Mike Sao Pedro

Research demonstrates that many elementary school students are not learning foundational competencies in STEM. Through prior ED/IES SBIR, IES, and projects funded through other government programs, the team developed and evaluated InqITS, an on-line science laboratory that employs Artificial Intelligence for students to conduct virtual experiments and receive feedback to inform learning and instruction in real time. The project team will develop a new component of InqITS, a prototype lab to ...

The research team fully developed and tested Inq-ITS Online Labs for High School Physics and Physical Science. The product automatically scores how students use mathematics when applying science inquiry practices based on actions they take within the labs, not multiple choice or fill-in-the-blank questions. Teachers use an alerting dashboard that notifies them when and exactly how students struggle. The product responds to the need that U.S. students continue to fall behind on science, havin...

In this project, the team fully developed and tested Inq-Blotter, an online alerting dashboard for teachers to formatively assess and track progress as students engage in virtual laboratory experiments. Science educators and researchers agree that integrating authentic inquiry practices with science content knowledge promotes students deeper understanding of science, and helps them learn critical thinking skills necessary for tomorrows jobs. Further, as more schools adopt the Next Generation...