Societally Relevant Engineering Technologies-Research Experiences for Teachers (SRET-RET)

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This award provides funding for a three year standard award to support a Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) in Engineering Site program at the University of Southern California (USC), entitled, "Societally Relevant Engineering Technologies-Research Experiences for Teachers (SRET-RET)", under the direction of Dr. Maja J. Mataric. The vision of this RET in Engineering Program is to leverage the considerable resources of the USC to create long-term partnerships among world-renowned engineering researchers and K-12 teachers in Los Angeles inner-city schools. The six week SRET-RET summer program will bring knowledge of science, technology and engineering directly to middle and high school educators (10 teachers/year for 3 years) by involving them in mentored, discovery-based authentic learning and research experiences in state of the art engineering research facilities including the NSF Engineering Research Center for Biomimetic MicroElectronic Systems (BMES). In addition to immersion in the research environment SRET-RET teachers will participate in engineering, technology, ethics, and pedagogy professional development workshops which will facilitate the synthesis and translation of their newly gained knowledge and skills into meaningful and rigorous K-12 classroom activities that sprark enthusiasm for science, technology, engineering and math, using Stigler's lesson study approach to processional development. The academic year follow-up component of the SRET-RET program is structured to sustain and elaborate on the accomplishments the teachers make during the summer and facilitate communication between the teachers and their K-12 colleagues as well as their university partners. The SRET-RET teachers will be role models and conduits of science, technology, and engineering, bridging the traditional gaps between university centers of research and 6-12th grade classrooms.