  {"id":563,"date":"2021-02-18T21:21:54","date_gmt":"2021-02-18T21:21:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.terc.edu\/biorobots\/?page_id=563"},"modified":"2025-07-11T15:40:39","modified_gmt":"2025-07-11T15:40:39","slug":"research","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.terc.edu\/biorobots\/research\/","title":{"rendered":"Research"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading is-style-highlight\" id=\"research-activity\"><strong>Research Activity<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Our goal was to create&nbsp;and research&nbsp;an&nbsp;integrated learning experience&nbsp;that incorporated biology, engineering, and&nbsp;computing. The&nbsp;project worked&nbsp;in multiple states, in urban and suburban school districts with diverse student demographics. Over 3 years, we worked with&nbsp;22&nbsp;middle school teachers and nearly&nbsp;800&nbsp;students.\u202f&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Designing Biomimetic Robots&nbsp;project&nbsp;helped students&nbsp;develop knowledge, practices, and skills&nbsp;in&nbsp;engineering,&nbsp;science, and computational thinking.&nbsp;Science, engineering, and technology teachers&nbsp;participated&nbsp;in professional development, implemented the curriculum, and&nbsp;suggested valuable improvements&nbsp;to the curriculum.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our&nbsp;specific&nbsp;research activities&nbsp;were&nbsp;guided by&nbsp;the overarching&nbsp;question:&nbsp;<em>How does the<\/em> BioRobots<em>\u202flearning environment support student engagement in interdisciplinary learning?\u202f&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/em>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Implementation is now complete after 3 years, and below are some examples of the project\u2019s published research.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading is-style-highlight\" id=\"publications-and-presentations\"><strong>Publications and Presentations&nbsp;<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Cassidy, M., Puttick, G. (2022). <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.terc.edu\/publications\/because-subjects-dont-exist-in-a-bubble-middle-school-teachers-enacting-an-interdisciplinary-curriculum\/\" target=\"_blank\">Because Subjects Don\u2019t Exist in a Bubble: Middle School Teachers Enacting an Interdisciplinary Curriculum<\/a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;<em>Journal of Science Education and Technol<\/em>ogy.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bernstein, D. Puttick, G., Wendell, K., Shaw, F., Danahy, E., &amp; Cassidy, M. (2021).&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.terc.edu\/publications\/designing-biomimetic-robots-iterative-development-of-an-integrated-technology-design-curriculum\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Designing biomimetic robots:&nbsp;&nbsp;Iterative development of an integrated technology design curriculum<\/a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;<em>Educational Technology Research and Development.&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shaw, F.,&nbsp;Kshirsagar, K., Wendell, K.,&nbsp;Danahy, E., Bernstein, D., Puttick, G., &amp; Cassidy, M. (2020, October). Characterizing student artifacts in a multi-disciplinary biomimicry and robotics unit. Paper accepted for presentation at&nbsp;FabLearn&nbsp;Conference&nbsp;(Virtual).&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Wendell, K., Shaw, F.,&nbsp;Kshirsagar, K.,&nbsp;Danahy, E., Bernstein, D., Puttick, G., &amp; Cassidy, M. (2020, June), Navigating dual goals of team collaboration and design concept development in a middle school bio-inspired robotics unit. Proceedings of the 12th International Conference of the Learning Sciences, Nashville, TN (Virtual).&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bernstein, D.,&nbsp;Danahy, E., Puttick, G., Cassidy, M., Wendell, K., &amp; Shaw, F. (June,&nbsp;2019).\u202f<em>Designing Biomimetic Robots: An Interdisciplinary Middle School Curriculum.\u202f<\/em>Paper presented at the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, PA.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shaw, F., Wendell, K.,&nbsp;Danahy, E., Bernstein, D., Puttick, G., &amp; Cassidy, M. (April,&nbsp;2019). Designing Biomimetic Robots. In G.&nbsp;Dellavecchia&nbsp;(Chair),\u202f<em>Designing for Design: Creating Learning Environments that Support Equitable Engineering in Elementary and Middle School Settings<\/em><strong><em>.\u202f<\/em><\/strong>Symposium&nbsp;conducted at the meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Toronto, ON, Canada.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bernstein, D., Puttick, G., Cassidy, M., Wendell, K.,&nbsp;Danahy, E., &amp; Shaw, F. (April,&nbsp;2019).\u202f<em>Designing Biomimetic Robots to Support Multidisciplinary Engagement in Middle School.<\/em>\u202fPaper presentation at the National Association for Research in Science Teaching, Baltimore, MD.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bernstein, D., Puttick, G., Wendell, K., Shaw, F.,&nbsp;Danahy, E., &amp; Cassidy, M. (August,&nbsp;2018).\u202f<em>Designing Biomimetic Robots in Middle School.<\/em>\u202fPaper presentation at the Connected Learning Summit, Cambridge, MA.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shaw, F. and Wendell, K. and Puttick, G. and Bernstein, D. and&nbsp;Danahy, E.. \u201cProblem Scoping in Designing Biomimetic Robots,\u201d\u202f<em>Proceedings of the International Conference of the Learning Sciences<\/em>, 2018.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The&nbsp;BioRobots&nbsp;research project is an NSF-sponsored collaboration (NSF #1742127) between AV°ÍÊ¿ and Tufts Center for Engineering Education and Outreach (CEEO).&nbsp;Any opinions or findings expressed are those of the authors and do not reflect the views of the NSF.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Research Activity<\/p>\n<p>Our goal was to create&nbsp;and research&nbsp;an&nbsp;integrated learning experience&nbsp;that incorporated biology, engineering, and&nbsp;computing. The&nbsp;project worked&nbsp;in multiple states, in urban and suburban school districts with diverse student demographics. Over 3 years, we worked with&nbsp;22&nbsp;middle school teachers and nearly&nbsp;800&nbsp;students.\u202f&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The Designing Biomimetic Robots&nbsp;project&nbsp;helped students&nbsp;develop knowledge, practices, and skills&nbsp;in&nbsp;engineering,&nbsp;science, and computational thinking.&nbsp;Science, engineering, and technology teachers&nbsp;participated&nbsp;in professional development, implemented the curriculum, and&nbsp;suggested valuable improvements&nbsp;to the curriculum.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Our&nbsp;specific&nbsp;research activities&nbsp;were&nbsp;guided by&nbsp;the overarching&nbsp;question:&nbsp;<em>How does the<\/em> BioRobots<em>\u202flearning environment support student engagement in interdisciplinary learning?\u202f<\/em>  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.terc.edu\/biorobots\/research\/\">&nbsp;&raquo;&nbsp;Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"139,106,218,1","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-563","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.terc.edu\/biorobots\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.terc.edu\/biorobots\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.terc.edu\/biorobots\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.terc.edu\/biorobots\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.terc.edu\/biorobots\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=563"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.terc.edu\/biorobots\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/563\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1495,"href":"https:\/\/www.terc.edu\/biorobots\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/563\/revisions\/1495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.terc.edu\/biorobots\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}