So, on Thursday, the science fair came to them — thanks to the help of Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ faculty and students — in the form of the first-ever STEM Day at Nemours Children’s Hospital in Orlando. Poster boards detailing projects as varied as fish prosthetics and bouncing marbles were on display in the hospital’s lobby, each awaiting the arrival of a special panel of guest judges.

Thursday’s event was put on by Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ PedsAcademy at Nemours, which provides highly specialized schooling to chronically ill children in a way that’s tailored to their specific disease. STEM Day wrapped up the first academic year of PedsAcademy, which launched in August 2018. The program is run by about 50 Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ faculty members, student researchers, postdoctoral scholars and student interns who specialize in mathematics, engineering, science, the humanities and special education. Megan Nickels, Ph.D., an assistant professor of STEM education, heads the program.

“Every school needs a science fair. We wanted to give the kids center stage so everyone can see their good work.â€� — Megan Nickels, Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ assistant professor and PedsAcademy faculty director

“Every school needs a science fair,� Nickels says. “We wanted to give the kids center stage so everyone can see their good work.�

The lobby of the Lake Nona hospital also hosted labs from across the university, enticing children with opportunities to touch sea turtle shells, get up close with bugs and learn how muscles generate electricity.

August Terry, 10, was captivated by the crabs brought by the Coastal and Estuarine Ecology Lab. She completed three projects for the science fair: one on silicone in paint; another with a 3D-printed replica of the Castillo De San Marcos fort in St. Augustine; and a third exploring the best materials for building bridges.

Terry, who is still undergoing treatment for bone cancer, won an award for “most likely to change the world.�

Terry’s St. Augustine project was particularly special to her, as she was unable to attend her fourth-grade field trip to St. Augustine because of her illness.

“I can’t put a price on it,� says her mother, Wendy. “PedsAcademy has made hospital visits something August actually looks forward to.�

One of the judges was Katie Seymour, wife of Interim President Thad Seymour. She had high praise for the tailored, one-on-one instruction PedsAcademy offers children on a daily basis at the hospital.

“I love seeing the spark in each of these children,� she says.

PedsAcademy, a first-of-its-kind program, provides specialized schooling to chronically ill children tailored to their specific disease while undergoing care at Nemour’s Children’s Hospital. The program includes more than 50 Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ faculty and student teachers who teach STEM curriculum to the children.

What started as an idea when Nickels was in her doctoral program in mathematics education at Illinois State University, is now a comprehensive model for what education looks like for children who are hospitalized long-term.

“After years of teaching elementary school, I missed the daily interactions with children when I went back to school to complete my Ph.D.,� Nickels said. “I was trying to think about what I could do to be around them again, and that’s when I realized there was a children’s hospital not too far away from the university, so I signed up to be a volunteer.�

“None of my training or years as a teacher had prepared me for what these children encounter in terms of education and how best to teach them. Chronically ill children are a forgotten population.�

Nickels says she couldn’t have predicted the overwhelming need of educating the children who were hospitalized.

“None of my training or years as a teacher had prepared me for what these children encounter in terms of education and how best to teach them,� she says. “Chronically ill children are a forgotten population.�

PedsAcademy does three things: studies the specific needs of children according to their disease; provides tailored curriculum for their needs, and prepares student-teachers to teach hospitalized children.

“We are meeting a need that is not met, and, largely, not even understood,� Nickels says.

Instructors are instrumental in teaching children through science, technology, education and mathematics lessons using virtual reality, robotics, 3D printers and makerspaces. They are also involved in the research of how to teach children based on their disease. For example, cancer affects working memory, so Nickels’ team develops curriculum and teaching methods to help prevent memory loss. The team of researchers is currently beginning work on developing profiles for children with spinal muscular atrophy.

One of the inspiring things about PedsAcademy is its ability to be modeled elsewhere – which is a large part of why Nickels’ received the Marchioli Award. Nickels is in talks with a few children’s hospitals on how to replicate the model. She credits her partnership with Nemours Children’s Hospital on making it all possible.

If it’s not feasible for a hospital to have educators on-site, Nickels has another option: virtual reality.

