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Work in Progress: Starfish Schoolhouse: Development of a Story Based E-Learning Module to Teach Regenerative Medicine Concepts to Middle and High School Students and Teachers

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Conference

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Atlanta, Georgia

Publication Date

June 23, 2013

Start Date

June 23, 2013

End Date

June 26, 2013

ISSN

2153-5965

Conference Session

Biomedical Engineering Poster Session

Tagged Division

Biomedical

Page Count

8

Page Numbers

23.1385.1 - 23.1385.8

DOI

10.18260/1-2--22770

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/22770

Download Count

345

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Paper Authors

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Cheryl A Bodnar University of Pittsburgh

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Dr. Cheryl A. Bodnar is an assistant professor in the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering. Previously, she has worked as an educational training manager with the University Health Network in Toronto, Ontario Canada. In this role she had the opportunity to create summer training program activities for undergraduate students, scientific and professional development workshops for graduate students and post-doctoral fellows as well as coordinate a variety of public and K-12 outreach initiatives. In addition, she obtained her certification as a Training and Development Professional (CTDP) from the Canadian Society for Training and Development (CSTD) providing her with a solid background in instructional design, facilitation and evaluation. Dr. Bodnar’s research interests relate to the incorporation of active learning techniques in undergraduate classes (problem-based learning, games and simulations, etc.) as well as integration of innovation and entrepreneurship into the Chemical and Petroleum Engineering curriculum. In addition, she is actively engaged in the development of a variety of informal science education approaches with the goal of exciting and teaching K-12 students about regenerative medicine and its potential.

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Joan Frances Schanck Pittsburgh Tissue Engineering Initiative, Inc.

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Joan F. Schanck is the director
Education and Workforce Development at
Pittsburgh Tissue Engineering Initiative. Schanck joined the Pittsburgh Tissue Engineering Initiative in June 2001. Her work is focused on providing high quality educational programming within the field of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine science as well as to increase awareness of Pittsburgh’s leadership role within this promising field of biomedicine.
A native of Pittsburgh, Penn., Schanck's professional background includes over eighteen years of specialized experience in administration, education, research, fund raising, collaborative team building, program development and direct care/services delivery within the university, community and non-profit, public health, and education settings. Schanck was educated at the University of Pittsburgh, graduating with a bachelor of arts, concentrated on Psychology and Legal studies, and a master’s of Public Administration with graduate certificates in non-profit management, educational leadership, and policy analysis, focused on public health and public education policy. Throughout her career, Schanck recognized the importance of education and the need to develop collaborative, multidisciplinary education and research training across formal and informal educational environments. In her role as director, she has developed and implemented novel, interdisciplinary educational opportunities. Resultant programming spans the levels of learning to include undergraduate, graduate and post-doctoral training along with formal and informal educational experiences and programs for the general public, K-12 students and teachers. Schanck has successfully straddled the worlds of cutting-edge, biomedical research and education, maintaining a focus on the importance of participation in interdisciplinary science and research training for a community of learners with the goal to positively contribute to the growth of tomorrow's trained teams of engineers, materials and life scientists and clinicians working collaboratively within the fields of tissue and regenerative medicine.
Since joining PTEI in June 2001, she led and developed PTEI’s educational portfolio expanding from sets of regionally based programming toward national, multi-institutional training and educational iniatives to include: multi-institutional pre- and post- doctoral training programs in partnership with the Armed Forces Institute for Surgical Research (AFIRM) consortium, and the Advanced Regenerative Medicine (ARM) program Phases III-V; Summer Undergraduate Research Programs (NSF and NIH); Postdoctoral Fellowship Program; Research Experiences for Teachers (FIPSE); Adventures in Biotechnology for HS Students (PADCED); Summer High School Research Program, K-12 TE and Biotech education and curricula development; 2+2+2 Life Sciences Pipeline (FIPSE and PADCED); Middle and High School Summer Camps for disadvantaged students; SEPAand a host of other formal and informal educational activities including a Phase I and Phase II SEPA project featuring a permanent science center exhibit, travel component (7 sites across US, with videos within Scotland Stem Cell Center Exhibit and translation into Spanish) and teacher professional development and curricula materials. Since 2001, Ms. Schanck has been involved in direction of all PTEI educational programs. Professional background includes 18 years of specialized experience in administration, education, research, fund raising, program development, and direct care/services delivery within university, community and non-profit, and education settings. She has participated in the development and implementation of community educational programs serving minority and “at risk” youth and women through local MH/MR Community Services, Manchester Craftsman Guild, Angora Gardens, Women’s Health Services, Allegheny Reproductive Center, and Pittsburgh AIDS Task Force, and is an active member of the Allegheny County Workforce Diversity Committee. Within PTEI, her efforts focus on the leadership, development, planning, coordination, and implementation of PTEI’s complete suite of educational programs.

