Broadening Participation: A Summit to Engage PK-12 Teachers in Engineering Experiential Learning

扩大工程参与是国家科学基金会和其他美国政府机构的重要主题。在整个流行和科学文献中，工程教育工作者，行业领导者和政策制定者都建议在K-12级别需要做出更多努力，以增加有色人种学生在工程领域的代表性。考虑到这一点，调查员建议制定和协调火箭和赛车教师峰会，一个广泛的研讨会PK-12教师在服务不足的学区和社区在亚拉巴马州。峰会将成为分享科学，技术，工程和数学（STEM）教学和学习以及评估和计划评估策略的典范实践的平台。它还将为教师提供时间，在亚拉巴马大学STEM和教育学院的支持下，制定与当前亚拉巴马内容标准相关的详细单元计划。此外，教师将有充分的机会与其他教师同行互动，互相学习。同样重要的是，预计教师将获得第一手的实践经验，从他们参与的动手示范，一个工具包的材料，以立即支持工程教学在他们的教室和教案，以有效地吸引他们的学生在基于标准的STEM教学。这个研讨会建立在火箭赛车的经验，这是在2012年创建的亚拉巴马大学。这个为期三天的首届峰会的重点是向广大观众介绍火箭赛车，并将教师直接纳入工作坊的规划和执行。总体目标是通过支持提供教学的教师，增加少数民族和女孩在工程和其他STEM相关领域的参与。

Broadening participation in Engineering is a topic of importance at the National Science Foundation and other U.S. governmental agencies. Throughout popular and scientific literature, engineering educators, industry leaders, and policymakers have recommended more efforts are needed, at the K-12 level, to increase representation in engineering among students of color. With this in mind, the investigator proposed developing and coordinating a Rockets and Racecars Teachers Summit, an extensive workshop for PK-12 teachers in underserved school districts and communities in the State of Alabama. The Summit will be a platform for sharing exemplary practices for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) teaching and learning and strategies for assessment and program evaluation. It will also provide time for teachers to develop detailed unit plans related to current Alabama content standards, with the support of STEM and education faculty from the University of Alabama. Additionally, teachers will have ample opportunities to interact with other teacher peers and learn from each other. Equally as important, it is expected that the teachers will gain firsthand practical experiences from their participation in hands-on demonstrations, a toolkit of materials to immediately support engineering instruction within their classrooms and lesson plans to effectively engage their students in standards-based STEM instruction.This workshop builds on the Rockets & Racecars Experience, which was created in 2012 at the University of Alabama. The focus of this three-day inaugural Summit is to introduce Rockets & Racecars to a broad audience and incorporate teachers directly into the planning and execution of the workshop. The overarching goal is increase the participation of minorities and girls in engineering and other STEM-related fields by supporting teachers who provide their instruction.