RET Site: Rural Educators Engaged in Bioanalytical Engineering Research and Teaching

RET现场：从事生物分析工程研究与教学的农村教育工作者

• 批准号: 1542446
• 负责人: Mark Nanny
• 金额: $ 60万
• 依托单位: University of Oklahoma Norman Campus
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-09-15 至 2020-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1542446&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: RET; Site; Rural; Educators; Engaged

This Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) in Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Oklahoma (OU) Norman will involve rural high school science and mathematics teachers and regional community college instructors in bioanalytical engineering research, to help them improve STEM teaching in their classrooms, and to have them participate in a sustainable professional network that will increase the number of rural students who select and successfully graduate from higher education STEM fields. Bioanalytical engineering encompasses the design and manipulation of biomolecules, viruses, bacteria and cells, as well as the fabrication of innovative analytical devices for the detection and monitoring of these biomaterials. These efforts directly address pertinent problems related to medicine, public health, petroleum and biofuel production, bioremediation of groundwater, and designing target-specific pharmaceuticals. Because these are important and relevant topics for Oklahoma rural communities, integrating these topics into STEM education will: strengthen rural education, build a network of educators (ranging from rural high school teachers and regional community college instructors to university research faculty), and promote a career-preparation pathway for rural youth in Oklahoma. This effort will increase the Oklahoma workforce, which needs highly trained professionals in these areas. In the long-term, the knowledge and results gained from this RET program will help build sustainable education initiatives to reach rural students and teachers, and as a result, will support sustainable rural communities. Over three years, 48 rural Oklahoma educators (high school teachers and regional community college instructors) will conduct bioanalytical engineering research (for seven weeks each summer) at the University of Oklahoma (OU) in collaboration with eight faculty associated with the OU Center for Bioanalysis (CBA). The summer research experience will be designed according to the SUCCESS Framework to maximize RET educators' sense of efficacy for conducting research and to increase their motivation to transfer these experiences into their classrooms. The SUCCESS Framework guides teachers, designers and instructors at all levels and in all contexts, providing a structure for integrating theory-based motivational features into any type of instruction. Educators will be recruited from three regions of rural Oklahoma that are typically overlooked because of their distance from urban centers and major universities. Educators from the same or adjacent rural districts will be paired to facilitate collaboration in the development and implementation of authentic, guided-inquiry curricula that utilize fundamental STEM concepts, apply bioanalytical engineering, and address issues of rural interest and relevance. The SUCCESS Framework will be integrated into the curricular design to improve the students' motivation in learning and the educators' teaching efficacy. This collaboration will establish a professional rural educator network that includes interactions with faculty research mentors and graduate students through classroom visits, field trips, sampling trips, virtual presentations and interactions. The professional rural educator network will be further strengthened and expanded upon by dissemination of curricular materials and motivational design methods through workshops for rural STEM educators at the annual OU K20 Center's Innovative Learning Institute, annual sessions on rural STEM education at the National Rural Education Association, and educator-student poster sessions and presentations at the annual CBA symposium.

俄克拉荷马大学诺曼分校工程和计算机科学教师研究经验（RET）将涉及农村高中科学和数学教师以及地区社区大学生物分析工程研究讲师，以帮助他们改善课堂上的STEM教学。并让他们参与一个可持续的专业网络，这将增加农村学生选择并成功从高等教育STEM领域毕业的人数。生物分析工程包括生物分子、病毒、细菌和细胞的设计和操作，以及用于检测和监测这些生物材料的创新分析设备的制造。这些努力直接解决与医学、公共卫生、石油和生物燃料生产、地下水生物修复以及设计针对特定目标的药物有关的相关问题。因为这些都是俄克拉何马州农村社区的重要和相关的主题，将这些主题纳入STEM教育将：加强农村教育，建立教育工作者网络（从农村高中教师和地区社区大学教师到大学研究教师），并促进俄克拉何马州农村青年的职业准备途径。这一努力将增加俄克拉荷马州的劳动力，这需要在这些领域训练有素的专业人员。从长远来看，从该RET项目中获得的知识和成果将有助于建立面向农村学生和教师的可持续教育倡议，从而支持可持续的农村社区。在三年多的时间里，48名俄克拉何马州农村教育工作者（高中教师和地区社区大学教师）将与俄克拉何马大学生物分析中心（CBA）的8名教师合作，在俄克拉何马大学（OU）进行生物分析工程研究（每年夏天7周）。夏季研究经验将根据成功框架进行设计，以最大限度地提高RET教育者进行研究的效能感，并增加他们将这些经验转移到课堂上的动力。成功框架指导各级教师、设计师和讲师在各种情况下，为将基于理论的动机特征整合到任何类型的教学提供了一个结构。教育工作者将从俄克拉荷马州的三个农村地区招募，这些地区通常被忽视，因为它们远离城市中心和主要大学。来自相同或邻近农村地区的教育工作者将进行配对，以促进合作开发和实施真正的指导性探究课程，这些课程利用基本的STEM概念，应用生物分析工程，并解决农村感兴趣和相关的问题。将成功框架融入课程设计中，提高学生的学习动机和教育者的教学效能。这项合作将建立一个专业的农村教育网络，包括与教师研究导师和研究生通过课堂参观、实地考察、抽样考察、虚拟演示和互动进行互动。通过每年在OU K20中心创新学习研究所举办的农村STEM教育工作者研讨会、全国农村教育协会举办的农村STEM教育年度会议、以及在CBA年度研讨会上举行的教育者-学生海报会议和演讲，专业农村教育工作者网络将进一步加强和扩大。