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

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.