RET in Engineering and Computer Science Site: Biomechanics from molecular to organismal scales

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This award provides funding for a three year standard award to support a Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) in Engineering and Computer Science Site program at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, entitled, ": RET in Engineering and Computer Science Site: Biomechanics from Molecular to Organismal Scales, under the direction of Dr. Daniel M. Dudek. Biomechanics is a field that aims to understand and explain the mechanical basis of biological processes in organisms from single-celled paramecia to humans. This field requires contributions from engineering, biology, chemistry, physics, and mathematics with crosscutting concepts that unify the study of science and engineering. In this program, a total of 30 in-service high school STEM teachers, from school districts throughout the Appalachian region of southwestern Virginia and Southern West Virginia, with an emphasis on serving under-resourced schools and low income student populations, will engage in original research in areas of biomechanics ranging from the gliding locomotion of flying snakes to the design of highly efficient, biological rubber materials, to human balance and fall prevention. The program will run for seven summer weeks on site at Virginia Tech, with teacher faculty interaction throughout the academic year. Each teacher will be paired on a one-to-one basis with a biomechanics research laboratory, conducting research and developing new educational materials. Teachers will work alongside faculty and graduate students, developing new skills towards addressing specific biomechanics research questions using a hypothesis driven approach.This program will facilitate the development of new educational content that is inquiry-based and focuses on open-ended problem solving, which will address a national need for improving deeper student understanding of fundamental STEM concepts. Research examples from biomechanics lie at the intersection of STEM fields and therefore provide diverse mechanisms for integration of examples and applications in traditionally separated high school courses. The program will train teachers in high-needs rural school districts in Appalachia (Va and WVa). The new educational modules developed collaboratively between teacher and faculty will be made freely available via the web, extending the impact of this program across the country by offering teachers new opportunities to incorporate and adapt interdisciplinary lessons into their curricula. This will not only improve the qualityof secondary school STEM education, but motivate secondary students towards careers in engineering and science.