Solving human health problems often involves technologies developed through the collaborative work of scientists, engineers, and mathematicians. Despite the fact that STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) collaboration is a crucial aspect of medical research and healthcare careers, many students are still learning science, engineering, and math as isolated disciplines. In addition, many teachers have limited time and resources for designing and preparing hands-on STEM activities. The overall goal for this Phase II SBIR project is to develop, evaluate, and disseminate hands-on Science Take-Out STEM and Health kits that illustrate how integration of STEM disciplines is important for solving human health problems. This project will expand on our Phase I SBIR project in which we developed three middle school level STEM and Health kits. During this Phase II SBIR project we will meet the following objectives: 1. Develop and evaluate three high school level STEM and Health kits 2. Develop and use reliable and valid pre/post assessments for each of the six Science Take-Out STEM and Health kits (three middle school kits and three high school kits) to determine the impact that the kits have on student learning 3. Develop and evaluate workshop materials that will be used by ?teacher-presenters? to lead STEM and Health workshops for their peers This proposed project is significant because it will build the capacity of secondary school teachers to use hands-on activities that integrate STEM concepts with real-life topics related to human health problems and solutions. This project will significantly increase teachers' use of integrated STEM activities by providing them with content-rich, hands-on activities packaged in ready-to-use kits. The convenience of inexpensive, pre- assembled Science Take-Out kits will allow efficient and economical access to materials for hands-on integrated STEM activities. This project will also allow us to explore strategies needed to overcome the barriers that teachers face when adopting and incorporating integrated STEM activities into their curriculums. This proposed project is innovative because the STEM and Health kits use real-life scenarios and hands-on activities to integrate STEM content and practices with health science education. In addition, the innovative characteristics of Science Take-Out kits increase the likelihood of adoption of these new educational materials by busy teachers. This project will also support peer-led professional development workshops - led by teachers for their colleagues ? in order to further increase teachers' capacity to integrate health science and STEM.
of this project to public health is that the Science Take-Out STEM and Health kits will provide secondary school teachers with access to hands-on lessons and lab activities which will help their students to master scientific subject matter and develop their scientific reasoning skills. This project will have a positive impact on teachers' abilities to use hands-on activities that integrate STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) concepts into real-life topics related to human health problems and solutions. The Science Take-Out kits to be developed in this project will increase students' understanding of STEM concepts and they will also become better informed on decisions involving their health.
