Hi Catherine,

In addition to what Jill mentioned, we plan to keep the "living slide decks" which include opportunities for students to work collaboratively with technology-supported checkpoints for formative assessment, and are sources of data for social and emotional growth in students over time as well as a measure of equity and inclusive practices for instructors.  The hands-on kits are essentially what we would use in a face to face classroom during instruction and we plan to keep those materials too.

Wonderful question, Jaime! The virtual environment provided lots of opportunities for innovation! Students needed materials and "equipment" to conduct their experiments and collect data. This need led to the development of science kits, complete with dice, slinkies, pH strips, and more, which could be easily used at home to inspire our ambitious student researchers and provide an opportunity to conduct inquiry experiments. Many of the inquiry activities, some planned, some developed in the moment, will continue into the future. We were pleasantly surprised with what the HRI teachers, staff, and students decided to do with the kits! It seems like they were poised and ready to spring into Scientist Mode when given a few science "toys" (also know as equipment) to play with!

Great question, Jaime! Those science kits worked really well and got students thinking about the diverse ways they could use materials to conduct experiments. What really impressed me was how creative students were. Many used common and recycled materials from their homes (old golf balls, used tiles, cardboard, etc.). The materials in the kits helped further encourage them to think outside of the box!

Hello Channa!

Thank you!  We continue to be impressed by our students as well! 

In terms of students selection, many of the students self-select or are recruited by our teachers.  Some of our schools offer this course as a capstone to their Bio-Med pathway or academy so these students select the course to fulfill this requirement.  We have brainstormed and implemented a variety of recruitment efforts such as reaching out to counselors and creating informational flyers for students, teachers, and parents.  Most of our students are seniors with a few juniors.  Unfortunately we have not followed our students formally post HS graduation but we do hear back from some occasionally!

Our teachers had initially anticipated our highest enrollment yet as we approached the start of the school year but our numbers did drop when the semester actually began.  I believe when students had to really prioritize school life and personal life challenges, unfortunately elective courses like this one ended up on their drop list.  Despite the drop in enrollment, we still had an fabulous group of students who amazed us with their creativity, perseverance, and effort!  Many participated in our Regional Science Festival and three qualified for the Texas Science and Engineering Fair!

Our teachers did an amazing job of keeping students engaged and collaborating. In addition to our teachers, our undergraduate peer mentors were absolutely critical in bridging the connection between student groups and university collaborators.  A silver lining to the virtual nature of the course this year was the flexibility for the peer mentors to attend the classes more easily without having to travel from the UT campus to the school campuses.  We also held two virtual events that allowed students to meet other HRI students as well as hear from researchers at UT, ask questions of peer mentors, and as well as present their own work!

Hello James!  Thank you for your question!

We created one kit for our summer teacher professional development that included items that we anticipated our participants needing for the activities that supported the curriculum we were presenting.  These items ranged from marshmallows and slinkies to more 'scientific' equipment like measuring tapes and pH strips.  The goal was for our participants to have everything handy in a box so that we could use our time efficiently.  We did adjust some items that we typically use in the lab for both cost and safety and we modeled what the teachers could expect to have their students do if they remained remote. 

A few activities worked out better than expected while others had to be adjusted.  Our curriculum involves both group work as students learn about statistics and independent work as they design and conduct their experiments.  Some tools that worked well for group assignments included using Google Sheets to create a real-time spreadsheet of student data.  Activities that had to be modified were those that required the physical need of an extra pair of hands!  At the end of our professional development, we had our teachers assess the usefulness of the components of the kit and make suggestions for other items to add.  We were trying to anticipate supplies that students might need to conduct a variety of independent experiments at home like seeds, metal thermometers, pH strips, etc. 

I'm looking forward to checking out your video!