National Standards and Guidelines Met through the ECG Challenge
National Science Education Standards
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Principles and Standards for School Mathematics
National Science Education Standards
Content Standards
Standard A: Students develop the abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry and understandings about scientific inquiry.
Standard B: Students develop an understanding of chemical reactions.
Standard C: Students develop an understanding of matter, energy, and organization in living systems.
Standard E: Students develop abilities of technological design and understandings about science and technology.
Standard F: Students develop an understanding of personal and community health.
Standard G: Students develop and understanding of science as a human endeavor and the nature of scientific knowledge.
Teaching Standards
Standard A: Teachers develop a framework of yearlong and short-term goals for students. Teachers select content and adapt and design curricula to meet the interests, knowledge, understanding, abilities, and experiences of students. Teachers select teaching and assessment strategies that support the development of student understanding and nurture a community of science learners.
Standard B: Teachers focus and support inquiry while interacting with students. Teachers orchestrate discourse among students about scientific ideas. Teachers challenge students to accept and share responsibility for their own learning. Teachers encourage and model the skills of scientific inquiry, as well as the curiosity openness to new ideas and data, and skepticism that characterize science.
Standard C: Teachers use multiple methods and systematically gather data about student understanding and ability. Teachers analyze assessment data to guide teaching and guide the students in self-assessment.
Standard D: Teachers structure the time available so that students are able to engage in extended investigations. Teachers create a setting for student work that is flexible and supportive of science inquiry. Teachers make the available science tools, materials, media, and technological resources accessible to students. Teachers identify and use resources outside the school and provide a safe working environment. Teachers engage students in designing the learning environment.
Standard E: Teachers display and demand respect for the diverse ideas, skills, and experiences of all students. Teachers enable students to have a significant voice in decisions about the content and context of their work and require students to take responsibility for the learning of all members of the community. Teachers nurture collaboration among students. Teachers model and emphasize the skills, attitude, and values of scientific inquiry.
Assessment Standards
Standard A: Assessments are deliberately designed and have explicitly stated purposes.
Standard B: Assessment tasks are authentic. Students have adequate opportunity to demonstrate their achievements.
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Project 2061
Benchmarks for Physical Health
• Students should relate their knowledge of normal body functioning to situations, both hereditary and environmental, in which functioning is impaired. [abnormal ECG study] As they come across medical news in the media, students can identify new ways of detection, diagnosis, treatment, prevention, or monitoring. [new uses of the ecg or other means of monitoring the same types of information] They should routinely try to find explanations for various disease conditions in physiological, molecular, or systems terms. [abnormal ECG study]
Benchmarks for the Designed World
• Students can routinely use information technology to store, retrieve, and analyze physiological and health information. [analyze the ECG signal]
• Collection of data on their own vital signs can include response to exercise and schedule changes and be done carefully and often enough to show bodily cycles in temperature and heart rate as well as individual differences in findings that can be compared for a large group. [collection of ECGs in classroom and comparison to average values]
• Owing to the large amount of information that computers can process, they are playing an increasingly larger role in medicine. They are used to analyze data and to keep track of diagnostic information about individuals and statistical information on the distribution and spread of various maladies in populations. [ECG collection and analysis]
Benchmarks of Habits of Mind
• Consider the possible effects of measurement errors on calculations. [ECG analysis; electric field lab]
• Learn quickly the proper use of new instruments by following instructions in manuals or by taking instructions from an experienced user. [ECG data collection, electric field lab]
• Troubleshoot common mechanical and electrical systems, checking for possible causes of malfunction, and decide on that basis whether to make a change or get advice from an expert before proceeding. [ECG data collection]
• Make and interpret scale drawings. [ECG data collection and analysis]
• Participate in group discussions on scientific topics by restating or summarizing accurately what others have said, asking for clarification or elaboration, and expressing alternative positions. [diseased ECG presentations]
• Use tables, charts, and graphs in making arguments and claims in oral and written presentations. [ECG analysis lab report]
Benchmarks of the Human Organism
• The nervous system works by electrochemical signals in the nerves and from one nerve to the next. The hormonal system exerts its influences by chemicals that circulate in the blood. These two systems also affect each other in coordinating body systems. [understanding of ions behind action potentials]
• Communication between cells is required to coordinate their diverse activities. Some cells secrete substances that spread only to nearby cells. Others secrete hormones, molecules that are carried in the bloodstream to widely distributed cells that have special receptor sites to which they attach. Along nerve cells, electrical impulses carry information much more rapidly than is possible by diffusion or blood flow. Some drugs mimic or block the molecules involved in transmitting nerve or hormone signals and therefore disturb normal operations of the brain and body. [understanding the cellular level of how the heart works]
Benchmarks for the Physical Setting
• There are two kinds of charges—positive and negative. Like charges repel one another, opposite charges attract. In materials, there are almost exactly equal proportions of positive and negative charges, making the materials as a whole electrically neutral. Negative charges, being associated with electrons, are far more mobile in materials than positive charges are. A very small excess or deficit of negative charges in a material produces noticeable electric forces. [study of charges and electric fields]
• Magnetic forces are very closely related to electric forces and can be thought of as different aspects of a single electromagnetic force. Moving electric charges produce magnetic forces and moving magnets produce electric forces. The interplay of electric and magnetic forces is the basis for electric motors, generators, and many other modern technologies, including the production of electromagnetic waves. [study of MRI]
Principles and Standards for School Mathematics
Number and Operations
• Develop a deeper understanding of very large and very small numbers and various representations of them [work with very small ion concentrations]
• Develop an understanding of the properties of, and representations for, the addition and multiplication of vectors and matrices [work with vectors in Einthoven's triangle]
Geometry
• Use trigonometric relationships to determine lengths and angles [used to find the angle of the heart in the body]
• Use geometric ideas to solve problems in, and gain insights into, other disciplines [using geometry to solve a physics/bioelectricity problem]
Measurement
• Analyze precision, accuracy, and approximate error in measurement situations [ECG lab analysis]
Communication
• Organize and consolidate their mathematical thinking through communication [students must communicate the result of the ECG lab to interpret their findings]
Representation
• Create and use representations to organize, record, and communicate mathematical ideas [use mathematical representations of electric fields]