Spring 2009 - Grant Proposal and Usability Testing
Spring 2009
Spring 2009
Team Members
- Samuel Nemanich, 3rd Year Biomedical Engineering/Science Education
- Eugene Lamie, 5th Year Applied Mathematics and Computer Engineering
- Kenneth Boubel, 3rd Year Mechanical Engineering
- Satchal Erramilli, 5th Year Molecular Biochemistry and Biophysics
- Rick Matusiewicz, 3rd Year Applied Mathematics
- Edgar Palacios, 2nd Year Physics
- Kyle Pnsonneault, 5th Year Industrial Technology Management
- Joshua Tate, 4th Year Applied Mathematics
- Anil Vasireddi, 2nd Year Biomedical Engineering
- Yaofu Zhou, 2nd Year Physics
Faculty Advisors
- Dr. Greg Fasshauer, Applied Mathematics
- Dr. Michael Pelsmajer, Applied Mathematics
The Problem
- Many American students in middle and high schools regularly score poorly when compared to students from other nations on math and science standardized tests.
- One of the factors that may contribute to this is the lack of available math and science resources that could help students, parents and teachers.
- As a concequence of this, Chicago Public Schools (CPS) students regularly struggle to complete science fair projects successfully.
- While the website is near completion it is not known whether or not the website is usable by CPS students.
Goals for this Semester
- Write a grant proposal in order to create an on campus science and math learning center (SMLC)
- Create more contacts with different people who can help with both our grant and in the creation of the on campus science and math learning center.
- Perform usability testing on the website and implement changes recommended by usability testing.
Team Organization
We broke into two teams:
- Grant proposal
- Usability testing and website development
Accomplishments
- Investigated many possible funding opportunities for the SMLC
- Developed a budget, plan of action, and curriculum for the SMLC
- Wrote a grant proposal for the NSF Math and Science Partnership program
- Conducted usability testing on the website with CPS students
- Implemented changes to website based on the usability test results
- Added a legal disclaimer absolving IIT of any liabilities for science fair website
- Made many contacts within IIT and CPS in order to garner support for our lab
- Participated in several science fairs, and were involved in community outreach