A Kit to Support a Biology Education Curriculum (22060)

This is a device kit to support a biology education curriculum. Both the kit and the curriculum were developed at Northwestern. At the heart of this project-based I, Bio curriculum, middle school students redesign their school lunch to meet their bodies’ energy needs. This redesign is based in part on students’ calculations of their own energy consumption, measured from their own bodies using computer-based sensor technologies and an apparatus adapted for in-class use from exercise physiology. On their way to successfully completing the “I, Bio” project, students have to learn and apply biology content about how their bodies get the energy they need from the food they eat, and how their bodies’ organs and organ systems work in concert to transform and harness this energy in food. This biology content is a large part of the middle grades science standards. The I,Bio curriculum project directly addresses:

fundamental concepts and principles of human biology; the structure and function of living cells, tissues and organs; organ systems and the integrated function of these organ systems; the vital functions these physiological systems carry out (digestion, respiration and circulation) to support energy transformation in the human body; how this science applies to nutrition, fitness, and overall health; how the concepts of energy, energy transformation and work apply to the human body.

The I,Bio curriculum project also builds knowledge of the processes of scientific inquiry and design as students work to complete their school lunch projects: collecting and analyzing data and reporting results; conducting experiments; applying the concepts, principles and processes of design. The I,Bio curriculum project is geared to middle school grade levels. Because students work with their own specific lunch menus and with physiological data collected from their own bodies, the educational experience of I,Bio is very personally motivating for the students.

STATE OF MARKET ACCEPTANCE: Northwestern University’s Center for Learning Technologies in Urban Schools has during the last two years piloted and researched I, Bio. This year we are enacting the curriculum with 14 Chicago Public middle school teachers (27 class sections, 718 students) and 5 Evanston middle school teachers (21 class sections, 436 students). Also this year, we are teaching a for-credit human biology course for middle school teachers that uses I,Bio as its backbone.

Inventor(s): Brian Reiser, David Kanter, Emily Kemp

Type of Offer: Licensing



Next Patent »
« More Education Patents

Share on      


CrowdSell Your Patent