RET Site: Research Experiences for Teachers in Big Data

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This award establishes a new Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) Site focused on Big Data at the University of Nevada - Las Vegas (UNLV). The project involves a partnership between UNLV and the local Clark County School District (CCSD). Cohorts of high school teachers in the areas of computer science and technology will participate in summer research projects with UNLV faculty mentors who are actively involved in current research that uses Big Data. The research projects will focus on topics such as Big Data analytics for the next generation of transportation systems and multimodal data analytics for mobile health. The participating teachers will translate their research experiences and knowledge into classroom practice by developing instructional modules and course materials that they will introduce in their classrooms and share with other teachers in their school district. These activities all contribute to the formation of a community of practice between UNLV faculty and local educators that has the potential to significantly enhance and improve computer science and technology education in the Clark County School District.RET participants will attend a 6-week summer institute on the UNLV campus to participate in cutting-edge research projects with mentoring from computer science faculty who lead projects that involve Big Data techniques and analytics. The RET Site research topics focus on projects which involve activities such as data collecting, data representation, data visualization, and machine learning. These are all areas that are of increasing importance in our data-centric world for teachers and K-12 students. The RET Site project will provide a platform for the participating teachers to develop problem-based instructional materials and laboratory modules that they will share with other teachers in their school district. The excitement of learning about Big Data and related research can inspire the high school students to pursue further computing education and related careers. The RET Site program will strengthen ongoing partnerships between UNLV and the Clark County School District and lay the foundation for quality computing education in the schools and provide for the future computing workforce needs of the community.