Designing an Iterative Research Kit Exchange Program for Remote High School Science (Evaluation)

Abstract Student engagement in science curriculum is dependent on hands-on live labs, rigorous collaboration and student ownership of learning goals. However, remote labs are often over-scripted, restrict student choice, and do not foster collaboration or exploration of evidence like a live lab does. Moreover, most lab kits available to remote students are single-use to be shelved or discarded when complete, which is neither sustainable for schools nor rewarding for students. Conversely, prevalent online educational platforms like Khan Academy or IXL, often rely on a video-to-quiz content format without live lab experience or collaboration. To address this gap, a remote-accessible program focused on student-driven STEM development exchange kits, guided by State Standards as research benchmarks, aims to provide remote students with engaging, collaborative, and challenging engineering tasks. A pilot initiative was formulated based on prior experience in two separate ASU Research Experience for Teachers (RET) programs in 2022 and 2023. The pilot program began on campus, designing and testing initial kits and exchange procedures. The primary result was a naturally rigorous standard of communication and reporting between students. The first iteration of project reports was rudimentary and poorly reported, as students hadn't traded projects yet. Subsequent iterations of each project strand rapidly gained complexity and reporting rigor, as groups regularly relied on prior teams for clarification to ensure their own success. A side-by-side comparison of reports from the first iteration to later iterations in the same thread shows a growing sophistication and rigor of reporting.