Collaborative Research: RET Site: Linking Polymer Engineering with Rural STEM Education to Catalyze Community Engagement

The University of Oklahoma (OU) and East Central University (ECU) in Ada, Oklahoma, are partnering on a three-year program designed to support science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) teachers in distant-rural Oklahoma communities. Distant-rural communities are those located beyond a reasonable daily commuting distance from a major research university. Many distant-rural schools face unique and severe challenges, including limited access to research opportunities, professional development, and scientific equipment. This RET program will support distant-rural STEM teachers in overcoming these problems through hands-on research of cutting-edge engineering topics as well as creating STEM lessons specifically designed for their rural students. Through team-based lesson development with educators and peer-teachers, along with scientific equipment support through the ECU Lending Library, distant-rural teachers will strengthen STEM education within their schools and communities. By connecting cutting-edge engineering research with rural STEM education, this program aims to expand opportunities for teachers and students, strengthen local schools, and build a stronger foundation for science and engineering learning across rural Oklahoma. Over three years, 24 middle and high school STEM teachers from distant-rural Oklahoma schools will spend six weeks each summer living on the OU campus in Norman and working alongside OU engineering faculty and graduate students on real-world research projects. These projects will focus on polymers, a class of materials commonly found in everyday products and widely used in agriculture, food storage, water systems, construction, and healthcare. Over this three-year renewal RET proposal, a total of 24 distant-rural Oklahoma middle and high school STEM teachers will live on the OU-Norman campus and conduct polymer engineering research with 12 faculty in the OU Gallogly College of Engineering for six weeks each summer. Polymer research projects will occur within the context of designing polymer material improvements, upcycling and recycling, and enhancing performance (chemical engineering), developing polymer membranes for water purification (chemical engineering / environmental engineering), creating 3D-printed polymer composite materials for structural uses (structural engineering), tracking microplastic transport and fate in soils and their resultant transport into food sources (environmental engineering), and the deposition and distribution of nano- and microplastics in human organs (biomedical engineering). ECU will provide pedagogical and program workshops, year-round support with classroom implementation of RET curricula, and enhance school-community relationships. Academic year activities will include RET workshops each semester at ECU open to all rural teachers for professional development credit, in addition to multiple interactions between the OU mentors and the teacher and students through field trips, classroom visits, and video conferencing. Likewise, each participating rural schools will host a Family STEM Night to highlight the RET activities occurring in their community. ECU and OU faculty and mentors will actively participate in these events. 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.