SUMMER 2012 - SENSE IT: Teaching STEM principles to middle and high school students through the design, construction and deployment of water quality sensors

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Terk

This paper describes the structure and impact of an NSF-funded ITEST project, SENSE IT, built to strengthen science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education through modules for designing, constructing, programming, and testing water-quality sensors. Over two years, more than 30 teachers across New York State received equipment and professional development, then used the modules with 1,700+ middle and high school students. Evaluation results show strong reception, curriculum flexibility across subjects, and effectiveness for a broad student population.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages34

Reading Time1 h 26 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Developing SENSE IT modules and implementation context

Why sensors are an effective curriculum vehicle

| | Ad | vances in Engineering Edu | cation | | | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | SUMMER 2012 SENSE IT: Teaching STEM principles to middle and highschool students through the design, construction and deployment of water quality sensors LIESL HOTALING College of Marine Science University of South Florida St. Petersburg, FL SUSAN LOWES Teachers College Columbia University New York, NY RUSTAM STOLKIN University of Birmingham Birmingham, UK PEIYI LIN Teachers College Columbia University New York, NY JAMES BONNER WILLIAM KIRKEY and TEMITOPE OJO Clarkson University Potsdam, NY ABSTRACT This paper describes the structure and impact of an NSF-funded ITEST project designed to enrich science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education using educational modules that teach students to construct, program, and test a series of sensors used to monitor water quality. During the two years of the SENSE IT project, over 30 teachers across New York State were provided with equipment and professional development, and then implemented the modules in their classrooms with over 1,700 middle and high school students. Project evaluation results indicate that the curriculum was well received by teachers and students, could be integrated into several different subject areas and types of courses, and was effective for a wide range of students. SUMMER 2012 1 ADVANCES IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION SENSE IT: Teaching STEM principles to middle and high school students through the design, construction and deployment of water quality sensors Key Words: STEM education, SENSE IT, water quality INTRODUCTION This paper describes the development and implementation of SENSE IT (Student Enabled Network of Sensors for the Environment using Innovative Technology, [http://senseit.org](http://senseit.org)), a carefully scaffolded set of curriculum modules tied to the New York State and national standards in science, math, and technology, which integrate fundamental STEM principles while at the same time introducing students to the ﬁeld of sensors and sensor networks in the context of assessing water quality. Over the course of two years, SENSE IT was implemented by over 30 teachers and 1,700 students in schools in three regions in New York State (Potsdam, Troy, and Beacon) chosen to represent three school environments—rural, urban, and suburban—along New York State’s two major rivers, the Hudson and St. Lawrence. Developing a sensor network for environmental monitoring creates a broad technology project which can readily provide a motivating context for a variety of science, math and pre-engineering classroom curricula. Sensors and sensor networks involve an information ﬂow of the sensed quantities from the natural environment through the physics of the transducer and the electric circuit in which it is embedded, to a computer, to programs for data gathering and analysis and IT tools for data sharing, storage and display. Using SENSE IT materials, students build, calibrate and test a set of sensors and circuits in order to measure a variety of water quality parameters (temperature, conductivity, turbidity and depth) . To build and understand their sensors, students must use a wide range of core knowledge of mathematics and physical science, as well as learn practical hands-on technology skills such as soldering and debugging circuits. Students then interface their sensors with computers, write programs to gather raw signals, implement calibration curves, and perform data manipulation and data logging. In later modules, students program their own communications protocols for wireless transmission of the sensor data and connect their computerized sensor stations together to form a distributed wireless sensor network (Hotaling et al, 2011) . Additional modules explore the use and implications of this technology for biosciences and environmental research. All of these stages require

FAQs

What is the SENSE IT project designed to teach students?

SENSE IT uses scaffolded curriculum modules to help students construct, program, calibrate, and test water-quality sensors, integrating core STEM principles with sensor and sensor network concepts.

How was SENSE IT implemented during the two-year period?

The project involved implementation by 30+ teachers with 1,700+ middle and high school students across three New York State regions (Potsdam, Troy, and Beacon).

What outcomes does the evaluation report indicate?

Evaluation results indicate the curriculum was well received by teachers and students, could be integrated into multiple subject areas and course types, and was effective for a wide range of students.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Terk