StarrMatica Learning Systems, Inc. — Department of Agriculture SBIR Phase I: 8.6

Description

High-quality schools positively influence the economic development prospects in rural areas by attracting business and industry to the area and producing the educated labor force that is needed to sustain economic growth. The greatest source of a highly educated population in rural areas is native individuals who attended college locally or who return home after completing their education elsewhere. To guarantee that students have opportunities to enter STEM careers in rural communities, their schools must provide a high-quality education that includes foundational STEM concepts. An effective teacher is the most important factor in a student's academic success, yet issues including teacher shortages and high turnover rates affect teacher quality in rural areas. Sparking interest in science in elementary school is more effective in creating the motivation to enter STEM career paths than are later efforts to encourage high school students to take more-advanced courses. Improving science education from the outset by more effectively supporting elementary teachers in STEM instruction can have lasting effects on the preparedness of rural workforces to meet the employment demands of technology firms that rural communities are seeking to attract.The overall goal of this multi-phase SBIR project is to develop, validate, and commercialize a unique, cost-effective virtual coaching framework to improve a teacher's ability to create high-quality supplemental science lessons resulting in more-effective elementary (K-5) science instruction aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). The innovation of the StarrMatica NextGen Science program is its focus on cultivating effective STEM education by improving science instruction for all elementary teachers, regardless of previous training or experience. The key differentiator of this technology is the application of the known effective strategy of coaching in a digital environment through a "virtual science coach" framework. Components of the framework--including a content examples library, content evaluation tools, a research-based instructional model, lesson-self assessment tools, student science notebook interface, and data-recording features--work together to create a comprehensive science instruction improvement solution that is economical, time-saving, and replicable in every school. A pilot test and usability study, followed by a feasibility study for both pre-service and in-service teachers, will provide qualitative and quantitative data before and after use of the System. Data will be analyzed and compared to determine change or gain in scores.The release of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) in 2013 compounded the already numerous issues that elementary teachers have with teaching science effectively. Teachers can't use their current aging science curriculums to meet the NGSS; however, fewer than 10% of schools plan to purchase a new science core curriculum, so teachers will need to learn to use supplementary materials to meet the standards. SNGS is expected to help teachers meet the NGSS by a) addressing the significant problems elementary teachers face with science instruction; b) overcoming the professional development geographic limitations of rural schools; c) providing a consistency of curricular materials in high-turnover rural schools from year to year and teacher to teacher; d) facilitating the instructional shift teachers must make to meet the NGSS; e) providing a comprehensive lesson-creation framework that coaches teachers through each portion of the lesson planning process in a way that improves teacher pedagogy; and f) being comprised of components that are designed based on research. Our research will show that SNGS is easy to use for both novice and experienced teachers and assists them to effectively develop high-quality science lessons. The primary addressable market is elementary administrators and teachers who must modify curri