Biomechanics to Offer Diverse Young Minds Opportunities to Develop, Explore, and Learn STEM

该项目将推进学生和教师创新技术体验（ITEST）计划的努力，以更好地理解和促进提高学生在科学，技术，工程或数学（STEM）领域追求职业生涯的动机和能力的做法，为高中的高级数学课程和最终的工程职业做好准备。 内布拉斯加大学奥马哈分校的这个项目，生物力学为不同的年轻人提供发展，探索和学习STEM的机会（BODYMODELS）将研究一种学习模式，该模式利用生物力学的技术丰富和跨学科背景，以提高3-6年级学生对STEM职业的理解和兴趣。该项目将提供一个积极的学习经验，利用生物力学来教授STEM，这将导致参与教师和学生对STEM有更积极的看法。该项目的学习经验将对奥马哈及其周边地区的STEM教育产生强大的未来影响。该项目将直接影响估计1 500名青年，其中大多数居住在多样化的奥马哈公立学校区。此外，该项目还将帮助小学教师参与奥马哈市范围的STEM生态系统，建立长期的专业网络，以支持他们在项目结束后的STEM教学。身体模型项目的成功实施将产生基于标准和文化上敏感的课程资源，这些资源可以很容易地被全国各地的小学教师调整，以接触不同学校环境的学生。该项目团队还将为基础教育课程的教师试点研究生生物力学课程，以供其他大学复制。BODYMODELS项目的总体目标是利用生物力学作为一种背景，提高奥马哈市3 - 6年级学生对STEM教育途径的认识、兴趣和参与能力。该项目的目标是：1）培训一批3 - 6年级在职教师成为知识渊博和有效的STEM教师，他们可以通过学习核心生物力学概念和文化响应，探究式学习（IBL）策略，自信地将技术增强的生物力学课程整合到学校的STEM学科中。2)通过帮助他们开发和试点生物力学课程模块，实践活动，教学方法和个人实施计划（PIP）来增强3 - 6年级教师的能力，以加强学校的跨学科，文化响应和技术增强的STEM教育。3)与奥马哈市STEM生态系统中的组织合作，让生物力学相关领域的专业人士参与进来，帮助教师开发和完善他们的PIP，包括激励学生的活动，例如STEM专业人士的课堂访问和/或STEM相关组织的实地考察。4)调查生物力学干预对教师和学生在教和学STEM概念方面的信心及其对STEM学科的态度以及对学生STEM内容知识的影响，重点是改进教学模式，以促进其在全国范围内的小学STEM课程中的适应和采用。该项目将开发和研究一种学习模式的实用性，该模式利用生物力学的跨学科和技术丰富的背景，向3-6年级的学生教授交叉STEM概念，并让学生使用新兴技术进行基于探究的实验。这种新的学习模式解决了两个关键挑战：1）通过让学生参与与他们相关的基于探究的活动来扩大学生对STEM职业的兴趣; 2）帮助教师定制IBL课程模块，以考虑教师生物力学经验，学生背景，学区和课程目标的差异。学生将进行评估，以确定该计划是否积极影响他们的态度，兴趣和动机，追求干事业，以及他们在全州科学和数学评估测试的表现。该项目将促进对如何在各种小学环境中使用生物力学提供IBL的理解。

This project will advance efforts of the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program to better understand and promote practices that increase students' motivations and capacities to pursue careers in fields of science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) by preparing and interesting high achieving middle school students for advanced math courses in high school and eventually in engineering careers. This University of Nebraska at Omaha project, Biomechanics to Offer Diverse Young Minds Opportunities to Develop, Explore, and Learn STEM (BODYMODELS) will investigate a learning model that leverages the technology-rich and interdisciplinary context of biomechanics to enhance understanding of and interest in STEM occupations among students in grades 3-6. The project will provide a positive learning experience in using biomechanics to teach STEM that will lead to more positive perceptions about STEM among participating teachers and students. The learning experience in the project would have a strong future impact on STEM education in and around Omaha. The project will directly impact an estimated 1,500 youth, most of whom reside in the diverse Omaha Public Schools district. In addition, the project will help engage elementary teachers in the Omaha Citywide STEM Ecosystem, establishing long-term professional networks to support their teaching of STEM after the project period. The successful implementation of the BODYMODELS project will result in standards-based and culturally responsive curricular resources that can easily be adapted by elementary teachers across the country to reach students in diverse school contexts. The project team will also pilot a graduate biomechanics course for teachers in elementary education programs for possible replication by other universities.The overarching goal of the BODYMODELS project is to use biomechanics as a context for increasing awareness of, interest in, and capability to participate in STEM education pathways among a diverse population of 3rd-6th grade students in urban Omaha. The project objectives are: 1) Train a cohort of 3rd-6th grade in-service teachers to become knowledgeable and effective STEM instructors who can confidently integrate technology enhanced biomechanics lessons into their school's STEM disciplines through learning core biomechanics concepts and culturally responsive, inquiry-based learning (IBL) strategies. 2) Empower the 3rd-6th grade teachers by helping them develop and pilot biomechanics lesson modules, hands-on activities, instructional methods, and personal implementation plans (PIPs) to enhance interdisciplinary, culturally responsive, and technology-enhanced STEM education at their schools. 3) Partner with organizations in the Omaha Citywide STEM Ecosystem to engage professionals in biomechanics-related fields to assist teachers in developing and refining their PIPs to include activities that are motivating to students, such as classroom visits from STEM professionals and/or field trips to STEM-related organizations. 4) Investigate the impact of the biomechanics intervention on teachers' and students' confidence in teaching and learning STEM concepts and their attitudes toward the STEM disciplines, as well as on student STEM content knowledge, with a focus on refining the instructional model to facilitate its adaptation and adoption in elementary STEM curricula nationwide. The project will develop and investigate the utility of a learning model that leverages the interdisciplinary and technology-rich context of biomechanics to teach cross-cutting STEM concepts to students in grades 3-6 and to engage students in using emerging technologies to conduct inquiry-based experiments. This new learning model addresses two key challenges: 1) expanding student interest in STEM careers by engaging them in inquiry-based activities that are relevant to them and 2) helping teachers customize IBL lesson modules to account for differences in teachers' biomechanics experiences, students' backgrounds, school districts, and course objectives. Students will be assessed to determine if the program positively impacts their attitudes towards, interest in, and motivation to pursue STEM careers as well as their performance on statewide science and mathematics assessment tests. The project will advance the understanding of how to offer IBL using biomechanics in a variety of elementary school contexts.