Pub Date : 2018-03-10DOI: 10.1109/ISECON.2018.8340479
V. R. Murthy
Myocardial infarction, commonly known as heart attack, is one of the major causes of death around the world. For many, heart attacks are unexpected and can occur at any time, especially if a person previously had a heart attack or any type of heart disease. The suddenness of a heart attack makes it difficult to detect and prevent it from occurring, resulting in death or irreversible injury to the heart. Finding a method of detecting a heart attack even five minutes before the attack occurs can be the time between life and death. My research aims to use a machine learning algorithm incorporated into a noninvasive biosensor for early detection of heart attacks. Users first enter factors such as biometrics, history of cardiac diseases, and habits. The biosensor will have a live feed of ECG data from the user. The neural network algorithm will take these initial factors as well as the ECG data to determine whether or not a user is experiencing a myocardial infarction. The neural network is trained by data from the PTB Diagnostic ECG Database from PhysioNet. This project will allow early detection of a heart attack, thus early treatment and a decreased possibility of death and long term tissue damage, and can also be used to track user heart health over a period of time.
{"title":"A novel device to detect myocardial infarction","authors":"V. R. Murthy","doi":"10.1109/ISECON.2018.8340479","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ISECON.2018.8340479","url":null,"abstract":"Myocardial infarction, commonly known as heart attack, is one of the major causes of death around the world. For many, heart attacks are unexpected and can occur at any time, especially if a person previously had a heart attack or any type of heart disease. The suddenness of a heart attack makes it difficult to detect and prevent it from occurring, resulting in death or irreversible injury to the heart. Finding a method of detecting a heart attack even five minutes before the attack occurs can be the time between life and death. My research aims to use a machine learning algorithm incorporated into a noninvasive biosensor for early detection of heart attacks. Users first enter factors such as biometrics, history of cardiac diseases, and habits. The biosensor will have a live feed of ECG data from the user. The neural network algorithm will take these initial factors as well as the ECG data to determine whether or not a user is experiencing a myocardial infarction. The neural network is trained by data from the PTB Diagnostic ECG Database from PhysioNet. This project will allow early detection of a heart attack, thus early treatment and a decreased possibility of death and long term tissue damage, and can also be used to track user heart health over a period of time.","PeriodicalId":186215,"journal":{"name":"2018 IEEE Integrated STEM Education Conference (ISEC)","volume":"133 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-03-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125943277","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-03-10DOI: 10.1109/ISECON.2018.8340467
J. Santiago-Avilés, Gerri Light
A course intended to integrate concepts of basic physics, biology, electronics, and systems engineering for the benefit of University of Pennsylvania engineering students, plus teachers and students from three community public schools located in Philadelphia. The course engaged participants in the design and the implementation of an indoor cultivating system using photo-voltaic technology to energize Light Emitting Diodes emulating the needed solar radiation for plant growth, a liquid nutrient distribution system, sensors / actuators capable of selecting the harvestable plants and keeping track of overall system parameters.
{"title":"Embedded controlled gardening: An academically based service course","authors":"J. Santiago-Avilés, Gerri Light","doi":"10.1109/ISECON.2018.8340467","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ISECON.2018.8340467","url":null,"abstract":"A course intended to integrate concepts of basic physics, biology, electronics, and systems engineering for the benefit of University of Pennsylvania engineering students, plus teachers and students from three community public schools located in Philadelphia. The course engaged participants in the design and the implementation of an indoor cultivating system using photo-voltaic technology to energize Light Emitting Diodes emulating the needed solar radiation for plant growth, a liquid nutrient distribution system, sensors / actuators capable of selecting the harvestable plants and keeping track of overall system parameters.","PeriodicalId":186215,"journal":{"name":"2018 IEEE Integrated STEM Education Conference (ISEC)","volume":"26 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-03-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131871042","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-03-10DOI: 10.1109/ISECON.2018.8340484
Fengda Zhu, Zeyu Liu, Ziyao Yan, Yu-Tung Liang
Employee's scheduling problem is a very state-of-the-art problem that increases the efficiency and saves labor force effectively. This paper studies three scenarios that come close to the real situation of a specific factory: the first one considers only the requirements of the devices and the physical condition in the factory, based on which, the second takes the resting time of the employee into account, and the third one attempts to make the workers work off-peak in order to further increase the efficiency. To transform a real-life problem into a mathematic model, we map the condition of the factory into a graph where the devices are the nodes and the paths between the devices are the edges. To find the required minimum labor force, we use the Floyd's Algorithm to generate the complete graph and calculate the Hamiltonian cycle of it. To distribute the tasks evenly to every employee, in the first and the second scenarios, we equally separate the whole graph into several sub-graphs based on the minimum spanning tree, resulting in four and five sub-graphs respectively. However, for the third scenario, with the advantage of working off-peak, letting all the employees follow the Hamiltonian cycle is more efficient than letting each of them be responsible for each sub-graph. In this case, working off-peak requires the least labor force and provides the time to rest and eat for the workers. This model of employee scheduling problem can be utilized and expanded to many other fields including nursing patients in a hospital etc.
