NSF Awards: 1759000
The use of the human body can be an amazing learning manipulative in the teaching of P6 STEM concepts. This project, called Biomechanics to Offer Diverse Young Minds Opportunities to Develop, Explore, and Learn STEM (BODYMODELS) is an ITEST Strategies project designed to investigate the potential of a learning model that leverages the technology-rich and interdisciplinary STEM context of Biomechanics to enhance the understanding of mathematics and science concepts and the interest of students in STEM occupations among elementary students in grades 3-6. The project purses the following four objectives:
1) Train cohorts of 3rd–6th grade in-service teachers to become knowledgeable and effective STEM instructors who can confidently integrate technology-enhanced Biomechanics lessons into their school’s STEM disciplines.
2) Empower the teachers by helping them develop and pilot Biomechanics lesson modules, hands-on activities, instructional methods, and personal implementation plans, including for culturally relevant pedagogy in the context of inquiry-based lessons.
3) Partner with organizations in the Omaha Citywide STEM Ecosystem to engage diverse professionals in Biomechanics-related fields to assist teachers in developing and refining their personal implementation plans.
4) Investigate the impacts of the Biomechanics intervention on teachers’ and students’ confidence in teaching and learning STEM concepts and their attitudes toward the STEM disciplines, as well as on student STEM content knowledge.
This video overviews the shared approaches of the project, and its many collaborative partners.
Neal Grandgenett
32 years
Hi everyone,
Welcome to our BODYMODELS video! We are excited that you stopped by to take a look at the video and we are so pleased you are here. We are a bit curious on whether you see the use or integration of the field of biomechanics to learn STEM topics in elementary, middle, or high school instruction in your area schools? Cheers, Neal Grandgenett, PI
DeLene Hoffner
Lead Teacher
I really enjoyed your video and project. What were your most profound lessons learned through your work?
Amelia Lanier Knarr
Instructor
One of the biggest lessons I learned was how standards focused/centric the teachers were throughout the development of the Storylines. My background is in biomechanics and engineering so working with teachers was new to me, so hearing the teachers discuss which standards would best apply to their classrooms was incredibly informative for me. It was also interesting because some of the standards I assumed would be simple to address with biomechanics were not the standards teachers were considering. So one lesson I would take forward would be to understand the important/valued standards for each teacher from the very beginning.
Myriam Steinback
Independent Consultant
Your project sounds very interesting. I saw a lot of excitement on the part of teachers and students. It would be helpful to learn about exactly what the students are doing - I wonder if you can give some examples. Thanks.
Michelle Friend
Assistant Professor
There was a huge variety! Each teacher worked to create lessons that fit with their own grade level and standards. We had one teacher who had students design their own animal using clay, experimenting with having a metal skeleton or not; one teacher jumped on an ice storm to have students engage in inquiry about balance and walking on ice; a few used kamigami robots to have students learn about how animals move and about habitats.
Myriam Steinback
Independent Consultant
Thanks for clarifying, Michelle - teachers are amazing in their creativity! Did you offer suggestions, or was it all up to them? Wonderful lessons, no doubt.
Josie Melton
Post-Doctoral Researcher and Senior Instructor
Thanks for sharing - Besides leveraging professionals in Biomechanics fields to support teachers in lesson planning, how do students make connections between the activites and related STEM occupations to address the project goal of increasing interest in STEM fields? How does this project measure the impacts on students' interest in STEM occupations? This is an exciting aspect of the project!
Michelle Friend
Assistant Professor
Not surprisingly, the teachers usually have to make fairly explicit connections between careers and activities unless it's relatively obvious. But one of the amazing outcomes was the extent to which teachers really identified the ways in which biomechanics is evident in many, many careers, such as how ice skaters use their bodies to control things like how fast they spin, and how coaches can use that knowledge to help athletes.
Because the local school districts are naturally protective of students, we were only able to directly measure student outcomes during our one-week summer 'camp' during the professional development. We did find some gains, but of course it is a long time between elementary school and careers, so we also recognize the impact of just inspiring students to know there are careers in fields they hadn't even realized existed.
Josie Melton
Post-Doctoral Researcher and Senior Instructor
I agree that helping students make connections between what they are learning and potential careers can make strong impressions, even on the youngest students. Thanks for your response.
DeLene Hoffner
Lead Teacher
Bravo to all for this wonderful discussion! Thank you for viewing and adding your questions and expertise. Please share the STEM Showcase with others so they can participate in the discussion too. Let's get more educators involved in viewing these top projects. Voting and discussion ends on May 18th at 8PM EDT. (but viewing is open anytime) https://stemforall2021.videohall.com/
For presenters, what are your next steps going forward?
Amelia Lanier Knarr
Instructor
Directly related to this project, our next steps are really focused on writing up the results from our different perspectives. We have a few publications under review but there is always more to write about! Beyond this project myself of some of the other Co-PIs have put forth some grant proposals within NSF to hopefully move this work forward and continue to incorporate biomechanics at every level of education. Fingers crossed we get some positive feedback!!
DeLene Hoffner
Lead Teacher
Thank you for your excellent response. I really enjoyed hearing about your project.
Monica Cardella
Thank you for your work on this project and thank you for sharing the work of this project in your video!
Neal Grandgenett
32 years
Thanks Dr. Cardella. We certainly appreciated your recent help and engagement!