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Kalyani Raghavan LRDC, University of Pittsburgh

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Nathan Grant Smith OpenArc LLC

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Over the past eighteen years, Nate has led marketing and brand management for organizations including international non-profits, communications firms and technology start-ups. Smith's professional expertise includes, strategy and tactics to build brands for colleges and universities, technology ventures, healthcare, cultural institutions, foundations and non-profits. Mr. Smith is a devoted husband and father. Time at home is with his wife, two children and the family dog. He is a foodie, backyard sports hero, and basement rock-star.

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Kurt Hess Kurt Hess Illustration & Information Design

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Kurt Hess is an illustrator and Information designer with 20 years experience.

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Brian Michael Buirge

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Robert Melvin

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Robert Melvin has over 20 years of successful and wide-ranging experience writing for publication, working both independently and with agencies and organizations.

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Brian Hackett

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Abstract

Starfish Schoolhouse: Development of a Story Based E-Learning Module to Teach Regenerative Medicine Concepts to Middle School Students and TeachersRegenerative medicine’s potential to revolutionize today’s health care treatments offers greatpromise as a cutting-edge, multidisciplinary field that could excite the next generation ofscientists and engineers. Unfortunately, many of the noteworthy websites on regenerativemedicine have been assembled utilizing a traditional textbook style format. In spite of amazingscientific images, pictures and graphics with accurate and informative text, such sites often comeacross as less appealing to the middle school audience (grades 7-9). In an effort to inspire andinform middle school students about this dynamic field, we have created the StarfishSchoolhouse through supplemental funding received from the NIH Science EducationPartnership Award (Grant# 3R25RR023286-05S1). This web-based platform, hosted as part ofthe Pittsburgh Tissue Engineering Initiative’s (PTEI) “If a Starfish Can Grow a New Arm thanWhy Can’t I?” project featuring interactive, permanent and travelling science center exhibits,classroom curricula and teacher professional development, provides middle school students andteachers an immersive, web-based, story-driven approach to learn about regenerative medicine.The focus of this publication will be on the development of the first story based, e-learningmodule on stem cells entitled. “Professor Regen and the Nemesis Hunt”. The learning objectivesfor this module were three fold: (1) to allow students to be able to differentiate between thedifferent types of stem cells; (2) have students identify methods used to isolate these stem cells;and (3) enable students to be able to list both advantages and disadvantages of the use of eachtype of stem cell in regenerative medicine practice.In an effort to make this module satisfy these learning requirements, while also further ignitingand retaining the attention of our middle school target audience, we partnered with OpenArc whohelped take the concept ideas presented and transform them into a suspense based plot withcharacters that engage the participants. The storyline for the module follows Professor Regen ona hunt around “Anyville” while she tries to locate her missing stem cell lines that were stolen bya former colleague, Dr. Nikos Nemesis. The module consists of seven distinct chapters of whichsix relay scientific information related to stem cells while assessing students’/teachers’understanding of this material through small, randomized chapter quizzes. In addition, the storybased e-learning module allows students/teachers the flexibility to choose which direction theywould like to take the story by the integration of a map where participants select which area of“Anyville” they would like to look into next for the missing stem cells. Upon completion of thee-learning module, participants are presented with a mastery quiz to determine their overallcomprehension of the material presented.In partnership with the Learning Research and Development Center (LRDC), the first modulewill be piloted in the winter of 2012-2013 with middle school teachers and then students for itsease of use and ability to engage, inspire and inform the target audience about stem cells.

Bodnar, C. A., & Schanck, J. F., & Raghavan, K., & Smith, N. G., & Hess, K., & Buirge, B. M., & Melvin, R., & Hackett, B. (2013, June), Work in Progress: Starfish Schoolhouse: Development of a Story Based E-Learning Module to Teach Regenerative Medicine Concepts to Middle and High School Students and Teachers Paper presented at 2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Atlanta, Georgia. 10.18260/1-2--22770

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