{"title":"A study into employee scheduling problem based on graph theory algorithms","authors":"Fengda Zhu, Zeyu Liu, Ziyao Yan, Yu-Tung Liang","doi":"10.1109/ISECON.2018.8340484","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ISECON.2018.8340484","url":null,"abstract":"Employee's scheduling problem is a very state-of-the-art problem that increases the efficiency and saves labor force effectively. This paper studies three scenarios that come close to the real situation of a specific factory: the first one considers only the requirements of the devices and the physical condition in the factory, based on which, the second takes the resting time of the employee into account, and the third one attempts to make the workers work off-peak in order to further increase the efficiency. To transform a real-life problem into a mathematic model, we map the condition of the factory into a graph where the devices are the nodes and the paths between the devices are the edges. To find the required minimum labor force, we use the Floyd's Algorithm to generate the complete graph and calculate the Hamiltonian cycle of it. To distribute the tasks evenly to every employee, in the first and the second scenarios, we equally separate the whole graph into several sub-graphs based on the minimum spanning tree, resulting in four and five sub-graphs respectively. However, for the third scenario, with the advantage of working off-peak, letting all the employees follow the Hamiltonian cycle is more efficient than letting each of them be responsible for each sub-graph. In this case, working off-peak requires the least labor force and provides the time to rest and eat for the workers. This model of employee scheduling problem can be utilized and expanded to many other fields including nursing patients in a hospital etc.","PeriodicalId":186215,"journal":{"name":"2018 IEEE Integrated STEM Education Conference (ISEC)","volume":"17 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-03-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133094637","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-03-10DOI: 10.1109/ISECON.2018.8340499
Debra Brockway, Kenneth F. Llort
In this multi-year project, we are investigating the relative impact of engineering design formative assessment on student achievement with respect to science and engineering concepts and practices. We have created an engineering design formative assessment task for middle school students that can be integrated into existing science curricula. The task engages students in two virtual environments as they redesign a solar still to more effectively provide drinking water for families with access to ocean water but limited access to a reliable source of drinking water. We are using a pre/posttest design as a measure of the impact of the formative task on student achievement and will compare results between intervention and comparison classes across all students and for identified subgroups of students. A detailed discussion of the engineering design formative assessment task and the two virtual environments is provided. Discussion of other aspects of the project is limited to a general overview as we are in the early stages of data collection for this ongoing project.
{"title":"An engineering design formative assessment: A work in progress","authors":"Debra Brockway, Kenneth F. Llort","doi":"10.1109/ISECON.2018.8340499","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ISECON.2018.8340499","url":null,"abstract":"In this multi-year project, we are investigating the relative impact of engineering design formative assessment on student achievement with respect to science and engineering concepts and practices. We have created an engineering design formative assessment task for middle school students that can be integrated into existing science curricula. The task engages students in two virtual environments as they redesign a solar still to more effectively provide drinking water for families with access to ocean water but limited access to a reliable source of drinking water. We are using a pre/posttest design as a measure of the impact of the formative task on student achievement and will compare results between intervention and comparison classes across all students and for identified subgroups of students. A detailed discussion of the engineering design formative assessment task and the two virtual environments is provided. Discussion of other aspects of the project is limited to a general overview as we are in the early stages of data collection for this ongoing project.","PeriodicalId":186215,"journal":{"name":"2018 IEEE Integrated STEM Education Conference (ISEC)","volume":"20 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-03-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114712401","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-03-10DOI: 10.1109/ISECON.2018.8340465
Erik R. Mohlhenrich, Sergey V. Samsonau, Roxanne P. Spencer
The growing recognition that interdisciplinary approaches are needed to solve the most pressing issues in the modern world has led to a renewed focus on pedagogical integration particularly across STEM disciplines. While valuable, the emphasis on combining STEM disciplines ignores the unique aspects of science and the need to integrate both across and within the scientific disciplines themselves. Using multiple examples of student research projects, we highlight the ways in which authentic research at the secondary school level provides a natural platform for science integration and offers distinct benefits compared to research at the undergraduate level. Recommendations for the implementation of an authentic and integrated student research program in a secondary school are discussed.
