1. Todd Kelley
  2. Dr
  3. TRAILS
  4. https://polytechnic.purdue.edu/trails
  5. Purdue University
  1. Jeffrey Holland
  2. Dr.
  3. TRAILS
  4. https://polytechnic.purdue.edu/trails
  5. Purdue University
Public Discussion

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  • Icon for: Todd Kelley

    Todd Kelley

    Lead Presenter
    Dr
    May 15, 2017 | 09:28 a.m.

    Teachers and Researchers Advancing Integrated Lessons in STEM is an I-TEST in our second year of funding. We are excited to host a full cohort of science and engineering/technology teachers for two weeks of professional development in June.  The PD will focus on using engineering design and scientific inquiry with entomology as the context for biomimicry inspired design.  Teachers learn how to use 3D printing to enhance STEM learning and address 21st Century Skills.  Featuring a integrated STEM lesson that provide opportunities for teachers to investigate a local pond for aquatic insects and use these examples to design and 3D print bio-mimicry inspired fishing lures mathematically analyzed for buoyancy.  Teachers use this lesson unit example to inspire their own co-create integrated STEM lesson in week #2 of the PD.

    TRAILS also builds a Community of Practice of industry partners and experts in biomimicry, adaptive manufacturing, 3D scanning, and innovation to increase teachers knowledge in STEM careers. Preliminary research results indicate TRAILS has helped increase teacher's self-efficacy and career awareness in STEM fields.  Student data is currently under analysis from cohort 1. For more information about our theoretical model see https://stemeducationjournal.springeropen.com/a...

     

  • Icon for: Jennifer Yurof

    Jennifer Yurof

    Facilitator
    May 15, 2017 | 09:24 p.m.

    Hi Todd and Jeffrey - thanks for sharing your work! The teachers seem truly engaged and inspired by the professional development. I have a few questions - How do you maintain contact with them after the workshop? How were teachers selected to participate?  Did you provide supplies for the teachers to use with their students?

    I look forward to hearing more about TRAILS!

  • Icon for: Jeffrey Holland

    Jeffrey Holland

    Co-Presenter
    May 16, 2017 | 10:05 a.m.

    Hi Jennifer,

         Yes, we had a great connection with the teachers during the professional development.  We have an online Community of Practice to remain engaged.  This includes all participants: researchers, teachers, and industry partners.  We also visit some of the classrooms for helping with classes and for the research on student learning.

         The teachers are provided with all of the materials necessary for the aquatic insect part of the lesson (sampling and identifying aquatic insects), and for the 3-D printing. 

         Regarding the selection process, we focus on rural schools that have 3-D printing hardware and parametric modeling software. 

  • Icon for: Todd Kelley

    Todd Kelley

    Lead Presenter
    Dr
    May 16, 2017 | 03:04 p.m.

    Jennifer,

      I would also add that we stay connected with the teachers with follow-on sessions using WebEx and we had excellent participation as well as one follow-on session on campus in the middle of the year.  Teachers had to apply to TRAILS and they had to come in pairs (one science and one engineering/technology teachers), they also had to commit to collaborate to integrated STEM lessons and the school administration has to commit to support this effort. We do provide teachers with a kit of materials for the exemplar lesson called Dbait an purchased materials to support their second lesson they co-created.

    Thanks,

    Todd

  • Icon for: Steven Rogg

    Steven Rogg

    Facilitator
    Associate Professor of Education - STEM
    May 15, 2017 | 11:09 p.m.

    So, I happened to have spent my afternoon today with 25 high school students in an experience that also involved water sampling in a local river. We hadn't considered 3-D printing the macroinvertebrates (or the leeches). I'd love to hear more abut the design challenges! (I am disappointed, however, that the video did not end with"Boiler up!")

  • Icon for: Jeffrey Holland

    Jeffrey Holland

    Co-Presenter
    May 16, 2017 | 10:33 a.m.

    Hello Steven,

         Anything that gets students interacting with their outdoor environment is great.  If you are interested in an activity to evaluate water quality with aquatic insects, my graduate student Julie Speelman developed such an activity that we are using as an "add-on module" with the TRAILS lessons.  It is available at the Purdue Education Store.

