Thank you for posting some important questions. The Z-factor program is geared for 4th and 5th grade students. There will be a set of sleep science lesson created for each grade (10 to 12 contact hours including research presentations/poster composition) with additional informal learning opportunities in the community, teacher professional development training, and parental involvement practices (see comments below). We anticipate 20 to 30 students in each class. We are beginning the study in Fall 2016. Thus, the children featured were not yet from the classes, but we were able to show them some of the technology-based components that have been developed.

The focus of 4th graders will be what effects sleep and 5th graders on what sleep effects. Students will collect sleep diary and actigraphy data on themselves and then de-identified data are aggregated to provide data for a class project AND another project developed by individual students, in pairs, or groups of 3 (5th graders are encouraged to collect additional data).

With regard to grade level, we wanted to target students before their sleep declines and they lose interest in STEM. However, Biological Sciences Curriculum Study had developed sleep science lessons for high school with success in a randomized study using their 5E Instructional model. Thus, similar curriculum could be developed for middle school (if they did not have it previously) at a slightly higher level.

Thank you! We are incorporating principles from several theoretical models, such as Hoover-Dempsey’s and Epstein’s models of parental involvement. There will be teacher PD related to connecting with parents and we will also directly work with families.

Thank you for your interest in the parental involvement component of the project. Students will be encouraged to develop their own questions, and part of one of the lessons is focused on them developing testable questions; the teachers’ guides will have examples. All students complete a daily activity diary (4th grade – questions on exercise, caffeine, and sleepiness; 5th graders are also asked about mood and attention) and a daily sleep diary (activities before bed including technology usage), interruptions, timing; 4th graders are also asked about room temperature, light exposure, and noise/sound). Fourth grade lessons will cover sleep hygiene. The 5th graders will also do a few performance tasks (e.g., reaction time, memory card game)—all these data may be used to answer research questions. Fifth graders may also opt to collect additional/new data to determine, for example, whether increasing sleep leads to improved performance on a specific task (pre-post). However, as you proposed——how does students’ sleep relate to their parents’ sleep would be an excellent line of inquiry. We are also creating extension activities and the option for parents to wear the sensors and talk about the data would an excellent way to engage them in their child’s learning.

Thank you for the feedback! As noted above, we are integrating evidence-based models of family involvement to enhance the experience of these elementary school students.

The sleep monitoring device (e.g. Actiwatch) has firmware. We first build a layer of interface to get the raw sensor data out to communication blocks (e.g. Bluetooth or USB). Some new versions of actigraphy devices provide the data packet format. Then we do not need to develop additional interface. Currently, we developed MySleep to be accessed via the web for multi-platform purposes. Updated versions of the software will be able to read data packets from Bluetooth. We can also create apps on Androids (for tablets or Androids phones like Samsung) or iOS (for ipad and iphone) to accept data and provide web based portal to upload the data.