{"title":"Integrating science through authentic research in secondary schools","authors":"Erik R. Mohlhenrich, Sergey V. Samsonau, Roxanne P. Spencer","doi":"10.1109/ISECON.2018.8340465","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ISECON.2018.8340465","url":null,"abstract":"The growing recognition that interdisciplinary approaches are needed to solve the most pressing issues in the modern world has led to a renewed focus on pedagogical integration particularly across STEM disciplines. While valuable, the emphasis on combining STEM disciplines ignores the unique aspects of science and the need to integrate both across and within the scientific disciplines themselves. Using multiple examples of student research projects, we highlight the ways in which authentic research at the secondary school level provides a natural platform for science integration and offers distinct benefits compared to research at the undergraduate level. Recommendations for the implementation of an authentic and integrated student research program in a secondary school are discussed.","PeriodicalId":186215,"journal":{"name":"2018 IEEE Integrated STEM Education Conference (ISEC)","volume":"12 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-03-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132897849","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In a collaboration between researchers at the Princeton Neuroscience Institute & Princeton Public Schools, we began a research and outreach project to investigate Dionaea muscipula, more commonly known as Venus Flytraps, electrophysiology and teach elementary school students about our findings. This plant exhibits a gating function wherein sequential activations of a “trigger hair,” a sense organ that detects disturbances in the trap, will cause the trap to shut. We examine how both the behavior and spike-characteristics of the Venus Flytrap respond to robust changes in ambient temperatures. We discovered that heat dramatically prolonged the gating function and also appears to simultaneously alter the structure of triggered action potentials; specifically, the ‘memory’ of the trap increased from 1 minute to 2.667 minute from room temperature to an elevated temperature (>30°C). We suspect that temperature-dependent proteins could account for the increase in plant “memory” between action potentials in heated plants. To test out this hypothesis, we will collect more data at a broader range of temperatures and examine changing protein expression profiles. This past year, we expanded our project to include an outreach component, wherein we designed and presented an hour-and-a-half long workshop for elementary school-age children. By evaluating growth through a self-designed SGO (student growth objective), we were able to quantify and evaluate our results and look to present at more venues. It was observed that after presentation the children's knowledge in the Pannell center about Venus Flytraps increased by 8.45% and in Plainsboro, the children's knowledge increased by 21.23%, as assessed through SGOs.
{"title":"The effect of temperature on the electrophysiology and behavior of venus flytraps","authors":"Simran Kaur, Sreyashi Ghosh, Juliet Malkowski, Aileen Wu","doi":"10.1109/ISECON.2018.8340477","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ISECON.2018.8340477","url":null,"abstract":"In a collaboration between researchers at the Princeton Neuroscience Institute & Princeton Public Schools, we began a research and outreach project to investigate Dionaea muscipula, more commonly known as Venus Flytraps, electrophysiology and teach elementary school students about our findings. This plant exhibits a gating function wherein sequential activations of a “trigger hair,” a sense organ that detects disturbances in the trap, will cause the trap to shut. We examine how both the behavior and spike-characteristics of the Venus Flytrap respond to robust changes in ambient temperatures. We discovered that heat dramatically prolonged the gating function and also appears to simultaneously alter the structure of triggered action potentials; specifically, the ‘memory’ of the trap increased from 1 minute to 2.667 minute from room temperature to an elevated temperature (>30°C). We suspect that temperature-dependent proteins could account for the increase in plant “memory” between action potentials in heated plants. To test out this hypothesis, we will collect more data at a broader range of temperatures and examine changing protein expression profiles. This past year, we expanded our project to include an outreach component, wherein we designed and presented an hour-and-a-half long workshop for elementary school-age children. By evaluating growth through a self-designed SGO (student growth objective), we were able to quantify and evaluate our results and look to present at more venues. It was observed that after presentation the children's knowledge in the Pannell center about Venus Flytraps increased by 8.45% and in Plainsboro, the children's knowledge increased by 21.23%, as assessed through SGOs.","PeriodicalId":186215,"journal":{"name":"2018 IEEE Integrated STEM Education Conference (ISEC)","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-03-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128666721","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-03-10DOI: 10.1109/ISECON.2018.8340510
N. Aish, Philip Asare, E. Miskioğlu
Despite efforts to increase participation of racial and ethnic minorities (excluding Asians) in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) in the United States, this group remains underrepresented in these fields. Many efforts to increase minority participation focus on support structures to help this group “get through” the pipeline. However, less attention has been paid to increasing their intrinsic motivation to pursue careers in STEM. Our work is focused on increasing this intrinsic motivation, looking at role models as external influences. Underrepresented minorities are faced with a limited role model pool and in many cases with role models (who we call outliers) whose paths to success and extraordinary achievements are difficult to emulate for the large majority of students. In this study of a representative sample of underrepresented minority students at a predominantly white small private liberal arts university, we show that students are accepting of non-outlier role models who are relatable and embody the qualities typically associated with the existing role models that they value. The evidence suggests that a larger more diverse pool of role models, that represent more feasible paths to success, can be created for this group. We envision a “People Like Me” website based on such a pool as a tool for increasing motivation and persistence of underrepresented minorities in their pursuit of STEM professions.
