This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project aims to develop PhysBUG, a hand held hardware module that contains a physics workbook on the device, called BUGbook, that will evolve to a toolset that includes a combination of instruction, measurement, inquiry, and design. PhysBUG address the current concern about advancing students as scientifically literate citizens. PhysBUG will solve the problem by teaching students to balance traditional content learning and knowing when and how to apply the learning using PhysBUG as a toolset for both types of learning in a singular device. PhysBUG removes the abstraction of using multiple devices to attain, understand and chart data. The innovation is the combination of Rogers/Danahy?s patent-pending workbook concept, on-board curriculum, and the inclusiveness of sensors to satisfy exploratory experimental needs of students on one piece of hardware. Overall, PhysBUG innovates the ways which experiments are completed and logged within a classroom.
The broader/commercial impact of this project will be the potential create an open source providing the opportunity for a growing community to enhance and modify the hardware as well as personalizing and improving the design. Open source devices are lacking from the science education market and much can be learned with the basis of open hardware. Our target market is high school science teachers. The end goal of this research is a $60 USD module, the PhysBUG, which will be available for purchase. Sixty dollars USD is an attainable amount for educational institutions, making the device more competitive in that market. The research collected will allow the company to tweak their design and find other markets to expand which include other curriculum and hardware-based educational platforms, leveraging the open-source nature of all BUG products.
" in the Education Application (EA) topic and the EA1 subtopic: Teaching and Learning Applications, the successes far outweighed the problems in our research objectives. Two prototypes of products were successfully created with the funding of this grant. The PhysBUG, a physical data collection device with onboard sensors, and the BUGBook, a browser-based platform for viewing and manipulating the data within interactive digital curriculum. These two products were tested in two classroom settings, one in New York and one in New Hampshire. The feedback from teachers and students was overall positive. The PhysBUGs had a good user interface, and wireless that made transferring data easy. BUGBooks, as a browser based system, could be leveraged from anywhere allowing a heightened amount accessibility and collaboration. Significant research was completed in these ten areas: (1) Development of PhysBUG hardware and sensors (2) Wireless integration, including new BUG RF module (3) Power management/battery investigations and developments (4) BUGBook software integration (5) BUGBook Control Panel Interface software development (6) Development of physics classroom activities (7) In-classroom competitor comparison tests (8) User experience testing/feedback (9) Teacher product perspectives (10) Housing explorations This research assisted in decisions about the hardware platform, the software and the curriculum integration. The intellectual merit of the PhysBUG and BUGBooks proposal was in melding hardware, software and curriculum together in one device. The PhysBUG connects wirelessly to the BUGBook interface developed Dr. Ethan Danahy at Tufts Center for Engineering Education Outreach. Students and teachers successfully used the device in their classrooms and observations were collected that more self-directed experiments happened, rather than the teacher directing the assignment. Students were also more creative in thinking up experiments than they had been with past assignments. The broader impacts of PhysBUG encompass an inexpensive price point and a hands-on approach to help more students in more classrooms benefit from our innovation. The PhysBUG price point was aimed at $60 USD to help schools in all demographics. While PhysBUGs have not been manufactured yet, the price point of $60 is attainable at a medium-sized manufacturing run. The physical nature of the PhysBUG platform coupled with the online component helps more types of learners who require hands-on approaches and need the real-world context to facilitate comprehension. Thank You.
