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

三年的RET网站：从事和培训亚拉巴马STEM教师在传感技术是由亚拉巴马大学主办，以推进STEM教育在传感和测量技术跨多个领域的工程和计算机科学的中学科学教师从中西部亚拉巴马。该网站的重点是出于这样一个事实，即如何测量和分析材料，设备，组织和/或环境的物理特征的知识是许多工程研究问题的基础。 每年夏天，来自亚拉巴马中西部的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，并提高他们对工程研究的跨领域性质的理解。 教师将把他们的研究经验和工程/计算机科学知识转化为课程材料，以支持他们的科学教学。 这些特别开发的材料结合教师对工程的认识，有望提高学生对STEM相关领域未来学习和职业的热情，这是国家的需要。从事和培训亚拉巴马STEM教师在传感技术是由亚拉巴马大学主办，以推进STEM教育在传感和测量技术跨多个领域的工程和为来自亚拉巴马中西部的中学科学教师提供计算机科学。每年夏天，来自亚拉巴马中西部的10名中学教师将在塔斯卡卢萨亚拉巴马大学工程学院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围的学区招募（例如，塔斯卡卢萨市，塔斯卡卢萨县，黑尔县，格林县，马伦戈县）为这个计划。该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了解; 2）增加教师对科学教学效能的信念。 为了实现这些目标，教师将获得重点指导他们的研究项目，参加工程研讨会（学习工程设计过程，工程职业，编程和电子），并获得科学教学专家的支持，以设计课程材料，根据他们的经验，符合亚拉巴马科学标准。 在他们参加后的学年中，教师将加入一个RET实践社区，在将课程材料整合到课堂中的过程中相互支持，并获得通过TeachEngineering.org发布课程的支持。教师导师也将访问RET教室，以支持教师提供课程材料，并回答学生有关工程和STEM职业的问题。该奖项反映了NSF的基金会的使命是履行其法定使命，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.