{"title":"People Like Me: Providing relatable and realistic role models for underrepresented minorities in STEM to increase their motivation and likelihood of success","authors":"N. Aish, Philip Asare, E. Miskioğlu","doi":"10.1109/ISECON.2018.8340510","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ISECON.2018.8340510","url":null,"abstract":"Despite efforts to increase participation of racial and ethnic minorities (excluding Asians) in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) in the United States, this group remains underrepresented in these fields. Many efforts to increase minority participation focus on support structures to help this group “get through” the pipeline. However, less attention has been paid to increasing their intrinsic motivation to pursue careers in STEM. Our work is focused on increasing this intrinsic motivation, looking at role models as external influences. Underrepresented minorities are faced with a limited role model pool and in many cases with role models (who we call outliers) whose paths to success and extraordinary achievements are difficult to emulate for the large majority of students. In this study of a representative sample of underrepresented minority students at a predominantly white small private liberal arts university, we show that students are accepting of non-outlier role models who are relatable and embody the qualities typically associated with the existing role models that they value. The evidence suggests that a larger more diverse pool of role models, that represent more feasible paths to success, can be created for this group. We envision a “People Like Me” website based on such a pool as a tool for increasing motivation and persistence of underrepresented minorities in their pursuit of STEM professions.","PeriodicalId":186215,"journal":{"name":"2018 IEEE Integrated STEM Education Conference (ISEC)","volume":"13 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-03-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128586669","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-03-10DOI: 10.1109/ISECON.2018.8340497
ChanJin Chung, Mark Kocherovsky
A holistic approach to integrate classroom physical activities and programming to animate the physical activities is presented. The goal of this CS+PA2 program is to introduce an effective learning model to teach computer science, coding, and STEM concepts. As an example of CS+PA2, we taught an experimental “MathDance” program to seventh grade students using the Scratch Programming. The assessment results (one assessment taken before the activities, one after) show that the MathDance program improved students' knowledge in math and computer science significantly. It also increased students' confidence in STEM classes and interest in STEM careers. Students who repeated the MathDance motions did better, though not statistically significant, on a mathematics and computer science test than those students who did not.
{"title":"CS+PA2: Learning computer science with physical activities and animation — A MathDance experiment","authors":"ChanJin Chung, Mark Kocherovsky","doi":"10.1109/ISECON.2018.8340497","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ISECON.2018.8340497","url":null,"abstract":"A holistic approach to integrate classroom physical activities and programming to animate the physical activities is presented. The goal of this CS+PA2 program is to introduce an effective learning model to teach computer science, coding, and STEM concepts. As an example of CS+PA2, we taught an experimental “MathDance” program to seventh grade students using the Scratch Programming. The assessment results (one assessment taken before the activities, one after) show that the MathDance program improved students' knowledge in math and computer science significantly. It also increased students' confidence in STEM classes and interest in STEM careers. Students who repeated the MathDance motions did better, though not statistically significant, on a mathematics and computer science test than those students who did not.","PeriodicalId":186215,"journal":{"name":"2018 IEEE Integrated STEM Education Conference (ISEC)","volume":"6 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-03-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127736296","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-03-10DOI: 10.1109/ISECON.2018.8340471
Filipo Sharevski, A. Trowbridge, Jessica Westbrook
Training the future cybersecurity workforce to respond to emerging threats requires introduction of novel educational interventions into the cybersecurity curriculum. To be effective, these interventions have to incorporate trending knowledge from cybersecurity and other related domains while allowing for experiential learning through hands-on experimentation. To date, the traditional interdisciplinary approach for cybersecurity training has infused political science, law, economics or linguistics knowledge into the cybersecurity curriculum, allowing for limited experimentation. Cybersecurity students were left with little opportunity to acquire knowledge, skills, and abilities in domains outside of these. Also, students in outside majors had no options to get into cybersecurity. With this in mind, we developed an interdisciplinary course for experiential learning in the fields of cybersecurity and interaction design. The inaugural course teaches students from cybersecurity, user interaction design, and visual design the principles of designing for secure use — or secure design — and allows them to apply them for prototyping of Internet-of-Things (IoT) products for smart homes. This paper elaborates on the concepts of secure design and how our approach enhances the training of the future cybersecurity workforce.
