RET Site: Engaging and Enabling Teachers through Advanced Manufacturing Research

克莱姆森大学的RET网站“通过先进制造研究吸引和支持教师”每年将接待来自南卡罗来纳州的10名高中教师和社区大学教师参加这个为期3年的项目。制造业是美国经济增长和创造就业的基础，并且随着技术、材料和设计的改进而不断变化。虽然这一领域是美国国内经济增长的支柱，但制造业公司很难招聘到有技术准备的劳动力。当教师有机会从事研究，亲眼目睹知识是如何为一个领域构建的，并了解工作如何通过研究阶段(从确定研究问题到传播研究结果)影响更大的工程或科学界时，他们在课堂上的影响将会增加，因为他们将这些经验融入到课堂活动中。这项面向教师的研究体验(RET)计划旨在为高中教师和社区大学教师提供经验，以提高他们对研究进展(科学研究)和先进制造领域的理解。所有教师将被要求设计和开发与他们的研究项目相关的课堂活动。克莱姆森大学的RET网站“通过先进制造研究吸引和支持教师”旨在为来自南卡罗来纳州的30名高中教师和社区大学教师提供变革性的制造研究体验。每一位教师都有自己的研究项目，与先进制造材料或制造技术的发展有关。通过参与，教师对制造的信心，对新的制造机会的知识，以及研究过程预计将增加。在项目结束时，每位教师将能够向他们的学生传授研究过程、美国制造业的格局、制造业的职业机会以及进入制造业的不同教育途径。目标包括：(1)为教师扩展先进和传统材料制造的内容知识，以支持融入新的STEM和劳动力发展教学材料；(2)让教师参与先进制造研究，担任首席研究员的角色，并增加他们对研究如何导致知识发展的理解；(3)为教师提供专业发展(课程开发指导等)。(4)在教师、RET领导班子和工业顾问委员会之间建立紧密的沟通，为教师完善课程模块提供支持；(5)提高与制造业内容知识和探究式教学相关的教师自我效能感；(6)增加教师对先进制造业区域就业机会的认识，以激励他们的学生考虑从事先进制造业。RET评估工作将增加对与劳动力发展、教师学习和专业发展以及高等教育途径相关的地区性重要问题的理解。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The RET Site ‘Engaging and Enabling Teachers through Advance Manufacturing Research’ at Clemson University will host 10 high school teachers and community college instructors from South Carolina each year for the 3-year project. Manufacturing is a foundation of economic growth and job creation across the U.S. and is constantly changing with improvements in technology, materials, and design. While this field is a pillar for economic growth within the U.S., manufacturing companies struggle to recruit a technically prepared workforce. When teachers have an opportunity to engage in research, seeing for themselves how knowledge is constructed for a field and understand how the work can influence the larger engineering or scientific community through the stages of research (identification of research questions through to the dissemination of the findings), their impact in the classroom will be increased as they incorporate these experiences into their classroom activities. This research experience for teachers (RET) program is focused on providing experiences for high school teachers and community college instructors to improve their understanding of how research progresses (scientific inquiry) and the field of advanced manufacturing. All teachers will be asked to design and develop classroom activities related to their research projects. The RET Site ‘Engaging and Enabling Teachers through Advanced Manufacturing Research’ at Clemson University seeks to provide transformative manufacturing research experiences for 30 high school teachers and community college instructors from South Carolina. Each teacher will have agency over their own research project related to the development of advanced manufacturing materials or manufacturing techniques. By participating, the teacher’s confidence about manufacturing, knowledge of new manufacturing opportunities, and the research process is anticipated to increase. At the close of the program, each teacher will be able to convey the research process, the manufacturing landscape within the U.S., manufacturing career opportunities and different educational pathways into manufacturing to their students. The goals include: (1) expanding content knowledge of advanced and traditional materials manufacturing for teachers to support integration into new STEM and workforce development teaching and learning materials; (2) engaging teachers in advanced manufacturing research where they take on the role as the lead researcher and increase their understanding of how research leads to knowledge development; (3) providing teachers with professional development (mentoring on curriculum development, etc.) both during their research experience and the following academic year; (4) creating strong communication between the teacher, the RET leadership team and industrial advisory board to provide the teachers with support as they refine their curriculum modules; (5) increasing teacher self-efficacy related to manufacturing content knowledge and inquiry-based teaching; (6) increasing teachers’ knowledge of regional career opportunities in advanced manufacturing to inspire their students to consider advanced manufacturing careers. The RET evaluation work will result in increased understandings of regionally-important questions related to workforce development, teacher learning and professional development, and post-secondary educational pathways.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.