RET Site: Engineering Design Challenges and Research Experiences for Secondary and Community College Teachers

辛辛那提大学（UC）的教师研究经验（RET）项目，工程设计挑战和中学和社区大学教师的研究经验，为工程，数学，物理，化学，生物，加州大学工程与应用科学学院的工程教授们正在进行的研究项目，来自15个当地学区和5个当地社区学院的教师。招聘将集中在少数民族教师和少数民族人口较多的地区，以便提高未来STEM专业多样性的效益。将他们新获得的研究知识带回课堂，参与者将创建和实施将研究与课程联系起来的教学单元，鼓励团队合作和解决问题，并将科学和数学与现实世界的应用联系起来。通过这样做，他们将激励和鼓励学生继续学习STEM学科的课程，并在STEM领域从事职业。每年夏天，加州大学将在为期7周的时间里接待来自不同学生群体的学校的10名中学教师和3名社区大学教师。该计划的目标是：1)通过探索工程设计与挑战教学过程和工程师用于解决开放式现实问题的关键研究技能，教育和丰富科学和数学RET参与者在课堂上的内容传递；2)通过在工程内容和基于设计的教学中接受培训的RET参与者提供更好的教学，提高6-14年级学生的科学和数学成绩，激发他们对STEM职业的兴趣。3)支持RET参与者成为领导者，将他们的研究经验应用到课堂上，并与同龄人交流这些经验。五个工程研究项目主题将提供研究经验，以应对美国国家工程院（NAE）在水、能源、大脑、基础设施和网络空间方面的重大挑战。一名工程教员和一名研究生研究助理将指导一个由两名参与者组成的团队；RET资源人员将培训、支持和批评参与者的工作；工程教育资源人员将教育教师关于工程学科和职业，工程师如何使用设计过程来解决现实世界的挑战，并帮助他们为自己的课程开发适当的工程挑战。每个参与者将开发一个独特的课程单元和海报，每个团队将在夏季制作一份研究项目报告，其中包括课堂实施计划，PowerPoint演示文稿，简短的研究视频和期刊文章草稿。在接下来的学年中，每位参与者将在至少一间教室中实践课程单元。结果将通过专门的网站和区域年度STEM会议传播给其他参与者。

This Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) program, Engineering Design Challenges and Research Experiences for Secondary and Community College Teachers, at the University of Cincinnati (UC), creates opportunities for secondary school instructors of engineering, math, physics, chemistry, biology, and computer science from 15 local school districts and faculty from 5 local community colleges to participate in ongoing research projects conducted by professors of engineering at UC's College of Engineering and Applied Science. Recruitment will focus on both minority teachers and districts with high minority populations so that a benefit of improving diversity in future STEM professions may be impacted. Taking their newly acquired research knowledge back to the classroom, participants will create and implement units of instruction that tie the research to the curriculum, encourage team work and problem-solving, and link science and math to real world applications. By doing so, they will inspire and encourage students to continue taking coursework in STEM disciplines and pursue careers in STEM fields. Over a 7-week period each summer, UC will host a cohort of 10 secondary school teachers and 3 community college faculty participants from schools that encompass a diverse population of students. The program goals are to: 1) educate and enrich science and math RET participants' content delivery in their classrooms by exploring the engineering design-and-challenge instructional process and the critical research skills used by engineers to solve open-ended real-world problems, 2) improve grades 6-14 student science and math achievement and stimulate interest in STEM careers as a result of better instruction delivered by RET participants trained in engineering content and design-based instruction, and 3) support RET participants in becoming leaders by applying their research experiences in their classrooms and communicating those experiences to their peers. Five engineering research project topics will provide research experiences addressing National Academy of Engineering (NAE) Grand Challenges in Water, Energy, Brain, Infrastructure and Cyberspace. An Engineering Faculty Member and a Graduate Research Assistant will mentor a team of two participants; a RET Resource Person will train, support, and critique the work of the participants; and an Engineering Education Resource Person will educate the teachers on engineering disciplines and occupations, how engineers use the design process to solve real world challenges, and assist them in the development of an appropriate engineering challenge for their own classes. Each participant will develop a unique curricular unit and poster and each team will produce a research project report which includes a classroom implementation plan, a PowerPoint presentation, a short research video, and a draft of a journal article during the summer. Each participant will implement the curricular unit in at least one classroom during the following academic year. Results will be disseminated to other participants through a dedicated website and a regional Annual STEM Conference.