RET Site: Milwaukee Water-Energy Nexus Education Initiative

拟议的RET站点更新的目标是建立和支持一个可持续的可扩展的RET网络，由学校、校长、教师和工业合作伙伴共同努力，改变密尔沃基的STEM教育，将学生的激情和愿望与令人兴奋的机会联系起来，通过研究、工程和制造创新来发挥作用。预计新课程和全校范围内的改革将对密尔沃基市高需求城市公立高中的5,000-10,000名学生产生影响。其目的是促进一个可持续的RET网络，使教师能够进行实验并使STEM学习变得令人兴奋，授予校长和行政部门支持这些实验（以及实验本身）的许可，并通过该计划的工业元素建立一种伙伴关系，使学习更具情境性并有助于支持计划的发展。这个RET网站每年为10名教师提供为期7周的密集暑期体验，从6月下旬开始，到8月初结束。教师参与高度结构化、以团队为导向的研究项目，重点关注水能关系的研究主题和学年课程开发活动。为了提供课堂以外的支持，该项目还将邀请学校校长参与。教师的专业发展将包括设计思维训练营、课程设计指导和虚拟课堂培训。每年将举行两次RET网络会议，教师将在会上介绍他们的研究项目和制定学年课程。在学年的第一学期，教师将实施他们在夏季开发的为期六到八周的深入课程模块。RET网站及其活动与密尔沃基公立学区的综合数学和科学计划直接一致。课程的参与程度、对学生对工程职业的知识和兴趣的影响，以及他们对基于设计的学习（DBL）单元所针对的核心科学概念的掌握程度，将对课程进行定量评估。通过关注水-能源关系，这是一个对高中生有吸引力的广泛社会影响的话题，希望密尔沃基与K-12学生（特别是女性和代表性不足的少数民族）追求STEM职业的人数持续下降有关的严重经济问题将得到解决。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The objective of the proposed RET Site renewal is to build and support a sustainable scalable RET network of schools, principals, teachers, and industrial partners working together to transform STEM education in Milwaukee, connecting students' passions and aspirations with exciting opportunities to make a difference through research, engineering, and manufacturing innovation. It is expected that new curricula and school-wide transformations will have an impact on 5,000-10,000 students from high-need urban public high schools in the city of Milwaukee. The aim is to catalyze a sustainable RET network that empowers teachers to experiment and make STEM learning exciting, grants principals and administration license to support these experiments (and experiment themselves), and, through the industrial element of the program, build the kind of partnerships that would make learning more contextual and help support program growth. This RET Site offers an intensive seven-week summer experience for 10 teachers per year beginning in late June and ending in early August. The teachers participate in highly structured, team-oriented research projects focused on the water-energy nexus research theme and academic-year curricular development activities. To provide support beyond the classroom, the program will also engage school principals. The teachers' professional development will include a Design Thinking boot camp, curriculum design mentoring, and avatar classroom training. Two RET network conferences will be held annually in which the teachers present their research projects and develop academic-year curriculum. During the first semester of the academic year, the teachers will implement the in-depth six- to eight-week curricular modules that they developed during the summer. The RET site and its activities directly align with the Milwaukee Public Schools District's Comprehensive Math and Science Plan. It will be evaluated in quantitatively terms of participation, impact on students' knowledge and interest in engineering careers, and their mastery of core science concepts that are targeted by the Design Based Learning (DBL) units. By focusing on the water-energy nexus, a topic of broad social impact that is attractive to high school students, it is hoped that the serious economic issues in Milwaukee related to the continuous decline in the number of K-12 students (particularly females and under-represented minorities) who pursue STEM careers will be addressed.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.