RET Site: Engineering for People and the Planet: Research Experiences for Teaching Integrated STEM

伍斯特理工学院（WPI）的教师研究经验（RET）网站专注于联合国可持续发展目标，通过关注人类和地球的现实问题，采用综合方法学习和从事科学，数学和工程。一名WPI职前教师和一名当地在职教师将在一名教师导师的指导下，在实验室进行为期六周的暑期研究，主题包括食品安全、健康生活、清洁能源和优质教育。每年夏天，五对教师将参加专业发展研讨会，将他们的研究经验转化为课程计划和课堂活动，并向更广泛的受众介绍他们的工作。该项目将影响到大量的高中科学、技术/工程和数学（STEM）教师和高中学生，这些教师和学生生活在缺乏服务的地区，这些地区的人口是种族和民族多样化的。通过培养该地区强大的STEM教育工作者的能力，该计划可以提供相关的STEM学习机会，让学生培养解决现实世界问题的技能，并帮助培养下一代科学家和工程师。该项目的目标是：1)受联合国可持续发展目标的启发，为马萨诸塞州伍斯特市的职前和在职教师提供以人类和地球工程为中心的真实研究体验；2)在“综合STEM”教学上实现高质量的专业发展；3)协助RET参与者根据他们的研究创建课程和活动，并将他们的工作传播给课堂上的学生和更广泛的受众，包括TeachEngineering.org；4)增加RET参与者对人类和地球工程，工程设计过程和综合STEM教学的信心和知识；5)在WPI职前教师、伍斯特地区在职教师、WPI教职员工和研究生、行业顾问以及STEM教育中心之间形成一个持续的同行和近同行指导实践社区。来自WPI教师准备项目的五名职前教师（现任WPI STEM本科生）和来自高需求学校的五名当地在职高中教师将配对，与WPI教师一起进行为期六周的夏季工程研究。研究课题包括：1)食品安全传感器，2)治疗感染的新型抗菌剂，3)个性化学习环境的大脑传感，4)食物垃圾催化转化为可再生燃料，5)检测有害化学物质的光谱，以及6)通过工程生物合成过程的可持续生产方法。联合国可持续发展目标将这些研究项目统一为“人类和地球工程”，并为“综合STEM”教学提供了一个背景和平台，从而实现有效和参与的K-12学习。教师们将每周举行一次研讨会，指导他们的研究项目，因为他们学习了研究技术，最终以公共RET研讨会的海报告终，并将他们的研究经验转化为课堂上实施的课程计划。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 Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) Site at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) focuses on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals for an integrated approach of learning and doing science, math, and engineering through real-world problems that focus on people and the planet. A WPI pre-service teacher and a local in-service teacher will be paired to do summer research for six-weeks in a lab with a faculty mentor on topics, such as food safety, healthy lives, clean energy, and quality education. Five teacher pairs will participate each summer in professional development workshops to translate their research experience into lesson plans and classroom activities, as well as present their work to broader audiences. This project will impact a large number of high school science, tech/engineering, and math (STEM) teachers and high school students in underserved districts with populations that are racially and ethnically diverse. By building the capacity for strong STEM educators in the region, this program can provide relevant STEM learning opportunities that engage students to develop real-world problem solving skills and help prepare the next generation of scientists and engineers.The objectives of this project are to: 1) Provide authentic research experiences centered around Engineering for People and the Planet, as inspired by the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals to pre-service and in-service teachers around the City of Worcester, Massachusetts; 2) Deliver high-quality professional development on the teaching of “Integrated STEM”; 3) Assist RET participants in both creating lessons and activities based on their research and disseminating their work to students in their classroom and broader audiences including TeachEngineering.org; 4) Increase RET participants’ confidence and knowledge about Engineering for People and the Planet, the Engineering Design Process, and teaching Integrated STEM; and 5) Form an on-going Community of Practice for peer and near-peer mentoring among WPI pre-service teachers, Worcester area in-service teachers, WPI faculty and graduate students, industry advisors, and the STEM Education Center. Five pre-service teachers from WPI’s Teacher Preparation Program (current WPI STEM undergraduates) and five local in-service high school teachers from high need schools will be paired for annual cohorts to conduct summer engineering research with WPI faculty for six weeks. Research topics include: 1) sensors for food safety, 2) novel antimicrobials for treating infections, 3) brain sensing for personalized learning environments, 4) catalytic conversion of food wastes into renewable fuel, 5) spectroscopy for detecting hazardous chemicals, and 6) sustainable production methods through engineering biosynthetic processes. The UN Sustainable Development Goals unify these research projects as “Engineering for People and the Planet,” and provide a context and platform for teaching “Integrated STEM,” leading to effective and engaged K-12 learning. Teachers will have weekly workshops to guide their research project as they learn research techniques to culminate in a poster for a public RET Symposium, and to translate their research experience into lesson plans implemented in their classrooms.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.