Future Engineers, LLC

The SBIR Phase I project will develop a STEM education product that empowers K-12 students and educators to conduct field research projects at exciting mission destinations around the globe. The STEM product is intended to help educators prepare a STEM-ready future workforce. Kindergarten thru 12th grade students will learn science concepts and technology skills applicable to real-world scientific investigation by collecting and analyzing data from remote locations beyond the classroom.

This project team will develop a product to improve the feedback that adult judges provide to students who have entered online educational challenges.  Online challenges provide students the opportunity to present proposals in different areas of education, including STEM. Despite the potential of challenges as an educational experience, the large volume of submissions often prevents judges from providing formative feedback to students to help improve a concept and deepen learning.

Through prior IES-funded SBIR projects in 2016 and 2017, the developer created an online platform, Future Engineers, to administer educational challenges for students in or outside of K12 classrooms.

This project team developed and tested an open online platform that posts student-led engineering project challenges for Kindergarten to grade 12 classrooms. Research demonstrates that improved attitudes towards engineering in elementary and middle school are imperative to increase the pursuit of STEM degrees and careers. This project addressed a shortage of tools and curricula in K-12 engineering today, in order to meet the learning objectives new the Next Generation Science Standards and t...

The project team developed and tested a prototype of an online platform to facilitate engineering project challenges within K–12 classrooms across many schools.