Principal Investigator Natalie Kuldell
Project Website http://biobuildereducationalfoundation.org/
The BioBuilder Educational Foundation (TBEF) puts current research into the hands of teachers and students. By converting exciting and ongoing research questions into teachable modules, we hope to increase interest, engagement, and understanding of science and engineering. Lessons rely on design challenges. They are delivered through web-based animations, in-class and laboratory activities. Once completed, students and teachers return to an online forum where data and best practices are exchanged. We believe that by making education more purposeful, we can foster connected minds and build a savvy, creative community.
TBEF succeeds when they have prompted students to ask authentic questions, to wrestle with uncertainty and to bring their best selves to address a real world problem. We succeed when teachers have access to materials that are refreshingly new and are easily implemented. We host teachers in professional development workshops where they are treated like the professionals that they are, giving them material to meet real teaching needs and inviting them into a vibrant intellectual community of like-minded educators.
Current curricular materials are focused in the area of biological engineering and are well suited to advanced high school and early college settings. Future directions include the expansion to middle school teaching as well as the development of complementary materials for other STEM fields, such as physics, math and finance.