SBIR Phase II: An interactive digital textbook that supports earth science learning

This SBIR Phase I project will produce an innovative reading application and administrative portal to support science learning. Although the science textbook is a central curricular resource, this resource is often inaccessible and difficult to read. Science textbooks are syntactically (grammatically) and semantically (word meaning) complex. Specifically, elementary and secondary science texts are often written 3 to 5 years beyond what is developmentally appropriate. Because of these complexities, science textbooks often overwhelm students' working memory, preventing them from constructing accurate mental representations of the target concepts. Thus, this project will develop and test a multiplatform, personalizable e-reader with embedded reading and language support. The intellectual merit of the effort resides in its ability to improve science comprehension through personalized and adaptive content. This project will produce content and assessments targeting the Next Generation Science Standards associated with Earth and Space Science. The customizable features will make fundamental science knowledge more accessible and interesting to students -- and thus the Public. Given these benefits, it has strong potential to support future generations of STEM professionals and a more scientifically literate citizenry. This project will produce a multiplatform reading application to support science learning. The key innovation will be to make science content adaptable and adjustable for learners. This Phase II project has five technical goals: (a) develop and test the e-reader to work via tablet and mobile web; (b) develop and test enhanced reading features; (c) develop and test administrative and payment portals; (d) develop and curate NGSS-aligned content and assessments; (e) conduct user testing with students and teachers. During Phase II, the project team will address some technological challenges in bringing this innovation to market. The key features of the interactive reading application create a potential for unnecessary memory load. This technological challenge will be overcome by architecting the program to be highly preprocessed and modular. A second challenge is providing secure access to multi-tiered users. This technical challenge will be overcome by architecting the program to allow for secure, multiple group membership, ensuring data visibility and security. A diverse SquidBooks team, with expertise in business, software design and engineering, educational research and measurement, science education, writing, and science will achieve these goals of this Phase II project. 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.