RET Site: Energize Teachers

“可再生能源技术网站：田纳西理工大学（TTU）的“激励教师（ET-RET）”计划旨在为来自农村和其他社区的30名教师提供真实的研究经验，这些社区在STEM领域的代表性不足。田纳西州是美国最大的公用事业公司，美国能源部（DOE）最大的国家实验室（Oakridge国家实验室）和不断增长的电动汽车行业的所在地。田纳西州的这些和其他电力相关行业需要在发电，存储和分配方面训练有素的劳动力。与此同时，田纳西州有很大的范围，包括许多农村学区需要在科学，技术，工程和数学（STEM）学科方面具有高水平经验的教师。为期三年的课程侧重于为期六周的校内实践研究经验，其中教师将直接与TTU的电气，机械或化学工程学院之一合作。 在此期间，教师参与者还将开发课程模块，以直接融入他们将在随后的学期在家乡学校教授的现有或新课程。 将建立一个教师、大学教员和工业界客人的“中心”，以建立一个支持网络，供受过研究培训的可再生能源技术教师毕业生和其他教师使用。 该中心将是一个虚拟实体，教师可以在那里获得专家对各种能源相关主题的投入。 “可再生能源技术网站：田纳西理工大学（TTU）的“激励教师（ET-RET）”计划旨在为来自农村和其他社区的30名教师提供真实的研究经验，这些社区在STEM领域的代表性不足。田纳西理工大学的RET教师团队积极参与广泛的能源相关主题的研究，包括新型电池材料，材料和电化学表征以及电池系统技术的建模，从结构和低水平热源中回收废能的新方法以及无线电力传输技术。 这些专题和其他专题将提供一个框架，在三年内对三批教师进行研究培训，每批10名。 目标是提高教师参与者的科学，技术，工程和数学（STEM）素养，以提高学生在相同领域的能力，并提高田纳西州中部农村和服务不足社区学生对STEM学科的兴趣。 该小组计划观察接受过RET培训的教师及其学生，以利用不断改进的周期提高培训的效力。 将建立一个教师、大学教员和工业界客人的“中心”，以建立一个支持网络，供受过研究培训的可再生能源技术教师毕业生和其他教师使用。 该中心将是一个虚拟的实体，教师可以从专家那里获得各种能源相关主题的投入。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

The “RET Site: Energize Teachers (ET-RET)” program at Tennessee Technological University (TTU) aims to offer real-world research experience to 30 teachers from rural and other communities with high populations of underrepresented individuals in STEM fields. Tennessee is home to the Nation’s largest public utility, largest U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) national laboratory (Oakridge National Laboratory), and a growing electric vehicle industry. These and other electric power-related industries in Tennessee demand a highly trained workforce in electric power generation, storage and distribution. At the same time, Tennessee has large expanses that include many rural school districts in need of teachers with high-level experience in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. The three-year program focuses on a six week, on-campus, hands-on research experience wherein teachers will work directly with one of TTU’s engineering faculty in Electrical, Mechanical or Chemical Engineering. During that time, the teacher participants will also develop curricular modules for direct integration into existing or new courses that they will teach in subsequent terms at their home schools. A “hub” of teachers, university faculty and industry guests will be formed to establish a support network for both the research-trained RET teacher-graduates and other teachers to access. The hub will be a virtual entity where teachers can access input from experts on a wide-variety of energy-related topics. The “RET Site: Energize Teachers (ET-RET)” program at Tennessee Technological University (TTU) aims to offer real-world research experience to 30 teachers from rural and other communities with high populations of underrepresented individuals in STEM fields. The RET faculty team at Tennessee Technological University is actively engaged in research across a broad range of energy related topics including novel battery materials, material and electrochemical characterization and modeling of battery system technologies, novel methods for recovery of waste energy from structures and low-level heat sources and wireless power transfer technologies. These and other topics will provide a framework for research training of three cohorts of 10 teachers each over a period of three years. The goals are to improve the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) literacy of the teacher participants in an effort to elevate student competencies in the same areas and to increase the level of interest in STEM disciplines among students in rural and underserved communities in middle-Tennessee. The team plans to observe the RET-trained teachers and their students to improve the efficacy of the training using cycles of continuous improvement. A “hub” of teachers, university faculty and industry guests will be formed to establish a support network for both the research-trained RET teacher-graduates and other teachers to access. The hub will be a virtual entity where teachers can access input from experts on a wide-variety of energy-related topics.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.