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

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.