Flu Finders: Data Literacy through Wastewater Monitoring

To prepare for challenges in the biomedical field students must be data-literate. American students underperformancein STEM fields and the limiting effect that has on the STEM workforce including roles in biomedical science is anongoing concern (Sass 2015; Rosenzweig et al. 2021). Problem-based learning which emphasizes authenticproblem-solving is one flexible instructional method that has been effective at building data literacy skills and improvingstudents science achievement but is also time-consuming and challenging to implement (Friedrich et al. 2024; Merritt etal. 2017). Building tools that help students develop the skills to navigate a data-centric world and see the value of sciencein their lives while enabling educators to respond to their students needs would help address this critical issue. This SBIR Phase I & II award will enable Killer Snails LLC to develop a multimodal learning experience Flu Findersthat uses a Problem-based learning framework to deliver Next Generation Science Standards-aligned content to students ingrades 7-10. Killer Snails will collaborate with virologist Dr. John Dennehy to create 5 class period-length challengesabout monitoring the spread of flu in a community by interpreting data from sources including wastewater and clinicaloutcomes. Dr. Dennehy is an expert and innovator in the field of using RNA sequencing on samples of wastewater tomonitor viral diseases an impactful surprising and data-driven field that forms the basis of the Flu Finders narrative. Flu Finders will leverage the features of an interactive personalized website to support a Problem-based learningcurriculum allowing students to build data literacy digital fluency and problem-solving skills that are critical throughoutSTEM subject areas. Flu Finders will also address the need for individualized feedback with a real-time educatordashboard that summarizes student actions and highlights actionable steps to support building new skills. This approachwill address issues of scalability that make Problem-based learning less likely to be implemented in classrooms. Flu Finders has three innovative features: (1) Interactive Data Visualization Builder to enable students to explore thedata collected in the virtual environment and power their inferences and decision-making (2) Collaborative Interface toenable students to collaborate on a final presentation using a proprietary design structured to support sharing theirrecommendations and evidence-based reasoning. (3) Real-Time Educator Dashboard Optimized for Problem-BasedLearning to highlight progress and diagnostic recommendations for tailored timely contextual educator feedback. Thedashboard will display actionable learning analytics of individual student work and the collaborative interactions betweenstudents. The dashboard will highlight evidence of data literacy skills or the need for support from the educator. Our innovative features will be iteratively tested to examine how they contribute to students' learning. Our evaluatorsMarcy Peak LLC will conduct a randomized control trial investigating the extent to which Flu Finders influencedstudents content knowledge data literacy digital fluency and problem-solving skills and subjective value of science aswell as educators ability to monitor and support students during problem-based learning activities. Flu Findersintegrated narrative curriculum and digital platform will meet the data-centric needs of science learners and educators.