Abigail Gao

What would motivate middle and high school students to use an online STEM learning platform? What types of preferences would they have in terms of content, motivation and design? Are there any demographic differences when it comes to the above.

Started June 8, 2023

Abstract or project description

The essence of education lies in facilitating learning for individuals. For this reason, the end product of my project is to create an education app that integrates time-tested theories as well as an individual's different motivations. This project unfolds in two distinct phases. In the initial phase, a comprehensive survey was conducted to unearth students' motivations for engaging in online STEM learning, publishing their notes, along with their preferences concerning content and design. This yielded valuable insights, revealing strategies to enhance interest and accessibility, such as a "financial aid" initiative to provide discounted or free notes, ensuring inclusivity across varying financial backgrounds just as stated by Pierre Bordieu’s Economic Capital theory applied to education. Another key aspect draws inspiration from Vygotsky's zone of proximal development and positive psychology, wherein the app employs daily notifications to reinforce learned content and promote motivation as well as encompasses a friendship and a mentorship system with a Q&A forum to cultivate a robust community. The second phase is a long-term experiential investigation involving app users to ascertain its tangible impact on academic performance. By combining theoretical principles and results from our previous surveys with practical implementation, this research will offer a brand new inclusive and well designed educational app that will allow students to pursue their interest as well as strengthen their weakness.