Collaborative Research: e4usa+FIRST: Scaling Collective Impact through Pre-College Robotics Curricula

This three-year project, Collaborative Research: e4usa + FIRST: Scaling Collective Impact Through Pre-College Robotics Curricula, is housed at the Ohio State University and Arizona State University. The world is rapidly transforming due to technological advancements making the ability to innovate educationally crucial for fostering the next generation of engineers and scientists. This project aims to bridge the gap in pre-college engineering education by developing robust, universally accessible robotics lessons capable of being used as either a stand-alone resource or a complementary resource for existing engineering programs. Partnerships with Engineering for Us All (e4usa) and For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) will leverage and ensure that engineering will be more accessible to students across diverse urban, suburban, and rural communities. The linkage with industry professionals will bring a benefit for teachers and students to promote STEM career opportunities, and possibly strengthen STEM literacy within a more general population. This project has the potential to advance the knowledge and understanding of the feasibility, methodology, and scalability of two successful blended programs to create a new program that is both curricular and co-curricular. The democratization of access to cutting-edge robotics education supports a diverse, well-equipped future workforce to maintain competitive advantages in science and technology. This three-year project, Collaborative Research: e4usa + FIRST: Scaling Collective Impact Through Pre-College Robotics Curricula, is housed at the Ohio State University and Arizona State University. The project will iteratively develop robotics lessons, teacher guides, and artificial intelligence driven teacher support to achieve nationwide implementation. The project scaffolds engagement with teachers across the nation, building on an initial cohort of 12 high schools. Participating teachers will serve as co-creators and collaborators, with continuous feedback mechanisms to evaluate teachers’ implementation of lessons, impact on student engagement, and scalability of resources. A key strategy is building and securing alliances with academic, non-profit, and industry leaders to foster broad participation. Project activities feature a kick-off workshop, multiple development sprints, summer professional development, an academic year community of practice, mentorship, university and industry partnerships, and scalability and sustainability initiatives. Partnerships among academic institutions, non-profit organizations, industry leaders, and state organizations will allow the project to establish a robust model for integrating robotics into pre-college engineering education, leverage collective resources, and catalyze actions to broaden participation in STEM fields. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.