Assistant Professor Megan Nickels, creator of UCF PedsAcademy, was named Thursday as the spring 2019 Marchioli Collective Impact Award winner. The award recognizes a faculty or staff member or team who is implementing an innovative initiative, program or project that has produced measurable outcomes related to the priorities of the UCF Collective Impact Strategic Plan.
PedsAcademy, a first-of-its-kind program, provides specialized schooling to chronically ill children tailored to their specific disease while undergoing care at Nemour 麻豆精品 S檚 Children 麻豆精品 S檚 Hospital. The program includes more than 50 UCF 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.
麻豆精品 S淎fter years of teaching elementary school, I missed the daily interactions with children when I went back to school to complete my Ph.D., 麻豆精品 S� Nickels said. 麻豆精品 S淚 was trying to think about what I could do to be around them again, and that 麻豆精品 S檚 when I realized there was a children 麻豆精品 S檚 hospital not too far away from the university, so I signed up to be a volunteer. 麻豆精品 S�
麻豆精品 S淣one 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. 麻豆精品 S�
Nickels says she couldn 麻豆精品 S檛 have predicted the overwhelming need of educating the children who were hospitalized.
麻豆精品 S淣one 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, 麻豆精品 S� she says. 麻豆精品 S淐hronically ill children are a forgotten population. 麻豆精品 S�
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.
麻豆精品 S淲e are meeting a need that is not met, and, largely, not even understood, 麻豆精品 S� 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 麻豆精品 S� 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 麻豆精品 S� which is a large part of why Nickels 麻豆精品 S� received the Marchioli Award. Nickels is in talks with a few children 麻豆精品 S檚 hospitals on how to replicate the model. She credits her partnership with Nemours Children 麻豆精品 S檚 Hospital on making it all possible.
If it 麻豆精品 S檚 not feasible for a hospital to have educators on-site, Nickels has another option: virtual reality.
麻豆精品 S淥ur immersive virtual reality, or VR, platforms will provide multiuser virtual classrooms if a hospital can 麻豆精品 S檛 support in-room educators, 麻豆精品 S� Nickels says. 麻豆精品 S淎ll they need is the equipment and their patients could [virtually] attend PedsAcademy here in Orlando. 麻豆精品 S�
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 麻豆精品 S�72, chairman of the UCF Foundation.
Lisa Jones, associate provost for strategy, says UCF 麻豆精品 S檚 strategic plan requires the university to innovate and then scale successful innovations to achieve greater impacts, as this project has done.
麻豆精品 S淭hrough Collective Impact, we are leveraging UCF 麻豆精品 S檚 existing culture of innovation and focusing the innovations towards solutions that help us move the needle on our metrics, 麻豆精品 S� she says. 麻豆精品 S淲e created this award as one way we can encourage and reward innovations that are aligned with our strategic plan.
麻豆精品 S淔aculty and staff are the heartbeat of all that we do at UCF. 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. 麻豆精品 S�
