Customizable Math Problem Solving to Improve STEM Instruction in Grades 3-8

High-quality schools positively impact rural economics by producing theeducated labor force needed to attract business/industry to the areas. The greatest source of ahighly educated population in rural areas is native individuals who attended college locally orwho return home after completing their education elsewhere.To guarantee that students haveopportunities to enter STEM careers in rural communities their schools must provide a high- quality education that includes foundational STEM concepts before high school.Sparking mathinterest in elementary school is more effective in creating the motivation to enter STEM careerpaths than are later efforts to encourage high school students to take more-advanced courses.Byeighth grade almost half of students are no longer interested in STEM or believe it is irrelevantto their education.Early STEM engagement is critical. An effective teacher is the mostimportant factor in a student's academic success yet issues including teacher shortages and highturnover rates affect teacher quality in rural areas. This can have lasting effects on thepreparedness of rural workforces to meet the employment demands of technology firms that ruralcommunities are seeking to attract.The overall goal of this multi-phase SBIR project Math YourWay is to develop validate and commercialize an innovative software platform that pairsSTEM career focused informational texts with customizable problem-solving situations andrd th embedded simulations to significantly improve elementary and middle school (3 -8 grade)math and literacy instruction.The innovation of the Math Your Way program is the ability topersonalize problem-solving instruction through text simulation and problem customization andtargeted adaptive feedback.This allows teachers to meet the needs of all students in diverseclassrooms so they can learn in their individual zones of proximal development. Phase I SBIRObjectives are designed to demonstrate concept feasibility of 1) allowing mathematics teachersto improve disciplinary literacy instruction; 2) enabling teachers to differentiate problem-solvinginstruction more effectively than is possible with teachers' current differentiation methods; 3)using Math Your Way to better teach students to solve real-world problems; and 4) using MathYour Way to increase student interest in and appreciation for STEM; and 5) positively impactingthe socio-economic development of rural areas.A pilot test and usability study followed by ard th feasibility study for 3 -8 grade teachers and students will provide qualitative and quantitativedata before and after use of the platform.Data will be analyzed and compared with controlclassroom data.Potential Commercial Applications:StarrMatica's initial target market is rural school districtswith over 9.1 million students and ~916000 classrooms. We will expand that market to includeelementary and middle schools across the U.S. given that only 40% of fourth graders and 34%of eighth graders nationwide are proficient in math as measured by the 2018 NationalAssessment of Educational Progress.The primary drivers in the target market are the needimprove math performance and to provide personalized learning.The top K-12 technologyspending priorities on the 2017-2018 Center for Digital Education survey were:1) personalizedlearning and 2) digital content/curriculum. Math Your Way is expected to be the onlysupplementary math software product to a) focus on real-world STEM problem-solving thatrd th bridges 3 -8 grade b) highlight STEM careers to increase STEM interest and awareness c)integrate disciplinary literacy and math instruction d) incorporate adaptive feedback thatencourages productive struggle e) provide multiple entry points to a single problem and f) allowteachers to customize the informational text simulation and related math problems.