This project integrates sensor technology with computing and information science in a standards-based science, technology, and engineering curricula. Project activities team GK-12 STEM Fellows with science, technology, and physical education teachers. Activities include both summer and academic year training in rural Kansas schools. In the summer, project staff provides fellows and teachers with training in hands-on, sensor-driven science, engineering, and technology development and appropriate pedagogical strategies. During the academic year, fellows support participating teachers in the classroom two times a week with content-specific sensor technology. The intellectual merit lies in the focus on the technology and engineering aspects of STEM education and on the use of sensors, computing, and information technology as the enabling element to facilitate hands-on technology and engineering education in areas related to telemedicine and precision agriculture.
Broader impacts include the establishment of sensor, computing, and information technology as a foundational high school skill by accelerating the integration of sensor technology content into Kansas high school science and technology classes. The curriculum is aligned with state curriculum standards. The project is innovative because it will enhance the usefulness, practicality, and relevance of sensor technology education by linking research for fellows to high school science and technology curriculum, and provide communication and research opportunities in sensor technology for doctoral students in engineering. This project encourages participation in engineering and technology from an even wider, more diverse group of students from rural Kansas.
