式和自定进度的实验来吸引中学生参与STEM学习，这些实验有助于发现并将抽象概念与具体的现实世界学习经验联系起来。STEM领域迫切需要更多的毕业生；这一转变将从培养青年在合校前阶段对科学的兴趣开始。该项目旨在增强学生接受STEM领域固有困难挑战的信心，并增强他们在课堂之外想象解决方案的能力。正在设计的集成教室硬件解决方案将具有即插即用的简单性，具有模块化的数据收集传感器和集成的教案，共同努力使学习变得更加有形。和学生相处融洽吗？智能手机和平板电脑将使采用变得更容易，并进一步降低成本。该项目采用基于订阅的商业模式，易于商业化和扩展。国家科学基金会的使命是支持STEM进步，以获得最广泛的教育和社会效益，指导这一项目。它满足了让下一代做好准备以有效解决具有全球影响的STEM问题的迫切社会需求，如气候变化和可再生能源的制定。STEM教师表示，需要动手学习工具，这些工具不会因为需要广泛的系统级知识而增加他们短暂的时间负担，适合他们不断缩水的预算，避免在传统硬件平台上构建，并且是无线和便携的。该项目将产生一种新的、负担得起的技术，将物联网和基于云的研究和学习带入科学课堂。创新和灵活的传感器硬件将提供测量可靠性、真正的便携性、量身定做的功能、易于使用和重复使用以及可扩展性。硬件将采用精简的模块化设计(以避免设备冗余)，并可跨多个科学学科和同一学科内的各个主题进行互操作。重要的是，它将满足市场对实践性STEM课堂学习体验的需求，价格合理。这些传感器结合针对STEM指导的重点实验室问题，将优化尺寸、功能、可用性、可靠性和功耗，以实现所需的需求。随着硬件/教案生态系统在这个项目的过程中得到进一步完善，项目团队将通过初始设计、原型制作、课堂实施和反馈、技术和教学审查以及未来的建议，利用持续的教师反馈来最有效地指导开发。

This SBIR Phase I project is developing a new technology-based learning ecosystem to engage secondary students in STEM learning through in-class participatory and self-paced experiments that facilitate discovery and bridge abstract concepts to concrete real world learning experiences. More graduates are urgently needed in the STEM fields; this shift will begin with nurturing an interest in the sciences in the minds of youth at the pre-collegial level. This project is designed to strengthen students' confidence in undertaking the difficult challenges inherent in the STEM fields and to enhance their ability to imagine solutions beyond the classroom. The integrated classroom hardware solution being devised will have plug-and-play simplicity with modular data collection sensors and integrated lesson plans that work together to make learning more tangible. Compatibility with students? smartphones and tablets will make adoption easier and further reduce cost. The project is readily commercializable and expandable with a subscription-based business model. The NSF mission of supporting STEM progress for the broadest educational and social benefits guides this project. It addresses the imperative social need to prepare the next generation to effectively solve STEM problems that have global implications, such as climate change and formulating renewable energy sources.STEM teachers have expressed the need for hands-on learning tools that do not tax their fleeting time by requiring extensive system-level know-how, that fit their shrinking budgets, that avoid build on top of legacy hardware platforms, and that are wireless and portable. This project will yield a new and affordable technology to bring the Internet of Things and cloud-based research and learning into the science classroom. Innovative and flexible sensor hardware will provide reliability in measurement, true portability, tailored functionality, ease of use and reuse, and expandability. The hardware will have a lean modular design (to avoid equipment redundancies) and will be interoperable across multiple scientific disciplines and across topics within the same discipline. Importantly, it will fulfill the market need for hands-on STEM classroom learning experiences at an affordable price point. Integrated with focused lab problems for targeted STEM instruction, these sensors will optimize size, functionality, usability, reliability, and power consumption to achieve required needs. As the hardware/lesson plan ecosystem gets further refined over the course of this project, the project team will engage ongoing teacher feedback to most effectively guide development through initial design, prototype production, class implementation and feedback, technical and pedagogical review, and future recommendations.