Ideas for STEM Initiatives

[Abby Kelton]

One of the districts we work with is looking for examples of what other districts are doing with STEM initiatives. If you are aware of any examples in Ohio, please let us know! Thanks.

[Abby Kelton]

For some examples of successful STEM school initiatives, visit the Ohio STEM Learning Network website. They provide a good overview of STEM principles, and descriptions of STEM schools across the country.

Since this was an Ohio-specific website I was surprised to see only one Ohio school mentioned - Metro High School in Columbus as one of the examples. Are any OETN'ers familiar with this school, or with other STEM schools in Ohio?

The only other one I'm aware of is Dayton Regional STEM school, slated to open in 2009.

[matt.howard]

I've had a STEM-like idea rolling around in my head for awhile now. It's centered on a piece of open-source hardware called the Arudino (http://www.arduino.cc) that would be used to build a low-cost/high function data collection platform. Imagine something like a tricorder form Star Trek, but with an open design so people in the STEM community could extend and modify it as they need.

If you've seen the BUG Lab products (http://www.buglabs.net/products) you get the idea, but we need something at a much lower cost. The ability to snap modules together is great in theory, but it seems like the engineering hurdles around device auto-recognition (and associated firmware issues) raises the complexity by an order of magnitude.

My goal would be to integrate the commonly needed modules on the basic chassis. You would need a small LCD, a 1+ Mpixel camera, a GPS receiver with patch antenna, a flash storage port, and at least 3 analog-digital ports with connectors for commonly used probe. The computing would be powered by 2x Arduino's (Amtel Mega168 micrcontrollers).

It occurs to me at this point that I should start a new forum topic around the device itself, because it's only a portion of the STEM initiative. The goal is to use it as an easily accessible platform for learning. Some low-hanging areas to do this include:

Fabricating the actual devices. since it's open-source hardware, the designs, manufacturing files, parts lists, etc would all be online along with sources to have printed circuit boards manufactured for extremely low costs. advanced students could use the design as a gateway into electronic design, mechanical design, and even user-interface design/human factors. Additionally, a school could partner with a local career technical school for fabrication. Simply implementing the device as designed could be a term-long project. Extending the device's capabilities to meet other needs presents many opportunities for advanced study, including non-technical activities to understand the users' goals, constraints, etc.

Using the device The point of the device, regardless of if they are purchased or built locally, is to use them in the curriculum. By using existing probes (temperature, pH, etc), the device could extend existing probe-based activities to a wider pool (assuming that the unit cost is cheaper that current data aquisition devices). However, by leveraging the convergence of the on board modules (camera, GPS, probes, user defined buttons, accelerometers, flash memory), it's possible to create a new class of environmental survey projects with a rich set of automatically created metadata. For example, mapping the spread of invasive species in a local park using photos and soil readings automatically tagged with GPS data.

This data provides the foundation for classroom analysis and additional research. The result could be to formulate a remediation plan, and share it with the local planning committee.

This is an idea near and dear to my heart, and I'm willing to work on the hardware/software end it, but I'm looking for a school to work with on it.

Matt

[Dr. Cheryl L. Ward]

Abby,
Akron Public Schools are in the process of starting a STEM school housed in the Inventor's Hall of Fame. They will be starting out with a 5-6 MS and will add 7-8 and then a HS. I have worked with the curriculum and technology committee on the project. Great project...Akron is doing a wonderful job planning this innovative school. We just finished developing online PD for the first group of teachers being hired..the PD is to develop foundational beliefs around curriculum, instruction and assessment in an ONLINE professional learning community. We are embedding Web 2.0 technologies into the PD to model these emerging Internet technologies for teachers hoping they will then understand how to embed them into their STEM classrooms.

I love Matt's ideas around gathering data with these open source, inexpensive technology tools...real data for teachers about students and real data for students about content is the core of a successful STEM initiative.