CAREER: Translating Innovations from the Sleep Laboratory to Enhance Classroom Education and Informal Science Learning

教师早期职业发展（CAREER）计划是国家科学基金会范围内的活动，提供奖励，以支持初级教师谁通过杰出的研究，优秀的教育，以及教育和研究的整合在其组织的使命的背景下，发挥教师学者的作用。这个奖项授予贝勒大学的一位科学家，目的是通过弥合睡眠科学实验室和家庭研究之间的差距，改善本科阶段的STEM教育。一千万美国大学生经常遭受睡眠不足或睡眠质量差的困扰，这是一个全国性的问题，对健康、社会、经济和教育都有直接和长期的影响。最近的研究表明，睡眠问题在女性和少数民族群体中尤其普遍，这些群体在STEM领域的代表性也不足，从而标志着一个新的机会，可以缓解长期存在的教育挑战，即成就差距。为了解决这些国家和长期关注的问题，该项目将：a）实验性地测试可变睡眠和轻度睡眠不足如何影响一个人学习具有挑战性的STEM内容的能力; B）调查在STEM课堂环境中实施的睡眠干预是否可以改善学术成果并减少成绩差距; c）通过各种由学生主导的社区外展活动和在当地博物馆举办永久性睡眠展览，广泛传播改善睡眠的最佳方法。总的来说，该项目将有助于实现预期的社会成果，包括扩大教育实践，加强科学素养和公众沟通，改善学生，家长和教师的福祉。该项目由EHR核心研究（ECR）计划资助，该计划支持推进STEM学习的基础研究文献和扩大STEM领域的参与度的工作。该项目将联合收割机结合实验和相关方法，以告知睡眠限制和睡眠变异性如何在入门STEM课程的背景下影响学习和压力。在多导睡眠监测的实验室环境中，参与者在尝试学习具有挑战性的有机化学内容之前，将按照一致的，受限的或可变的时间表睡觉。在自然主义的环境中，就读于有机化学的学生将在整个学期佩戴腕带活动记录仪，以确定哪些睡眠模式可以预测学业成绩。在以课堂为基础的干预研究中，学生将被随机分配到只接受睡眠教育或增加行为改变技术的睡眠教育。我们的目标是确定学生是否可以在要求苛刻的STEM课程中改善睡眠，以及这样做是否有利于他们的学习成绩。对于所有研究，该项目将测试睡眠模式是否介导学业成绩与种族，民族和性别之间的关系。多导睡眠记录仪、体动记录仪和调查数据将被进一步分析，以调查睡眠模式和STEM结果之间的纵向关联。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力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 Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) program is a National Science Foundation-wide activity that offers awards in support of junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education, and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of their organizations. This award to a scientist at Baylor University has the goal of improving STEM education at the undergraduate level by bridging the gap between laboratory-based and home-based studies in sleep science. Ten million American college students regularly suffer from short or poor-quality sleep, a national problem that has immediate and long-term health, social, economic, and educational consequences. Recent work indicates that sleep problems are particularly prevalent in women and minority groups who historically have also been underrepresented in STEM fields, thereby signaling a novel opportunity to mitigate a longstanding educational challenge known as the achievement gap. To address these national and longstanding concerns, this project will: a) experimentally test how variable sleep and mild sleep loss affect one’s ability to learn challenging STEM content; b) investigate whether sleep interventions that are implemented in STEM classroom settings can improve academic outcomes and reduce achievement gaps; c) broadly disseminate the optimal means to improve sleep via a diversity of student-led community outreach activities and the development of a permanent sleep exhibit at the local museum. Collectively, the project will help to achieve desired societal outcomes including augmenting educational practices, strengthening science literacy and public communication, and improving the well-being of students, parents, and teachers. The project is funded by the EHR Core Research (ECR) program, which supports work that advances the fundamental research literature on STEM learning and broadening participation in STEM fields.This project will combine experimental and correlational methods to inform how sleep restriction and sleep variability impact learning and stress in the context of gateway STEM courses. In a polysomnography-monitored laboratory setting, participants will sleep on a consistent, restricted, or variable schedule prior to attempting to learn challenging organic chemistry content. In a naturalistic setting, students enrolled in organic chemistry will wear wristband actigraphy across the semester to determine which sleep patterns are predictive of academic outcomes. In classroom-based intervention studies, students will be randomly assigned to receive sleep education only or sleep education augmented with behavioral change techniques. The goal is to determine whether students can improve their sleep in the midst of demanding STEM courses, and if doing so benefits their academic performance. For all studies, this project will test whether sleep patterns mediate the relationship between academic achievement and race, ethnicity, and gender. The polysomnography, actigraphy, and survey data will be further analyzed to investigate longitudinal associations between sleep patterns and STEM outcomes.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.