Rocky Mountain Summer Research Education Experience

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Project Summary The Rocky Mountain Summer Research Education Experience (RMSREE) Program will fill a critical need to increase the STEM knowledge and understanding of Denver area high school teachers, enhancing the STEM content in the K-12 educational agencies in which they teach and ultimately resulting in increased participation and better training of the biomedical sciences research workforce. The main goals of the RMSREE program are: 1) to provide substantive research training, individualized academic preparation, and career guidance to strongly enhance the skills of the RMSREE teacher participants, Research Education Fellows; 2) to recruit a diverse set of Fellows who are committed to translating their research experience into enhanced STEM education in their classrooms and provide them with professional development opportunities to effectively bridge the gap between the research setting and the HS STEM classroom; and 3) to continue to create and sustain long-term connections between CU Denver and local high schools that will improve the STEM education of HS teachers as well as provide a STEM pipeline for their students to enter into the biomedical imaging, bioengineering, and health informatics professions. The RMSREE program holds high expectations for performance (95% of participants adding significant STEM content by the end of their first year and 80% maintaining that level over the five-year period following the program). To achieve these ambitious outcomes we will recruit cohorts of highly-committed, ambitious candidates and engage them in an integrated set of activities, centered around meaningful research experiences, but also augmented with mentoring through individualized feedback on professional development plans (PDPs), a weekly seminar series, and training in laboratory culture and the responsible conduct of research. This will build participants' research skills and STEM content knowledge and understanding as well as promote their progression to become more effective STEM teachers. Group activities will contribute to building a cadre of trainees who will continue to support each other throughout their careers to optimize professional success. The RMSREE program will serve six Fellows each year, for a total of thirty trainees over the 5-year project period, which will in turn impact many hundreds of their students in the years following the project.