Engaging Teachers and Children in the Physics of Waves through the Connections with Music

Poster

The connections with music present a great opportunity for engaging children in the science of sound, and science in general. With this goal, our program has been creating a series of web applications and hands-on activities that allow children to explore, visualize, and play with sound. Our previous work, carried out in the classroom with heavy involvement of our team, showed that the approach was effective for increasing children’s engagement with science.

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QuEST: Quantum Education for Students and Teachers

Poster

QuEST develops and researches practices in precollege quantum science and computing instruction that are aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards. The goals include the development of (1) quantum knowledge and quantum computing practices that promote critical thinking, reasoning, and communication skills; and (2) student awareness and interest in quantum computing careers and academic pathways.

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YouthAstroNet: The Sky Belongs to Everyone

Poster

The YouthAstroNet project is scaling up a program & online learning platform for youth ages 11-14 that features customized access to robotic telescopes, support for learner-driven engagement with scientific and computational analysis tools and practices, and interactions with digital STEM mentors.

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Empowering Informal Educators to Prepare Future Generations in Wireless Radio Communications w/ Mobile Resources

Poster

We are developing an innovative suite of mobile-ready learning resources for informal educators to support youth and the public’s understanding of wifi and radio frequency communications from digital apps to a craft kits, summer radio camps, videos and activity guides in English and Spanish. These learning and teaching resources were informed by user evaluations, co-design and values mapping towards inclusive design.

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Career Exploration Lab: 3D Printing and STEM Engagement for High School Students with Visual Impairments and their Educators

Poster

The STEM Career Exploration Lab (CEL) program is conducting across the United States a series of summer camps for high school students with Blindness / Visual Impairment (B/VI) to stimulate their interest in STEM fields and STEM careers. We use astronomy and assistive technologies, including 3D printing and 3D printed tactile models, to bolster students' STEM skills.

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Accessible Playground Design: A Community-Connected Elementary Engineering Unit Focused on Designing Accessible Playground Equipment

Publications

In the ConnecTions in the Making project, researchers and district partners work to develop and study community-connected, integrated science and engineering curriculum units that support diverse elementary students’ science and engineering ideas, practices, and attitudes. In the community-connected units, students in the third, fourth, and fifth grades use human-centered design strategies to prototype and share functional solutions to a design challenge rooted in the students’ local community while scientifically exploring the phenomena and mechanisms related to the challenge.One of the units

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Simulation Technology and Student Engagement

Publications

An authentic learning environment with the integration of technology can effectively engage students and improve their academic performance. Technology can support learning situations that relate to real life, and provide opportunities for inquiry and collaboration, fostering engagement. This paper will provide details of an authentic learning environment that utilizes flight simulation software to engage middle school students in the learning of several math and science concepts. Active learning lessons were developed using missions flown on the flight simulator. The pedagogical approach was

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Mapping Students’ Engineering Processes with Design Zones

Publications
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The engineering design process (EDP) can be a wonderful tool to nurture creative problem-solving abilities, prepare students to tackle problems with intentional planning, and encourage learning from failures. Many lesson plans and instructional strategies are guided by the EDP (Hill Cunningham, Mott, and Hunt 2018). Visual representations of the EDP often show a set of actions arranged in a cycle. For example, many of you are probably familiar with the Engineering is Elementary graphical aid that shows five labeled steps, “Ask, imagine, plan, create, improve” (Museum of Science, Boston 2020)

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