I-Corps: Exploring Technology Innovation Opportunities for Early Childhood STEM Professional Development

这个I-Corps项目的广泛影响/商业潜力是巨大的。我们的产品旨在通过支持学龄前劳动力来提高儿童早期STEM学习。儿童在学前班结束时在数学和科学方面的发展预示着他们在以后的学校里在多个学科上的表现。我们的专业发展工具将使教师能够提供丰富的早期STEM经验，以便所有儿童，无论背景如何，都有机会成为更好的学生。这些经历还可以培养思维习惯、探究习惯和对STEM的兴趣，从而形成一支更强大、更大、更创新的STEM劳动力队伍。这项业务可以在全国范围内发展，雇佣来自全国各地的教育工作者和专家，为教育工作者、学区和其他学前教育组织提供专业发展、在线支持和资源，以及创新技术。该项目的范围和影响可以通过新兴技术迅速扩大。通过提供高质量的专业发展和支持，我们可以满足社会对改善幼儿教育的巨大需求。这个I-Corps项目将探索我们的学前专业发展模式和资源SciMath-DLL的商业潜力。可以采用多种方案交付方法，包括直接面向消费者、与学校合作以及直接向学校授权。我们的模式包括研讨会、示范课程计划、专业学习社区和针对一系列STEM内容的个人反思辅导。SciMath-DLL源于两项DRK-12儿童早期STEM教育研究资助，我们开发了该模型，并评估了教师、教练和儿童的积极变化。在第一个发展项目中，结果显示对教育工作者的信心和教学指导实践产生了强烈的积极影响，并感知到儿童技能和学习的改善。第二项实验研究的新发现表明，SciMath-DLL教育工作者在增加STEM学科知识以及如何向不同学生群体教授这些知识方面取得了重大进展，并改善了对儿童学习和应用STEM概念能力的态度和信念。这些结果表明，SciMath-DLL项目提高了教学质量，提高了对教师的帮助和指导质量，最终改善了儿童早期STEM教育。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is vast. Our product aims to improve early childhood STEM learning by supporting the preschool workforce. Children's development in math and science at the end of preschool predicts how well they will do in multiple subjects later in school. Our professional development tools will empower teachers to provide rich early STEM experiences so that all children, regardless of background, have the opportunity to be better students. These experiences also build habits of mind, inquiry, and interest in STEM, which can result in a stronger, larger, and more innovative STEM workforce. The business could develop a national footprint that employs educators and experts from across the country to provide professional development, online supports and resources, and innovative technology to educators, school districts, and other preschool education organizations. The reach and impact of the project could expand rapidly through emerging technologies. The business can fulfill a massive need in our society to improve early childhood education by providing quality professional development and support for those educating our youngest learners. This I-Corps project will explore the commercial potential of our preschool professional development model and resources, SciMath-DLL. A variety of methods for program delivery, including direct to consumer, partnerships with schools, and outright licensing to schools could be utilized. Our model includes workshops, model lesson plans, professional learning communities, and individual reflective coaching across a range of STEM content. SciMath-DLL resulted from two DRK-12 early childhood STEM education research grants in which we developed the model and evaluated the positive changes in teachers, coaches, and children. In the first development project, results showed strong positive impacts on educators' confidence and teaching and coaching practice, and perceived improvements in children's skills and learning. Emerging findings from the second experimental study, show significant gains by the SciMath-DLL educators in terms of increased knowledge about STEM subjects and how to teach them to diverse student populations, and improved attitudes and beliefs about the ability of children to learn and apply STEM concepts. These results suggest that the SciMath-DLL program improves the quality of teaching, improves the quality of the help and guidance for teachers, and ultimately improves early childhood STEM education for children.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.