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Icon for: Michelle Perfect

MICHELLE PERFECT

University of Arizona

A Sleep Science Education Program to Improve STEM education in Elementary School

NSF Awards: 1433185

2016 (see original presentation & discussion)

Grades K-6, Grades 6-8

The Sleep to Enhance Participation in STEM (STEPS) team will discuss the programmatic components of the Z-factor and the opportunities afforded teachers, parents, students, and community members through the ITEST project. We show a simulated classroom with that emulates the interactions between a teacher (Daniel Shammas) and students using the technologies to capture the sleep science data. Charlotte Ackerman, from the Catalina Foothills School District, addresses the public health crisis of sleep insufficiency and declining STEM interests and skills. Dr. Janet Roveda describes the application, MySleep, developed to allow students to analyze the sleep data. Dr. Stuart Quan discusses the mobile technologies used to measure students’ sleep. Dr. Mark Bloom, from the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study, provides an overview of the evidence-based instructional model and teacher professional development that is the foundation of the sleep science lessons. Dr. Michelle Perfect concludes with information about the focus on family involvement.

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Discussion from the NSF 2016 STEM For All Video Showcase (10 posts)
  • Icon for: Teresa Eastburn

    Teresa Eastburn

    Facilitator
    Digital Learning & UCAR Connect Lead
    May 16, 2016 | 07:28 p.m.

    The project is innovative and engages young children in data collection of a personal nature – the quality of their sleep. You mention “elementary” students, but is that 5th graders or 3rd or ? What if anything have you found in terms of the developmental challenges of utilizing elementary students in STEPS? I noticed the group of students Daniel is working with is relatively small in number in the video, but this is a rarity in most school settings. How does the curriculum translate to large groups? The quality of one’s sleep can also be enhanced by activity I believe. Is that part of the data that is collected (and encouraged)? What data is collected? How long does the curriculum take to implement and is it primarily for in-school scenarios? How does the app foster analytic thinking and discussion? Is this largely an independent lesson where students work alone or together? Have you thought of introducing this with Middle School students? I’m curious of how their engagement, motivation, and the statistical depth of their learning might differ from younger students?

  • Icon for: Michelle Perfect

    Michelle Perfect

    Lead Presenter
    Associate Professor and Associate Program Director
    May 17, 2016 | 09:26 p.m.

    Thank you for posting some important questions. The Z-factor program is geared for 4th and 5th grade students. There will be a set of sleep science lesson created for each grade (10 to 12 contact hours including research presentations/poster composition) with additional informal learning opportunities in the community, teacher professional development training, and parental involvement practices (see comments below). We anticipate 20 to 30 students in each class. We are beginning the study in Fall 2016. Thus, the children featured were not yet from the classes, but we were able to show them some of the technology-based components that have been developed.

    The focus of 4th graders will be what effects sleep and 5th graders on what sleep effects. Students will collect sleep diary and actigraphy data on themselves and then de-identified data are aggregated to provide data for a class project AND another project developed by individual students, in pairs, or groups of 3 (5th graders are encouraged to collect additional data).

    With regard to grade level, we wanted to target students before their sleep declines and they lose interest in STEM. However, Biological Sciences Curriculum Study had developed sleep science lessons for high school with success in a randomized study using their 5E Instructional model. Thus, similar curriculum could be developed for middle school (if they did not have it previously) at a slightly higher level.

  • Icon for: Teresa Eastburn

    Teresa Eastburn

    Facilitator
    Digital Learning & UCAR Connect Lead
    May 16, 2016 | 07:31 p.m.

    And I forgot to mention, I really like the family involvement component! It’s a great way to broaden the learning to others, especially since it involves sensors which seem central to most STEM these days!

  • Icon for: Michelle Perfect

    Michelle Perfect

    Lead Presenter
    Associate Professor and Associate Program Director
    May 17, 2016 | 09:27 p.m.

