Broadening Participation: A Summit to Engage PK-12 Teachers in Engineering Experiential Learning

在美国国家科学基金会和其他美国政府机构中，扩大对工程学的参与是一个重要的话题。在大众和科学文献中，工程教育工作者、行业领袖和政策制定者都建议，在K-12阶段，需要做出更多努力，以增加有色人种学生在工程专业的代表性。考虑到这一点，研究者建议开发和协调一个火箭和赛车教师峰会，这是一个为阿拉巴马州服务不足的学区和社区的PK-12教师举办的广泛研讨会。峰会将成为分享科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）教与学的示范实践以及评估和项目评估战略的平台。它还将为教师提供时间，在阿拉巴马大学STEM和教育教师的支持下，制定与当前阿拉巴马州内容标准相关的详细单元计划。此外，教师将有充足的机会与其他教师同行互动，相互学习。同样重要的是，教师将通过参与动手演示获得第一手的实践经验，这是一套材料工具包，可以立即支持课堂上的工程教学，并制定课程计划，有效地让学生参与基于标准的STEM教学。这个研讨会建立在2012年在阿拉巴马大学创建的火箭和赛车体验的基础上。这个为期三天的首届峰会的重点是向广大观众介绍火箭赛车，并将教师直接纳入研讨会的规划和执行中。总体目标是通过支持提供指导的教师，提高少数民族和女孩在工程和其他stem相关领域的参与度。

Broadening participation in Engineering is a topic of importance at the National Science Foundation and other U.S. governmental agencies. Throughout popular and scientific literature, engineering educators, industry leaders, and policymakers have recommended more efforts are needed, at the K-12 level, to increase representation in engineering among students of color. With this in mind, the investigator proposed developing and coordinating a Rockets and Racecars Teachers Summit, an extensive workshop for PK-12 teachers in underserved school districts and communities in the State of Alabama. The Summit will be a platform for sharing exemplary practices for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) teaching and learning and strategies for assessment and program evaluation. It will also provide time for teachers to develop detailed unit plans related to current Alabama content standards, with the support of STEM and education faculty from the University of Alabama. Additionally, teachers will have ample opportunities to interact with other teacher peers and learn from each other. Equally as important, it is expected that the teachers will gain firsthand practical experiences from their participation in hands-on demonstrations, a toolkit of materials to immediately support engineering instruction within their classrooms and lesson plans to effectively engage their students in standards-based STEM instruction.This workshop builds on the Rockets & Racecars Experience, which was created in 2012 at the University of Alabama. The focus of this three-day inaugural Summit is to introduce Rockets & Racecars to a broad audience and incorporate teachers directly into the planning and execution of the workshop. The overarching goal is increase the participation of minorities and girls in engineering and other STEM-related fields by supporting teachers who provide their instruction.