“Our immersive virtual reality, or VR, platforms will provide multiuser virtual classrooms if a hospital can’t support in-room educators,� Nickels says. “All they need is the equipment and their patients could [virtually] attend PedsAcademy here in Orlando.�

Thanks to the $5,000 in prize money from the Marchioli Impact Award, Nickels says she will purchase additional VR equipment to take expand the program. The award was made possible by Nelson Marchioli ‘72, chairman of the Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ Foundation.

Lisa Jones, associate provost for strategy, says Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½â€™s strategic plan requires the university to innovate and then scale successful innovations to achieve greater impacts, as this project has done.

“Through Collective Impact, we are leveraging Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½â€™s existing culture of innovation and focusing the innovations towards solutions that help us move the needle on our metrics,â€� she says. “We created this award as one way we can encourage and reward innovations that are aligned with our strategic plan.

“Faculty and staff are the heartbeat of all that we do at Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½. We cannot and will not fulfill the promises outlined in the plan without faculty and staff using their creativity to test new ideas or enhance existing programs/projects to help achieve the metrics and Dr. Nickels is the perfect example.â€�

“These children can miss out on weeks, months or even years of schooling,â€� says Megan Nickels, a Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ assistant professor in the College of Community Innovation and Education and the College of Medicine, and PedsAcademy faculty director. “Our goal is to provide a rich, meaningful, educational experience so they aren’t just keeping pace with their healthy, typically developing peers, but they are actually getting extraordinary educational opportunities while in the hospital.â€�

The program launched in August and uses robots, immersive virtual reality, telepresence, 3D printers and MakerSpaces to deliver lessons that range from basic computer programming to learning about undersea worlds. Lessons are personalized to a child’s interests by incorporating themes such as superheroes, animals, or sports. Teaching methods are based on Nickel’s research into cognitive development and the effects of certain diseases on learning, so patients are taught in ways that are conducive to their physical limitations and sensory conditions.

For example, a child with cancer who likes superheroes might have a math session that features Spider-Man and uses robots to prompt engagement. Because chemotherapy can cause problems with focus, working memory, and identifying visual and spatial relationships, the assignment might center around an activity that involves mental rotation, repetitive programming and small increases in task difficulty.

“It’s such a nontraditional way of delivering education and is tailored in a way that is as fun as it is intellectually stimulating,� says Norman Jeune, director of Patient and Family Centered Care at Nemours Children’s Hospital in Orlando. “No one has done anything like this before.�

Instruction takes place at the bedside of inpatient children, and will soon begin in outpatient settings such as the Nemours’ Infusion Center where cancer and blood disorders, kidney disease, and immune-system disorders are treated. In some cases, the virtual-reality goggles and scenarios are such an effective distraction that they are used as an alternative to sedation during treatments.

“It’s such a nontraditional way of delivering education and is tailored in a way that is as fun as it is intellectually stimulating.” — Norman Jeune, director of Patient and Family Centered Care at Nemours Children’s Hospital

On an average day, up to 60 children are taught through PedsAcademy at Nemours. Patients can receive at least three hours of instruction per day and may begin participating in the program as soon as they are admitted. Instruction is for children up through 12^th grade and also is available for siblings of the patients.

The PedsAcademy team is comprised of Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ faculty members, student researchers, postdoctoral scholars and dozens of student interns. The students, all pre-service teachers, complete a semester of study at Nemours and provide instruction to patients under the supervision of a faculty member. This gives them the opportunity to learn new skills for teaching special populations such as hospitalized children.

For Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ student Julisa Vinas, the mission of PedsAcademy hits home. In her third year at Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ as an accounting student, a mixture of illnesses led to her medically withdrawing from school and undergoing an extensive procedure to have a stem-cell transplant. Upon her recovery, she vowed to continue her education in something she felt would make an impact. She’s now in her senior year at Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ studying elementary education and a PedsAcademy intern.

“When this opportunity [PedsAcademy] came up, I thought this is perfect for me because I know what it feels like to be extremely ill and want to have an education, to want to go to school and not be able to. Being able to now go to these kids and provide that for them – it’s an amazing experience,� Vinas says.

The program was inspired by research that shows children who face life-threatening illnesses or suffer from chronic health conditions will have their education disrupted, often resulting in an inability to keep pace with their peers and perform at their grade level. This disruption in education can affect children into their later years by limiting their achievements and social mobility. Each year, eight out of every 100 children are hospitalized in the United States.