    Thank you! We are incorporating principles from several theoretical models, such as Hoover-Dempsey’s and Epstein’s models of parental involvement. There will be teacher PD related to connecting with parents and we will also directly work with families.

  • Icon for: Lauren Allen

    Lauren Allen

    Facilitator
    Postdoctoral Research Associate
    May 16, 2016 | 10:07 p.m.

    I agree, bringing families into this project is a really important and wonderful feature. I am also curious to learn more about the actual questions and analysis that the students are asking and performing. Are they comparing to their classmates’ sleep patterns, or themselves over time? Are they thinking about the impacts of screen time, and other activities like Teresa mentioned? I would also love to hear more about what parents are learning along with their children about sleep—as a parent myself, I would love to also wear a sensor and talk with my child about our different sleep data!

  • Icon for: Michelle Perfect

    Michelle Perfect

    Lead Presenter
    Associate Professor and Associate Program Director
    May 17, 2016 | 09:35 p.m.

    Thank you for your interest in the parental involvement component of the project. Students will be encouraged to develop their own questions, and part of one of the lessons is focused on them developing testable questions; the teachers’ guides will have examples. All students complete a daily activity diary (4th grade – questions on exercise, caffeine, and sleepiness; 5th graders are also asked about mood and attention) and a daily sleep diary (activities before bed including technology usage), interruptions, timing; 4th graders are also asked about room temperature, light exposure, and noise/sound). Fourth grade lessons will cover sleep hygiene. The 5th graders will also do a few performance tasks (e.g., reaction time, memory card game)—all these data may be used to answer research questions. Fifth graders may also opt to collect additional/new data to determine, for example, whether increasing sleep leads to improved performance on a specific task (pre-post). However, as you proposed——how does students’ sleep relate to their parents’ sleep would be an excellent line of inquiry. We are also creating extension activities and the option for parents to wear the sensors and talk about the data would an excellent way to engage them in their child’s learning.

  • Icon for: Helen Teague

    Helen Teague

    A cyber-ensemble of inversion, immersion, collaborative workspaces, query and media-making in learning
    May 17, 2016 | 10:49 a.m.

    Great introduction with the alarm sound! (a sound I know too well!). I agree with your other respondents: this is timely research that integrates families too with the Family Inclusion Model of Education! The mobile integration is engaging too! I’m interested in how the app was created?

  • Icon for: Michelle Perfect

    Michelle Perfect

    Lead Presenter
    Associate Professor and Associate Program Director
    May 17, 2016 | 09:23 p.m.

    Thank you for the feedback! As noted above, we are integrating evidence-based models of family involvement to enhance the experience of these elementary school students.

    The sleep monitoring device (e.g. Actiwatch) has firmware. We first build a layer of interface to get the raw sensor data out to communication blocks (e.g. Bluetooth or USB). Some new versions of actigraphy devices provide the data packet format. Then we do not need to develop additional interface. Currently, we developed MySleep to be accessed via the web for multi-platform purposes. Updated versions of the software will be able to read data packets from Bluetooth. We can also create apps on Androids (for tablets or Androids phones like Samsung) or iOS (for ipad and iphone) to accept data and provide web based portal to upload the data.

  • Icon for: Roger Taylor

    Roger Taylor

    Facilitator
    Assistant Professor
    May 17, 2016 | 09:47 p.m.

    Very interesting! Last year I received a grant to purchase a couple dozen smartwatches and create an HCI wearable technology graduate seminar. For one activity I had the students record their sleep for an entire week using an Apple Watch or Moto 360. The data we ended up with was extremely messy and required me to do a lot of “data wrangling”. How do you handle the complex, messy data issue with your students?

  • Icon for: Jennifer Adams

    Jennifer Adams

    Facilitator
    Associate Professor
    May 18, 2016 | 12:24 p.m.

    It is great that students are able to use their own bodies and lived experiences in non-invasive ways to learn science. I also like the family learning component in ways that connects family learning to school learning. I would be curious to hear any research on learning questions that you might be pursuing in this project.

  • Further posting is closed as the event has ended.