PARTICIPATING INSTITUTIONS: Sinclair Community College Butler Community College Purdue University
PROJECT DESCRIPTION The project is exploring the design and manufacturing of guitars to better engage students that otherwise may not be connected to STEM oriented subject matter. It uses the context of building a guitar to explore difficult theoretical concepts (e.g., relationship of the time/frequency domains) and advance STEM learning by: 1) quantifying the student learning gains that result from the implementation of the new STEM guitar curriculum, 2) improving and expanding a variety of faculty professional development activities, and 3) focusing additional curriculum development activities to incorporate national standards and address gaps in skills that are identified by industry participants. Comprehensive ten-day faculty professional development institutes are being conducted to engage faculty teams in the discovery of new STEM learning tools/techniques and build a diverse community of regional partners.
BROADER SIGNIFICANCE More than 19,000 students are being impacted during the course of the three-year effort, as a result of faculty members adopting or adapting the curriculum developed through the project. Working with their peers and professional development institute facilitators, educators are studying the STEM principles associated with building guitars and developing applied STEM learning activities that are aligned with core curriculum national standards. Faculty are being recruited from underserved populations and are preparing a website to enable high school students to experiment with the physics, mathematics, and engineering design/manufacturing concepts that are associated with the project. The project's website offers educators widespread access to an exciting STEM learning community, allowing them to keep in contact with other professionals who are engaged in the curriculum implementation and professional development activities.
