RET Site: Energize Teachers

田纳西理工大学(TTU)的“RET站点：激励教师(ET-RET)”计划旨在为来自农村和其他社区的30名教师提供真实世界的研究经验，这些社区在STEM领域拥有大量未被充分代表的个人。田纳西州是全国最大的公用事业公司、最大的美国能源部(DOE)国家实验室(橡树岭国家实验室)的所在地，电动汽车行业也在不断增长。田纳西州的这些和其他电力相关行业需要一支在发电、储存和配电方面训练有素的劳动力。与此同时，田纳西州的面积很大，包括许多农村学区，需要在科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)学科方面拥有高级经验的教师。这个为期三年的项目侧重于为期六周的在校实践研究体验，教师将直接与TTU的电气、机械或化学工程专业的工程学教员合作。在此期间，教师学员还将开发课程单元，以便直接融入他们将在随后的家庭学校教授的现有或新课程。将形成一个由教师、大学教师和行业嘉宾组成的“枢纽”，以建立一个支持网络，供受过研究培训的RET教师和其他教师访问。该中心将是一个虚拟实体，教师可以在其中获取专家对各种与能源有关的主题的意见。田纳西理工大学(TTU)的“RET站点：激励教师(ET-RET)”计划旨在为来自农村和其他社区的30名教师提供真实世界的研究经验，这些社区在STEM领域拥有大量未被充分代表的个人。田纳西理工大学的RET教员团队积极从事与能源相关的广泛课题的研究，包括新型电池材料、材料和电池系统技术的电化学表征和建模、从结构和低电平热源回收废能的新方法以及无线电力传输技术。这些专题和其他专题将为为期三年的三组每组10名教师的研究性培训提供一个框架。目标是提高教师参与者的科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)素养，努力提高学生在相同领域的能力，并提高田纳西州中部农村和服务不足社区的学生对STEM学科的兴趣水平。该团队计划观察接受RET培训的教师和他们的学生，以使用持续改进的循环来提高培训的效果。将形成一个由教师、大学教师和行业嘉宾组成的“枢纽”，以建立一个支持网络，供受过研究培训的RET教师和其他教师访问。该中心将是一个虚拟实体，教师可以在这里获得专家对各种能源相关主题的意见。这一奖项反映了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: Energize Teachers (ET-RET)” program at Tennessee Technological University (TTU) aims to offer real-world research experience to 30 teachers from rural and other communities with high populations of underrepresented individuals in STEM fields. Tennessee is home to the Nation’s largest public utility, largest U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) national laboratory (Oakridge National Laboratory), and a growing electric vehicle industry. These and other electric power-related industries in Tennessee demand a highly trained workforce in electric power generation, storage and distribution. At the same time, Tennessee has large expanses that include many rural school districts in need of teachers with high-level experience in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. The three-year program focuses on a six week, on-campus, hands-on research experience wherein teachers will work directly with one of TTU’s engineering faculty in Electrical, Mechanical or Chemical Engineering. During that time, the teacher participants will also develop curricular modules for direct integration into existing or new courses that they will teach in subsequent terms at their home schools. A “hub” of teachers, university faculty and industry guests will be formed to establish a support network for both the research-trained RET teacher-graduates and other teachers to access. The hub will be a virtual entity where teachers can access input from experts on a wide-variety of energy-related topics. The “RET Site: Energize Teachers (ET-RET)” program at Tennessee Technological University (TTU) aims to offer real-world research experience to 30 teachers from rural and other communities with high populations of underrepresented individuals in STEM fields. The RET faculty team at Tennessee Technological University is actively engaged in research across a broad range of energy related topics including novel battery materials, material and electrochemical characterization and modeling of battery system technologies, novel methods for recovery of waste energy from structures and low-level heat sources and wireless power transfer technologies. These and other topics will provide a framework for research training of three cohorts of 10 teachers each over a period of three years. The goals are to improve the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) literacy of the teacher participants in an effort to elevate student competencies in the same areas and to increase the level of interest in STEM disciplines among students in rural and underserved communities in middle-Tennessee. The team plans to observe the RET-trained teachers and their students to improve the efficacy of the training using cycles of continuous improvement. A “hub” of teachers, university faculty and industry guests will be formed to establish a support network for both the research-trained RET teacher-graduates and other teachers to access. The hub will be a virtual entity where teachers can access input from experts on a wide-variety of energy-related topics.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.