This award provides funding for a 3 year continuing award to support a Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) in Engineering Site program at Vanderbilt University entitled, "Vanderbilt University Bioengineering Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) Site Program," under the direction of Dr. Stacy Klein.
This Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) in Engineering Site is a renewal of a previously funded RET Site. With this renewal proposal the Vanderbilt University Bioengineering RET Site program will host a six-week summer program for a total of 42 pre-service teachers, 14 per year for 3 years, 6 community college faculty members, 2 per year for 3 years and 6 REU students, 2 per year for 3 years, to participate in summer research projects and continuing outreach and professional development activities. Partner school districts include Metro Nashville Public Schools, Williamson County, Rutherford County, and Sumner County along with Nashville State Community College and the teacher training programs at Belmont and Vanderbilt Universities.
This RET Site program will give participating teachers, community college faculty and undergraduate students a broad overview of biomedical engineeirng, engage them in meaningful research experiences, help the teachers take their research experiences back to their high school science classrooms, disseminate instructional materials created by the RET participants, and create long-lasting relationships between Vanderbilt University and the participants.
The Vanderbilt University Bioengineering Research Experience for Teachers (RET) program was held during the summers of 2004 through 2012. Our program’s goals were to educate teachers about the engineering educational research taking place at Vanderbilt, give teachers a broad overview of bioengineering, engage the teachers in meaningful research experiences, help teachers take their research experiences back to the their high school science classrooms, disseminate instructional materials created by the RET participants, and create long-lasting relationships between the university and the participants. The Program The Vanderbilt RET Site program began with a three day orientation session for all teacher participants. The participants were given an overview of the program and overviews of engineering as a whole, biomedical engineering in particular, and what it means to do both biomedical engineering and educational research. Teachers were introduced to the How People Learn framework and the Legacy Cycle method of instruction. Teachers were trained in one of the twelve high school level, biomedical engineering based curriculum units that has already been developed and field-tested. This training included doing the module just as a student would and then reflecting back on how best to teach that material. After the orientation session, teachers moved into working with their assigned faculty member for 18 days in the summers of 2003-2006 or 23 days in 2007-2012. The RET site program concluded with each teacher designing a Legacy Cycle unit of instruction based on his or her research for implementation in their home classroom. While the research topics are very in depth, they have been readily translated to the K-12 classroom. The Participants Applicants were recruited from area private and parochial schools and in each of the public school systems from four Tennessee counties with almost three times as many applicants as there were positions available. The program has varied in size from 11 to 20 participants each summer, depending on available funding. The 82 unique teachers funded by this grant teachers taught a range of high school science, mathematics and technology subjects with several having experience in more than one discipline. Teachers have participated in the program from one to six years. Student Impact It was hypothesized that the research-based curriculum units developed by the RET participants would engage students in the learning process and result in a higher level of interest in science and engineering; in turn, leading to increased levels of student motivation as compared to a control teacher’s instruction. To determine student motivation, a survey instrument was developed. It was found that the students’ ability to relate the lesson to life and the student’s enjoyment of the topic were significantly greater than the control classroom. These results provide evidence that the RET program and its associated research-based modules positively affected student motivation. Teacher Impact – Legacy Cycle Impact A study examined the impact of Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) teacher-developed curriculum on their teaching style and strategies at two RET sites with common Legacy Cycle training. Teachers used real world contexts within their Legacy Cycle curricula and thus began to teach in interdisciplinary ways, exposing students to the engineering in the process. Students enjoyed the learning with the Legacy Cycle, according to their teachers. They took a more active role in the classroom, leading them to be able to apply their new knowledge better. Using the Legacy Cycle as a pedagogical approach in an RET program leads to instructional materials that integrate teachers’ research while maintaining use of state and national standards. Teachers perceived that student enjoyment of and engagement in the material increased, while also exposing them to engineering. Engineering Curriculum Impact To date, thirteen curriculum units written by the RET teachers are available on the TeachEngineering.org website which are free and available to all teachers. Many additional units remain in the website’s review pipeline and will be published in the future. Program Evaluation Summation This Vanderbilt University Bioengineering RET program has been an effective program for engaging teachers in meaningful research experiences. Teachers were able to contribute to the overall research goal of their lab and they were able to complete a small project during their tenure in the lab. Teachers were able to develop curriculum based on their research experiences that helped them to bring STEM research back to their classrooms. The combination of research and structured curriculum development based on educational research has created a highly effective program for improving science instruction in our high schools. Teachers also remained tied to the School of Engineering.