{"title":"Novel approach for cybersecurity workforce development: A course in secure design","authors":"Filipo Sharevski, A. Trowbridge, Jessica Westbrook","doi":"10.1109/ISECON.2018.8340471","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ISECON.2018.8340471","url":null,"abstract":"Training the future cybersecurity workforce to respond to emerging threats requires introduction of novel educational interventions into the cybersecurity curriculum. To be effective, these interventions have to incorporate trending knowledge from cybersecurity and other related domains while allowing for experiential learning through hands-on experimentation. To date, the traditional interdisciplinary approach for cybersecurity training has infused political science, law, economics or linguistics knowledge into the cybersecurity curriculum, allowing for limited experimentation. Cybersecurity students were left with little opportunity to acquire knowledge, skills, and abilities in domains outside of these. Also, students in outside majors had no options to get into cybersecurity. With this in mind, we developed an interdisciplinary course for experiential learning in the fields of cybersecurity and interaction design. The inaugural course teaches students from cybersecurity, user interaction design, and visual design the principles of designing for secure use — or secure design — and allows them to apply them for prototyping of Internet-of-Things (IoT) products for smart homes. This paper elaborates on the concepts of secure design and how our approach enhances the training of the future cybersecurity workforce.","PeriodicalId":186215,"journal":{"name":"2018 IEEE Integrated STEM Education Conference (ISEC)","volume":"81 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-03-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132241187","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-03-10DOI: 10.1109/ISECON.2018.8340459
George G. Boateng, V. Kumbol
Technological innovation has the potential to speed up development. However, in most African countries the education system is largely theoretical in nature with inadequate attention to STEM education. In effect, students leave school lacking critical skills which are necessary in today's global economy. We developed and implemented a project-based learning program to provide hands on STEM education to 27 high school students in Ghana through which students developed solutions to real-life problems in Ghana's agricultural sector. Our evaluation of the program revealed a statistically significant improvement in students' self-reported proficiency of the innovation process and core coding concepts. All the students reported that they had been inspired to solve problems in their communities and would recommend others to attend the program. Hence, given the results reported here, our program can serve as a tool to introduce high school students to innovation and real-world problem solving. Our Project iSWEST model can be implemented in other African countries to promote a culture of innovation and help catalyze development.
{"title":"Project iSWEST: Promoting a culture of innovation in Africa through STEM","authors":"George G. Boateng, V. Kumbol","doi":"10.1109/ISECON.2018.8340459","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ISECON.2018.8340459","url":null,"abstract":"Technological innovation has the potential to speed up development. However, in most African countries the education system is largely theoretical in nature with inadequate attention to STEM education. In effect, students leave school lacking critical skills which are necessary in today's global economy. We developed and implemented a project-based learning program to provide hands on STEM education to 27 high school students in Ghana through which students developed solutions to real-life problems in Ghana's agricultural sector. Our evaluation of the program revealed a statistically significant improvement in students' self-reported proficiency of the innovation process and core coding concepts. All the students reported that they had been inspired to solve problems in their communities and would recommend others to attend the program. Hence, given the results reported here, our program can serve as a tool to introduce high school students to innovation and real-world problem solving. Our Project iSWEST model can be implemented in other African countries to promote a culture of innovation and help catalyze development.","PeriodicalId":186215,"journal":{"name":"2018 IEEE Integrated STEM Education Conference (ISEC)","volume":"32 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-03-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127265766","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
京公网安备 11010802042870号
京ICP备2023020795号-1
扫码关注我们
求助内容：
应助结果提醒方式：