The program is funded through grants and private donations.

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Nickels and a team of Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ scientists and educators are creating a curriculum and, eventually, building mobile-cart exhibits with the science center that will teach science, engineering, technology and robotics at three Orlando children’s hospitals: Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children, Nemours Children’s Hospital and Florida Hospital for Children.

“This is really exciting on a number of levels,â€� said Nickels, an assistant professor of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education at Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½, . “What we know from working with sick kids is that because of their isolation – and it’s no one’s fault – they lose the ability to give back to others. They can’t contribute to their classrooms, homes, communities and this gives them the opportunity to do some meaningful work.â€�

Just how meaningful? Nickels said the STEM satellite carts will include work the children will perform that will be used by NASA scientists later.

“We’re having them contribute to our understanding of near-Earth asteroids, for example,� she said. “That work will inform NASA missions at a later time. That’s meaningful.�

Each hospital will eventually have three of the mobile carts, which are space themed and include diagnostic tools, computers and virtual reality equipment. One cart will deal with all aspects of the OSIRIS-REx mission. Another will be all about Mars and the third will be about The Stars and Beyond, which will encompass other space exploration and planetary science.

Nickels said the partnership with the Orlando Science Center was critical because the NASA grant proposal could not be submitted by a university.

“I approached them and asked if they would be willing to work with me and Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½,â€� she said. “They are so gracious, such wonderful people. I know they have so many requests each year and the fact that they agreed to work with me is an honor.â€�

Administrators at the museum saw a dire need for education to an underserved group of children between the ages of 10 and 18.

“Children with critical illness can struggle with formal education due to the fact that their hospitalization keeps them from engaging in active study and attending classes� said science center president and CEO JoAnn Newman. “These engaging mobile exhibits will not only shorten the learning gap during their hospitalization, it will help motivate these children to pursue STEM learning and careers. Providing high-level engaging and authentic STEM activities to this audience through mobile exhibits is unprecedented.�

The Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ team includes Nickels and physics Professor Humberto Campins, a member of the OSIRIS-REx mission to asteroid Bennu; physics Professor Daniel Britt, who has been part of the science teams of two NASA missions; Lisa Dieker, a Pegasus professor and Lockheed Martin eminent scholar chair, who provided guidance on using technology to teach science and mathematics; and Professor Mike Hynes, director of the School of Teaching, Learning and Leadership in the College of Education & Human Performance, among others.

The science center and Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ will incorporate NASA data and artifacts from prior NASA missions, Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ planetary-science collections, and Kennedy Space Center resources into the mobile-cart exhibits. Nickels is designing the curriculum to go with each STEM cart; all will be ready for use at the hospitals in fall of 2018.

Volunteers from BASE Camp Children’s Cancer Foundation will be trained by science center educators to facilitate these programs during hospital visits. Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½â€™s Pediatric Initiatives Group, which has 65 students in majors from education to science, are volunteering to train the people implementing the programs at the hospitals.

The grant was strongly supported by Florida Sen. Bill Nelson.

“Space exploration captivates the mind and engages the spirit,â€� Nelson said. “This program will allow NASA, Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ and the Orlando Science Center to work together to help inspire and educate some of the kids who need it the most.â€�

Nickels said this program is just beginning, but she sees it growing nationally. She has hopes of taking it to other children’s hospitals around the nation and is in conversations with LEGO to have the company partner and freely distribute similar carts around the United States.

“This goes beyond just us,� she said. “Our STEM Satellites program brings about the realization of this goal and marks a crucial turning point in how educational programs are conceived and delivered to children in hospitals.�

Hour of Code is a national campaign that promotes computer coding. Last year’s event featured President Obama writing his first line of code and made history by having more than 100 million participants.

This year’s Hour of Code, which coincided with Computer Science Education Week, attracted more than 100 attendees for its inaugural event at Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½.

The space-themed adventure included “Star Wars� games designed with a coding module on a smart phone, tablet or laptop instructed by BASE Camp Children’s Cancer Foundation 10-year-old twins Avery and Grayson Zrelak, interactive challenges like Storm Trooper bowling with Wonder Workshop’s Dash robots and recorded messages from President Obama and “Star Wars: The Force Awakens� engineers, discussing the coding process and how to create a game with computer code.

Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ College of Education and Human Performance’s mathematics education assistant professor Megan Nickels organized this year’s Hour of Code festivities with her CEDHP Pediatric Interest Group-Education (pig-e) student organization. The group features 21 elementary education undergraduate students from Nickels’ math content course.

“Pig-e is helping me with robotics, but I’m also preparing the students to be educators,� says Nickels. “I feel future educators should get exposure and seek out as many different educational settings as possible, some of which may make them feel uncomfortable, so they can see enough and know to find their passion within our profession.�

Nickels has been teaching critically ill children mathematics with LEGO and Wonder Workshop’s Dash and Dot robots ever since she volunteered at the Children’s Hospital of Illinois in Peoria, Ill., a St. Jude’s Hospital affiliate clinic where she provided educational services while she was pursuing her doctoral degree in mathematics education from Illinois State University.

She uses the Dash and Dot robots to teach the children math. The building process uses algebraic, geometric and other mathematic concepts for developing the robot’s think tank. The children became attached to the robots and had an opportunity to program the mathematical learning tools to be a shark, play rock paper scissors or whatever their heart desires.

“It became really clear that there was a big need to have an exposure to meaningful mathematics,� explains Nickels. “I’m researching how children with cancer and other chronic illnesses learn mathematics through robotics and how that affects their conceptual understanding of mathematics and physiological and socio-emotional well-being.�

In Orlando, Nickels is continuing her mission by teaching children mathematics with robotics at area hospitals through BASE Camp Children’s Cancer Foundation.

During Hour of Code, attendees had an opportunity to program their own robots and play games.

“I enjoyed looking at the crowd and seeing them engrossed with the ‘Star Wars’ coding module,” said Nickels. “They learned coding skills and put them into practice with the Wonder Workshop’s Dash robots. Computer science is now, and the rock stars of tomorrow are coders.â€�

Web engineer Amado Gonzalez was amazed with how quickly the area school children learned the computer coding when they programmed their Dash robots with tablets and smart phones. He also felt this year’s theme was engaging and fun.

“Tying Hour of Code with ‘Star Wars,’ which is a global phenomenon, is great because the kids can see real-world applications of what coding does and how it’s programmed.â€�

Elementary education student Karly Nelson loved the “Star Wars� theme and was fascinated with her Dash robot. She played Storm Trooper bowling and was able to knock some of the cups down with her robot, which was programmed by her smart phone. Nelson was impressed with Dash and its capabilities and feels computer coding is the wave of the future.

“Everything is tech-based now. Daily lives also revolve around their cell phone. Your computer is in your hand constantly. Understanding how that computer works and building a phone with computer code will be common place.”

During this year’s Hour of Code, students, faculty and staff members and the community will see exclusive “Star Wars: The Force Awakens� footage and learn about the computer coding that’s involved with sci-fi films. Then, they’ll be challenged to write their own line of code using their cell phone, tablet or laptop.

Hour of Code is a national movement to bring awareness to coding. More than 100 million students created a computer code during last year’s event, which President Obama also participated in.

Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ is one of the more than 156,000 Hour of Code host sites from more than 180 countries. Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½â€™s event will start at 10 a.m. Tuesday, Dec. 8, at the Education Complex Gym.

The event will be led by College of Education and Human Performance Assistant Professor Megan Nickels.

Prior to joining Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½, Nickels volunteered as an educator at a children’s hospital in Peoria, Ill. She saw firsthand how critically and terminally ill children such as those with cancer struggled with understanding math, so she introduced programmable robots that can be coded by the kids into her lessons.

The robots are named Dash and Dot, and they’re produced by Wonder Workshop. Children use tablets to code the behaviors of the robots, and teachers use the robots to expose children to STEM principles in a fun and interactive way.

While working on her Ph.D. in Chicago, Nickels studied how robots like Dash and Dot impacted the children’s understanding of math and overall well-being. She found that when the children were working on math with the robots, their blood pressure went down. The children also reported having less of a chemo brain or feeling foggy or forgetful while they programmed the robots.

Children from BASE Camp Children’s Cancer Foundation in Winter Park—where Nickels currently volunteers—will be at Hour of Code to share how the robots are helping them learn.

Hour of Code is free and part of the College of Education and Human Performance’s Computer Science Education Week.