Hi Marion, 

Thank you for your comments.

Although we assess students' attitude changes towards computing and STEM subjects and career inspiration, the major indicator for the success of our C-STEM program is the increasing pass rate and scores for school wide, district wide, and standard math examinations, especially studies carried out independently from our UC Davis C-STEM Center. For example, three such independent studies can be found in our web site at  http://c-stem.ucdavis.edu/about-us/success/

" Additionally, students are changing their attitudes around math. 11% more of the C-STEM students were predicted to be proficient in math on state tests as compared to a control group with a similar number of students who did not receive the C-STEM intervention. "

“a 96% average daily homework completion rate, an 83% average on the District exam (compared to 68% district wide result using the same exam) at the end of trimester 2, and a course passing rate of 100% with the average course grade of 84%” for a regular Algebra 1 class with a large number of at-risk students.

"Students regularly performed at a higher level on common formative assessments that were given throughout the site. 94% of students in C-STEM Integrated Math II were able to earn passing marks, compared to the site average of 61% passing rate in non C-STEM Integrated Math II courses. 92% of students who took the C-STEM Integrated Math II with Computing and Robotics last year were retained and continue on the C-STEM Integrated Math III with Computing and Robotics this year. ”

Harry,

The changes in students attitudes and learning are impressive. Could you say more about the design of the C-STEM program?

Sue,

Thank you for your question. At C-STEM, we develop educational computing and robotics technologies, develop curriculum, provide professional development for teachers, and help them on classroom implementation, and provide opportunities for students to show off their newly gained knowledge and skills through a level playing field robotics competition called RoboPlay. Students are having fun through playful learning. The central theme of the C-STEM program is that students are having fun.

Jeff, 

I totally agree with you. The math class is jam packed with required topics and concepts in Common Core State Standards --- Mathematics. As our computing and robotics technologies are really easy for teachers and students to learn. They can readily integrate into  computing and robotics into their classroom teaching. Our hands-on computing and robotics program can help students learn abstract concepts and can also  allow teachers to teach the math concepts with concrete application examples using less instruction time than traditional approaches.

Deb,

Many parents are strong advocates and supporters for our C-STEM program. Our direct interaction with parents are however quite limited. We interact with parents mainly on the C-STEM Day RoboPlay Competition. They are strong supporters for their student teams. They are kept informed through  the information on our web site and students.

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Pam,

Although our research focus is on math education, C-STEM educational computing and robotics technologies, textbooks, and curriculum have been used for teaching science, engineering, computing, and robotics. As you know NGSS calls for integration of computational thinking and engineering into science education, many science teachers using our curriculum integrated with Linkbot robots, Lego Mindstorms NXT and EV3, Raspberry Pi, and Arduino for students  learning science with hands-on activities.

Our user friendly teaching resources including textbooks in PDF file are freely available for teachers who would like to integrate computing and robotics into science education. You may take a look at 

http://c-stem.ucdavis.edu/studio/

http://c-stem.ucdavis.edu/c-stembian/

http://c-stem.ucdavis.edu/curriculum/

Although our center has not conducted comparison study on science education, we welcome our partners to conduct their own independent studies and also welcome opportunities  in collaboration with us.

Thanks for your question.

Barbara,

Our C-STEM program does support Lego Mindstorms NXT and EV3. Our freely available C-STEM Studio supports Mindstorms NXT and EV3 in Windows, Mac, and Raspberry Pi. We also supports virtual NXT and EV3 so that students can conduct personalized learning with multiple robots freely. Indeed, many schools use our educational technologies and curriculum using their existing Mindstorms kit.

However, for  hands-on personalized learning in a math class, Mindstorms kit is not ideal as each student will have a robot. For NXT or EV3, each has over 500 parts, for a class with over 30 students, we are talking about over 15,000 parts. A CS or engineering teacher might be able to manage such a large number of  parts, it will be extremely hard for a math teacher to manage such an inventory. Besides, NXT and EV3 are not designed for quick classroom assembly and disassembly for learning math with different robotics configurations.

Linkbot is available from our industrial partner. Depending on the volume and also if the schools are C-STEM partners, a robot costs around $180~$235.

Thanks for your question.