RET Site: Engaging and Training Alabama STEM Teachers in Sensing Technologies

为期三年的RET站点：参与和培训阿拉巴马州STEM教师的传感技术由阿拉巴马大学主办，旨在为阿拉巴马州中西部的中学科学教师推进工程和计算机科学多个领域的传感和测量技术的STEM教育。网站的重点是由如何测量和分析的材料，设备，组织，和/或环境的物理特性的知识，是许多工程研究问题的基础这一事实的动机。每年夏天，来自阿拉巴马州中西部的10名中学教师将参加为期8周的研究体验，并探索与测量人体和环境相关的应用项目。参与者将提高他们从事工程研究的能力，并增加他们对其交叉性质的理解。教师将把他们在工程/计算机科学方面的研究经验和知识转化为课程材料，以支持他们的科学教学。这些专门开发的材料，加上教师对工程意识的提高，有望提高学生未来在stem相关领域学习和就业的热情，这是国家的需要。为期三年的RET站点：参与和培训阿拉巴马州STEM教师的传感技术由阿拉巴马大学主办，旨在为阿拉巴马州中西部的中学科学教师推进工程和计算机科学多个领域的传感和测量技术的STEM教育。每年夏天，来自阿拉巴马州中西部的10名中学教师将在塔斯卡卢萨阿拉巴马大学工程学院的教师的指导下参加为期8周的研究体验。中学科学教师将从塔斯卡卢萨周边学区（如塔斯卡卢萨市、塔斯卡卢萨县、黑尔县、格林县、马伦戈县）招募。本RET网站的主要目标是：1)增加教师对工程/计算机科学学科、工程研究和工程职业机会的知识；2)增加教师对科学教学效能的信念。为了实现这些目标，教师将在他们的研究项目上得到重点指导，参加工程研讨会（学习工程设计过程、工程职业、编程和电子），并得到科学教学专家的支持，根据他们的经验设计符合阿拉巴马州科学标准的课程材料。在参与后的一学年，教师将加入一个RET实践社区，在将课程材料整合到课堂上的过程中相互支持，并在通过TeachEngineering.org发布课程时获得支持。教师导师还将访问RET教室，支持教师提供课程材料，并回答学生关于工程和STEM职业的问题。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 three-year RET Site: Engaging and Training Alabama STEM Teachers in Sensing Technologies is hosted by the University of Alabama to advance STEM education in sensing and measurement technologies across multiple domains of engineering and computer science for middle school science teachers from west central Alabama. The site focus is motivated by the fact that knowledge of how to measure and analyze physical features of materials, devices, tissues, and/or the environment underlies many engineering research questions. Each summer a group of 10 middle school teachers from west central Alabama will participate in 8-week research experiences and explore projects with applications connected to measuring the human body and the environment. Participants will increase their capacity to engage in engineering research and increase their understanding about its cross-cutting nature. Teachers will translate their research experiences and knowledge about engineering/computer science into course materials to support their science teaching. These specially developed materials combined with teachers’ increased awareness of engineering are expected to increase students’ enthusiasm for future studies and careers in STEM-related fields, which is a national need.The three-year RET Site: Engaging and Training Alabama STEM Teachers in Sensing Technologies is hosted by the University of Alabama to advance STEM education in sensing and measurement technologies across multiple domains of engineering and computer science for middle school science teachers from west central Alabama. Each summer, a group of 10 middle school teachers from west central Alabama will participate in 8-week research experiences under the mentorship of faculty from the College of Engineering at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. Middle school science teachers will be recruited from school districts surrounding Tuscaloosa (e.g., Tuscaloosa City, Tuscaloosa County, Hale County, Greene County, Marengo County) for this program. The main objectives of this RET site are to 1) increase teachers' knowledge of engineering/computer science disciplines, engineering research, and engineering career opportunities and 2) increase teachers’ science teaching efficacy beliefs. To meet these goals teachers will receive focused mentoring on their research project, participate in engineering workshops (learning the engineering design process, engineering careers, programming, and electronics), and receive support from science-teaching specialists to design course material informed by their experiences that aligns with the Alabama science standards. During the academic year following their participation, teachers will join an RET community of practice to support each other during integration of their course material into their classrooms and receive support to publish their lessons through TeachEngineering.org. Faculty mentors will also visit the RET classrooms to support teacher’s delivery of their course materials and answer student questions about engineering and STEM careers.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.