RET Site: Berkeley Engineering RET plus Computing (BERET+C)

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This Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) in Engineering and Computer Science Site at the University of California Berkeley seeks to strengthen K-12 education in the STEM disciplines by involving a total of a total of 27 science and mathematics teachers and 27 pre-service teachers from the Oakland and San Francisco Unified Schools Districts in an intensive eight-week summer engineering research experiences in computing and computational methods in engineering. The RET Site will involve a partnership between UC Berkeley faculty in engineering departments and centers as well as the UC Berkeley Cal Teach program in recruitment, program development, and implementation. The RET participants will gain first-hand multidisciplinary experiences to foster their development of the necessary pedagogical content knowledge to engage their own K-12 students in authentic experiences in science and engineering. The program will impact two areas that are of direct interest to the United States and the world: increasing access for K-12 teachers and their students to a deeper understanding of the STEM disciplines, research, and career opportunities; and inspiring teachers and students to pursue engineering careers. Over a three-year period this RET Site will offer an intensive summer research program for a total of 54 K-12 STEM in-service and pre-service teachers in high needs school districts in Oakland and San Francisco. The multidisciplinary aspects of this research allows STEM teachers to strengthen their engineering design and computing knowledge and to incorporate their experiences into inquiry-based learning that will excite and interest their students. They will partner with the NSF Engineering Research Centers (ERCs) Nanomanfucturing Systems for Mobile computing and Mobile Energy Technologies (NASCENT) and Reinventing the Nation?s Urban Water Infrastructure (ReNUWIt) and other major research centers at UCB to leverage the faculty, resources, and infrastructure to support the RET Site program. Key features of the program include: 1) Direct supervision of projects and course material development by faculty mentors and graduate students; 2) Involvement of RET teachers and their students in timely, cutting-edge research projects in mobile computing and energy and urban water infrastructure that are translated into inquiry-based engineering curriculum enhancements; 3) Academic year engagement activities; and 4) Recruitment of STEM teachers from high needs school districts in the Oakland and San Francisco.