SBIR Phase I: Modular BUGBook Activities for Teaching Physics

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project aims to develop PhysBUG, a hand held hardware module that contains a physics workbook on the device, called BUGbook, that will evolve to a toolset that includes a combination of instruction, measurement, inquiry, and design. PhysBUG address the current concern about advancing students as scientifically literate citizens. PhysBUG will solve the problem by teaching students to balance traditional content learning and knowing when and how to apply the learning using PhysBUG as a toolset for both types of learning in a singular device. PhysBUG removes the abstraction of using multiple devices to attain, understand and chart data. The innovation is the combination of Rogers/Danahy?s patent-pending workbook concept, on-board curriculum, and the inclusiveness of sensors to satisfy exploratory experimental needs of students on one piece of hardware. Overall, PhysBUG innovates the ways which experiments are completed and logged within a classroom. The broader/commercial impact of this project will be the potential create an open source providing the opportunity for a growing community to enhance and modify the hardware as well as personalizing and improving the design. Open source devices are lacking from the science education market and much can be learned with the basis of open hardware. Our target market is high school science teachers. The end goal of this research is a $60 USD module, the PhysBUG, which will be available for purchase. Sixty dollars USD is an attainable amount for educational institutions, making the device more competitive in that market. The research collected will allow the company to tweak their design and find other markets to expand which include other curriculum and hardware-based educational platforms, leveraging the open-source nature of all BUG products.