Ned the Neuron: mobile, interactive neuroscience education for kids

Ned the Neuron：面向儿童的移动交互式神经科学教育

• 批准号: 8733744
• 负责人: Erica Warp
• 金额: $ 24.91万
• 依托单位: KIZOOM LABS
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-09-15 至 2015-09-14
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/8733744
• 关键词: 11 year old; Attention; Awareness; Base of the Brain; Biology; Brain; Child; Collaborations; Data; Development; Disease; Education; Educational Curriculum; Educational Materials; Educational Status; Electronics; Ensure; Environment; Evaluation; Female; Friends; Funding; Future; Goals; Growth; Knowledge; Learning; Marketing; Mind; Minority; Nervous system structure; Neurobiology; Neurons; Neurosciences; Organ; Parents; Phase; Plant Roots; Process; Questionnaires; Resources; Rewards; School-Age Population; Schools; Science; Scientist; Series; Social Network; Synapses; System; Testing; Text; Touch sensation; Translating; Work; age group; base; career; commercialization; design; digital; improved; innovation; interest; nervous system disorder; next generation; novel; prototype; public health relevance; quality assurance; role model; social; success; tool; touchscreen; virtual

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Kizoom is creating an exciting world of memorable neuron characters to inspire school age children to know and grow their brains. Neuroscience is not emphasized in the K-12 public school curriculum and there is a particular lack of kid-friendly learning tools on neuroscience for 7-11 year olds. If funded, we will develop a unique set of educational materials for mobile electronic media to accompany our premiere eBook Ned the Neuron, a story about fun neuron characters firmly rooted in neurobiology, which we are currently producing. This new bundle of resources will use a motivating neuron avatar system and cutting edge mobile interactions (touch-screens, accelerometers, etc.) to get children excited about neuroscience and introduce them to core concepts about how their brains work. We aim to: 1. Develop integrated lessons with real scientific data, scientist bios, and multi-level educational games, to turn our Ned the Neuron storybook into an effective educational tool; 2. Develop a novel neuron avatar system - NeuroMe - through which children will earn points as they progress through the educational games and lessons allowing them to grow and develop their own personalized neuron character, which would further motivate learning; and 3. Test our products directly with kids to ensure that our approach does indeed raise interest in and knowledge of the nervous system in children of our target age group. In Phase II we will substantially expand our offering of educational eBooks and games to cover various topics in neuroscience, and develop a social networking component to our neuron avatar system - Build-A- Brain - wherein children will form connections ("synapses") with other kids' neuron avatars as they learn about neuroscience in a massively multi-player online brain - a true social NETWORK. By motivating and facilitating children to understand and appreciate the biology of their own minds, we will encourage the next generation to nurture this vital organ. By depicting real and diverse positive scientist role models in our applications, with particular attention paid to female and minority role models, we will increase interest in this and other STEM subjects. And by inspiring children to learn about themselves and the world around them we will promote future careers in the sciences.

描述（由申请人提供）：Kizoom 正在创造一个由令人难忘的神经元角色组成的令人兴奋的世界，以激励学龄儿童了解和发展他们的大脑。 K-12 公立学校课程中并未强调神经科学，而且特别缺乏适合 7-11 岁儿童的神经科学学习工具。如果获得资助，我们将为移动电子媒体开发一套独特的教育材料，以配合我们的首部电子书 Ned the Neuron，这是我们目前正在制作的关于根植于神经生物学的有趣神经元角色的故事。这一新的资源包将使用激励性的神经元化身系统和尖端的移动交互（触摸屏、加速计等）来激发孩子们对神经科学的兴趣，并向他们介绍有关大脑如何工作的核心概念。我们的目标是： 1. 开发包含真实科学数据、科学家简历和多层次的综合课程 教育游戏，将我们的神经元奈德故事书变成有效的教育工具； 2. 开发一种新颖的神经元化身系统 - NeuroMe - 通过该系统，孩子们在教育游戏和课程中取得进展时将获得积分，使他们能够成长和发展自己的个性化神经元角色，这将进一步激励学习； 3. 直接与儿童一起测试我们的产品，以确保我们的方法确实能够提高目标年龄组儿童对神经系统的兴趣和知识。在第二阶段，我们将大幅扩展教育电子书和游戏的范围，以涵盖神经科学的各种主题，并为我们的神经元化身系统开发社交网络组件 - Build-A- Brain - 孩子们将在其中与大脑形成联系（“突触”）其他孩子在大型多人在线大脑（一个真正的社交网络）中学习神经科学时的神经元化身。通过激励和促进儿童理解和欣赏自己思维的生物学，我们将鼓励下一代培育这个重要的器官。通过在我们的应用程序中描绘真实且多样化的积极科学家角色模型，特别关注 对于女性和少数族裔的榜样，我们将增加对此主题和其他 STEM 主题的兴趣。通过激励孩子们了解自己和周围的世界，我们将促进未来的科学职业生涯。