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

RET 网站：人类与地球工程：综合 STEM 教学的研究经验

• 批准号: 2055507
• 负责人: Erin Solovey
• 金额: $ 60万
• 依托单位: Worcester Polytechnic Institute
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-01-01 至 2024-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2055507&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: RET; Site; Engineering; People; Planet

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.

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做科学，数学和工程。一名WPI职前教师和一名当地在职教师将在实验室与一名教师导师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，并向更广泛的受众展示他们的工作。该项目将影响大量的高中科学，技术/工程和数学（STEM）教师和高中学生在服务不足的地区，人口是种族和民族多样化。通过培养该地区强大的STEM教育者的能力，该项目可以提供相关的STEM学习机会，让学生发展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）提供围绕人类和地球工程的真实研究经验，受联合国（UN）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高质量的“综合STEM”教学专业发展; 3）协助可再生能源技术参与者根据其研究创建课程和活动，并将其工作传播给课堂上的学生和更广泛的受众，包括TeachEngineering.org; 4）增加可再生能源技术参与者对人类和地球工程的信心和知识，工程设计过程，和教学综合STEM;和5）形成一个持续的实践社区，在WPI职前教师，伍斯特地区在职教师，WPI教师和研究生，行业顾问和STEM教育中心之间进行同行和近同行指导。来自WPI教师准备计划的五名职前教师（目前的WPI STEM本科生）和五名来自高需求学校的当地在职高中教师将每年配对，与WPI教师进行为期六周的夏季工程研究。研究主题包括：1）用于食品安全的传感器，2）用于治疗感染的新型抗菌剂，3）用于个性化学习环境的大脑传感，4）将食物垃圾催化转化为可再生燃料，5）用于检测危险化学品的光谱学，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”教学提供了背景和平台，从而实现有效和参与的K-12学习。教师将每周举办研讨会，指导他们的研究项目，因为他们学习研究技术，最终在一个公共RET研讨会的海报，并将他们的研究经验转化为在他们的课堂上实施的课程计划。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得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的支持。