SBIR-STTR Award

Direct to Phase II

Identifier: 1410957 EcoWell- A planet in a plate. Global climate change is the most important issue humanity has faced. While this has been acknowledged by scientists for years, educating the younger generation is paramount. The importance of teaching scientific data interpretation has recently come to the forefront, with the emergence of polarizing social issues such as vaccination. Similarly, environmental climate change is a contentious concept that requires the understanding of climate data, projections, and mitigation strategies. Yet, a major frustration of educators, scientists and policy makers surrounds the difficulty of getting effective, evidence-based learning approaches into widespread use in the classroom. Implementing inquiry-based activities has in the past proved problematic because of the complexity involved for the educator. Our proposal addresses this problem and the lack of innovative product offering in climate education. The revolutionary EcoWell™ platform consists of hardware, dedicated curriculum material and supporting infrastructure. The EcoWell™ is a small bench-top unit that converts a generic six-well plate into six separate micro-incubators able to mimic aspects of climate change including global warming and the greenhouse effect and terrestrial and aquatic pollution. Using the intuitive touchscreen interface, students will be able to implement automated experimental protocols, download data and follow in-depth instructional videos reducing burden on the educator. The EcoWell™ fully integrated system can be used to grow a range of biological materials under different environmental conditions, in a single low-cost unit and that has numerous applications in a range of core STEM subjects.

Public Health Relevance Statement:
Identifier: 1410957 EcoWell- A planet in a plate. NARRATIVE Climate change represents the greatest challenge humanity has faced. The climate issue will require decision making at the population level that will define the trajectory of mankind. However, lack of science literacy has already become a roadblock to mitigation approaches. Climate change education is imperative to combat the growing misinformation surrounding the issue. Yet, environmental science education suffers from a lack of innovative technologies that allow students to do active interrogative analysis of the subject matter. We have developed a complete active learning approach to climate change consisting of novel hardware, supported by a suite of educational kits focused on climate change backed by formal assessment. Using the revolutionary, EcoWell™- A planet in a plate, fully integrated system will allow students to directly compare the impact of small changes in climate parameters on biological endpoints and facilitate the teaching of vital data interpretation skills. Terms: