RET Site: Exploring Career Opportunities through Water-Themed Engineering Research (ECO-WaTER)

堪萨斯大学（KU）的教师研究经验（RET）网站将使高中科学和数学教师沉浸在以水为主题的工程研究中。 该计划的目的是提供活动，为教师创造一个引人入胜的环境，通过跨越环境，机械和化学工程领域的项目学习工程设计。该研究解决了巨大的挑战，例如从海水中去除盐或清理石油和天然气生产产生的废水，这些主题具有本地和全球意义，对参与者及其高中生具有广泛的吸引力。这将有助于指导新课程的创建，将工程融入科学和数学课程，与下一代科学标准（NGSS）保持一致，填补全国重要的中学教育差距。此外，一个关键的目标将是解决来自政策和商业领袖寻求更好地为21世纪世纪的职业生涯准备学生的电话。这一目标将通过使就业机会更明显的参与者和他们的学生，利用教师和九家公司合作伙伴的行业经验来实现。传播新的教育资源的计划包括让每个参与者为他们的课程制作两个工具包，与其他教师分享，从而吸引更多的教育工作者了解这一可再生能源教育项目并采用其课程。教师将从堪萨斯的农村和城市学区招聘，这些学区为高比例的少数民族和经济困难的学生提供服务。凭借KU在指导高中教师和与化学公司合作方面的丰富历史，该项目团队能够实现计划目标，即：（1）让高中教师参与发现和基于技术的工程研究;（2）将工程融入科学和数学课程;（3）为高中学生在科学和工程领域的职业生涯做好准备并给予启发;（4）为高中学生在科学和工程领域的职业生涯做好准备。（4）培养KU，商界领袖和教育界之间的长期联系;（5）为教育工作者和研究生提供专业发展;（6）准备高中教师担任教育领导者和未来教师的导师。研究项目将处理与清洁水有关的问题，包括检测水质的新方法和从海水中分离盐和处理含油废水的新的先进材料。其他项目将探索减少能源生产对水资源造成的压力的方法，包括设计更有效的替代方案，以取代发电厂的冷却装置等现有工艺。 一名评估员将评估培训活动和教育效益。一个夏季前的研讨会将准备教师和研究生作为有效的导师为参与者。参与者将获得基本工程概念，研究经验和安全实验室实践的经验。专业成长课程将涉及交叉概念，评估方法，基于问题的学习和论证。其他会议将以行业职业/途径和校园和工业设施的图尔斯之旅为特色。资源将在研讨会，会议和通过YouTube视频与其他教师和培训教师分享。 教师和研究生导师将访问参与者的教室，以帮助课程的实施。高中生将通过课程和虚拟招聘会了解职业。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) Site at the University of Kansas (KU) will immerse high school science and math teachers in water-themed engineering research. The aim of this program is to deliver activities that create an engaging context for teachers to learn engineering design through projects that span environmental, mechanical, and chemical engineering fields. The research addresses grand challenges, such as removing salt from seawater or the cleanup of wastewater generated from oil and gas production, topics with both local and global significance and broad appeal to participants and their high-school age students. This will help guide the creation of new curricula that integrates engineering into science and math courses in alignment with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), filling a nationally important gap in secondary education. In addition, a key goal will be to address calls from policy and business leaders seeking to better prepare students for 21st century careers. This goal will be achieved by making career opportunities more visible to participants and their students, leveraging the industrial experience of the faculty and nine company partners. The plan for disseminating new educational resources involves having each participant create two toolkits for their lessons to share with other teachers, thus attracting more educators to learn about this RET project and adopt its curricula. Teachers will be recruited from rural and urban school districts in Kansas that serve high proportions of minorities and economically disadvantaged students. With KU's rich history of mentoring high school teachers and partnering with chemical companies, the project team is positioned to achieve program objectives, which are to: (1) engage high school teachers in discovery and technology-based engineering research; (2) integrate engineering into science and math curricula; (3) prepare and inspire high school students for careers in science and engineering; (4) nurture long-term linkages between KU, business leaders and the educational community; (5) provide professional development to educators and graduate students; and (6) prepare high school teachers to serve as education leaders and mentors for future teachers. Research projects will address issues related to clean water, including new methods for detecting water quality and new advanced materials for separating salt from seawater and for treating oily wastewater. Other projects will explore ways to reduce the strain on water resources caused by energy production, including designing more efficient alternatives to existing processes like cooling units at power plants. An evaluator will assess training activities and the education benefits. A pre-summer workshop will prepare faculty and graduate students to serve as effective mentors for the participants. Participants will gain experience with basic engineering concepts, research experiences and safe lab practices. Professional growth sessions will address crosscutting concepts, assessment methods, problem-based learning, and argumentation. Other sessions will feature industry careers/pathways and tours of campus and industrial facilities. Resources will be shared with other teachers and teachers-in-training at workshops, conferences and through YouTube videos. Faculty and graduate student mentors will visit participants classrooms to aid lesson implementation. High school students will learn about careers as part of the curricula and through virtual career fairs.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.