| NSF Org: |
TI Translational Impacts |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | November 17, 2015 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | November 17, 2015 |
| Award Number: | 1548029 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Glenn H. Larsen
TI Translational Impacts TIP Directorate for Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships |
| Start Date: | January 1, 2016 |
| End Date: | June 30, 2016 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $150,000.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $150,000.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
12935 NE 130th ST Kirkland WA US 98034-7906 (425)823-5165 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
12935 NE 130th Street Kirkland WA US 98034-7906 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | SBIR Phase I |
| Primary Program Source: |
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| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.084 |
ABSTRACT
This SBIR Phase 1 project will develop games that teach math conceptually to young school children in kindergarten. The games, built for touch devices, simulate a part of the real world, to make math learning deep and interesting. The project will also study how these games impact children's understanding of mathematics. Given that 80 percent of the fastest-growing occupations are dependent on knowledge of mathematics and science, schools in the US need research-driven math learning software to use in the classrooms. US taxpayers pay for all the resources used in schools through local, state and federal taxes. The games developed with this SBIR project will cost schools less than typical math learning software available to them. With 1% of approximately 20 million elementary school students in US public schools using the software, the savings to taxpayers will be between $1.5 to $3.5 million per year. The games will provide deep, engaging math learning for students. As a result, more students may choose to pursue science and engineering occupations in the future. The long-term returns will be through the accomplishments of the students.
Game-based math learning has the potential to revolutionize education. But, most games are focused on media and gaming elements rather than learning. On the other hand, gamification of education, with rewards on top of existing multiple-choice tests and drills, does not improve depth of learning. This project will build visual and interactive math exercises that explain and exemplify elementary math concepts. For example, students will learn addition of 2+2 by moving 2 strawberries into a box, adding two more strawberries, and counting the strawberries in the box to figure out the answer. The project will build 25 lessons with 20 interactive games for kindergarten school children. Students will manipulate simulated objects on screen using touch. Voice instructions will guide the students. To guide learning, each game will provide contextual voice hints, and feedback when students make mistakes. The software will also include a dashboard that teachers will use to see how their students are progressing with the lessons. With the goal of improving the games so that they are intuitive for learners to use, researchers will gather feedback as the games are played in a typical school classroom a few times a week for many weeks.
PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
infinut built and researched the Kindergarten Math application with 30 lessons consisting of 20 different math mini-games. The application covers the full common core math curriculum for Kindergarten. It contains visual and interactive math exercises that develop deep understanding of elementary math concepts. Many contextual voice hints instruct and explain - helping students learn.
The Kindergarten Math Home application was published in Aug, 2016 to the Google Play store and can be downloaded on Android devices and touch Chromebooks from https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.infinut.kindergarten.math.home. Kindergarten Math School application, that integrates with Google Classroom for teacher dashboards, will be published Sep, 2016 and can be downloaded on Android devices and touch Chromebooks from https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.infinut.kindergarten.math.school
From the outset, it has been our goal to increase accessibility by reducing infrastructure needs. We have taken pains to design and build for low-bandwidth and intermittent network conditions. Graphics and images are pre-installed. Only data (which requires little bandwidth) is transferred at runtime. Data is cached on-device too, so that none is lost if network is temporarily disconnected. By building natively for the least expensive devices, we have done our best to make math learning accessible to all kids.
The objectives as stated in our Phase I proposal and the corresponding Phase I achievements are:
Objective 1
We will build Kindergarten Math School application. It will contain 25 lessons using 20 different mini-games. Each lesson will contain 20 exercises built using appropriate games. The lessons will be aligned with the school curriculum, and will increase in difficulty as the student progresses.
Met and exceeded
With this project, we built and released the Kindergarten Math application - first for homeschool customers, and soon after, for schools. With Phase I, we established the team, the agile development process, the research pilot and a commercialization plan.
Objective 2
Secondly, we will build a dashboard for the teachers to see the progress of all of their students at a glance. The teacher will be able to deep-dive in the data to see how many attempts it took a student to complete any given exercise.
Met and exceeded
Along with building a dashboard, we also provided a much requested feature to let teachers assign specific lessons to students. Teachers know best how to engage and encourage the students to keep advancing their learning. Both data and actions to take based on that data are required in software applications used in classrooms.
Objective 3
We will conduct a study in a kindergarten classroom at a school to determine usability and efficacy of the Kindergarten Math School application.
Met and exceeded
In addition to improving the usability of the application with the study, we also showed that the Kindergarten Math application is effective in improving learning outcomes for students that are behind in math. We also took the feedback gained from observing the students playing the application, and incorporated it into the application continuously. Given the attenuated time frame of Phase I, it would be valuable to conduct a study for a complete school year.
We completed all three objectives for Phase I.
The results of the Phase I efficacy study of Kindergarten Math showed the most improvement for students who are behind in math. By ensuring that our math applications are independently usable and effective for these students, our goal is to level the STEM playing field for all children.
Last Modified: 08/31/2016
Modified by: Anupama Redmond
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