     
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    Discussion is closed. Upvoting is no longer available

    Steven Rogg, Ph.D.
  • Icon for: Heidi Larson

    Heidi Larson

    Facilitator
    Project Director
    May 15, 2017 | 11:17 p.m.

    I liked that you're using insects as your base -- an element present in every environment and thus scalable yet, despite their commonalities, there are so many differences between the species to keep the lessons interesting and variable. 

    I'm also interested in Jennifer's question of how you're tracking the impact on teachers once they leave the PD. Also, how did you go about establishing the community of practice of industry partners and experts? 

  • Icon for: Todd Kelley

    Todd Kelley

    Lead Presenter
    Dr
    May 16, 2017 | 02:55 p.m.

    Heidi,

    Great question about tracking progress. We have three rounds of surveys that track teachers self-efficacy, STEM career awareness, and implementation of engineering design and technology throughout the academic year.  We also have follow-on sessions, some on-line WebEx and one face to face in the middle of the academic year.  The WebEx session was so successful that we will have more of them for cohort II during the year.  Teachers enjoyed checking in with colleagues from other schools and sharing best practices via distance.  This method was much better participation than a blog discussion post. Our external evaluation team also conducts focus groups to help us track progress and identify pitfalls. 

    Establish the community of practice has been easier than expected.  It helps that we are located in the Midwest with many industries right in town such as Caterpillar and Subaru as well as Purdue STEM faculty. We have worked hard to establish partnerships and reach out to our greater community and they have responded.  We have guest speakers everyday of the two week institute and from there teachers connect with these experts during the year.

    Thanks,

    Todd

     
    1
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    Heidi Larson
  • Icon for: Heidi Larson

    Heidi Larson

    Facilitator
    Project Director
    May 17, 2017 | 11:03 p.m.

    That's amazing that you have guest speakers every day! It is interesting about the blog discussion post. These used to be the way to go, but I'm wondering if with so many opportunities to connect via quick and easy online correspondence (e.g. Facebook, Twitter), teachers and other professionals now see more relevance in real-time, deeper connections. We have also mostly dropped online discussions in our work. 

    Did you develop your own surveys? Or were you able to use ones already developed and validated? 

  • Icon for: Todd Kelley

    Todd Kelley

    Lead Presenter
    Dr
    May 18, 2017 | 10:58 a.m.

    Heidi,

      We have used existing instruments such as the STEBI, T-STEM, and DET surveys for teachers for pre/post and delayed post assessments.  These worked well for the goals of our project.  We did create our own knowledge tests for students STEM knowledge.  We also used 21st century rubrics from the Buck Institute for PBL (Boss, 2012) that we modified for our state standards.  This has worked well to assess 21st century skills.  We are grateful these various instruments exist so we can focus our efforts in other areas and many of the instruments have already gone through validation and reliability tests.

    Todd

     
    1
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    Heidi Larson
  • Icon for: Heidi Larson

    Heidi Larson

    Facilitator
    Project Director
    May 18, 2017 | 07:10 p.m.

    Thanks for your response, and I'm glad you were able to focus on your key research questions rather than on developing measurement tools.

  • Icon for: Heidi Larson

    Heidi Larson

    Facilitator
    Project Director
    May 18, 2017 | 07:14 p.m.

    I've appreciated learning about your project. It also reminds me of Harvard's eco-mobile, where kids go off to a pond using water testing probes and augmented reality to engage with the ecosystem: http://ecolearn.gse.harvard.edu/ecoMOBILE/overv.... I think there's a virtual simulation as well. I appreciate that you're helping teachers help kids see the relationship between the environment in which they live and the science they are learning!

    My only request for your video would be to turn down the background music. For me it was a bit distracting and I had to strain to hear the people talking. 

    Nice job, and best of luck! 

  • Icon for: Heidi Larson

    Heidi Larson

    Facilitator
    Project Director
    May 18, 2017 | 08:09 p.m.

    Just discovered that the newest version of the Harvard virtual simulation ecosystem project has a video here, if you're interested: http://stemforall2017.videohall.com/presentatio...

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