Thank you for watching our video! We would love to hear what excites you the most about this project and if you have previously used any of these technologies in your classroom or research. We would be delighted to answer any questions you may have for us as well!

If you are a STEM educator, we would like to know if you are interested in teaching this project in your classroom and how we could assist you to make it happen!

Hello Andres, 

Thank you for sharing your work! This is a very innovative use of robotics in middle and high school settings, and while I have not used neurally controlled technology in my work, I am very interested to learn more about it. I agree that the connection between interactive robotics and their applications in improving human life has potential to impact a diverse group of students. It sounds like you're currently at the planning phase to implement the program. How are you recruiting teachers to work with you on implementing the technology in their classrooms (for example, are you focusing on technology teachers)? and have you heard any concerns from teachers about participating in this project?

You also mentioned professional development for the educators. Can you share more about the expected outcomes from the PD? and finally, what are some of the challenges that you expect educators to have with using this technology in their classrooms? 

Thanks for the great video, Andres, Tonya, and team. Like Nidaa, I'm interested in your goals around broadening participation and supporting learning for diverse students. I'm curious, were you able to work with students and families from specific communities when developing the technology and support resources? And in what ways do you think this tool can help teachers shift their teaching practices to make STEM education more equitable and inclusive. Thanks again!

Thanks for sharing this video--it was great to see the neu-pulator in action! I agreed with the teacher that a great strength of this technology is that it is constructed from inexpensive materials such as cardboard. It is great that you have already showcased it at ITEEA. I appreciated Nidaa's question about the project's anticipated impact on teachers. On a similar vein, I wondered what outcomes you were looking at for students, and how you would determine whether you reached your goal of broadening participation. From your abstract, it seemed you were looking at motivation and self-efficacy, and I wanted to hear a little more about how you were defining motivation--how you would know when you saw it. Thanks again for sharing this great work!

Good Afternoon Amy,

We are using a mixture of methods to measure self-efficacy as well as the student's engagement in engineering design during the experience. We will conduct interviews, collect engineering design journals, make observations, and utilize a retrospective pretest with a post-test. We are hoping that students will be introduced to and excited by engaging in a design challenge using mechanical and robotic engineering to solve a medical problem. Mechanical and robotics engineering are not traditionally included in medical technology education units and we hope the students will have a different outlook on engineering fields by the end of the study. 

Kindest Regards,

-Tonya

Thanks for these responses, Tonya and Andres! It sounds like you will triangulate data across a range of sources that will enable strong inferences regarding your approach. I look forward to reading about what you find. Thank you for your great work in inspiring the next generation of engineers and technologically-literate citizens.