This award provides funding for a 3 year continuing award to support a Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) in Engineering Site program at the Louisiana State University entitled, "LaRET Site: Linking Teachers with Researchers to Improve Engineering Education", under the direction of Dr. Warren N. Waggenspack.
This Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) in Engineering Site involves a six-week summer research schedule of active learning activities and academic year follow-on activities for a total of 30 high school science teachers from several regional public school districts and community college faculty, 10 each year for three years at LSU's Center for BioModular Multi-Scale Systems (CBM2), Center for Advanced Microstructures and Devices (CAMD), Office of Strategic Initiatives and the Gordon A. Cain Center for Scientific, Technological, Engineering and Mathematical (STEM) Literacy. The primary purpose of the LaRET is to build an infrastructure of knowledge and understanding so that all participants develop expertise and strategies in promoting and strengthening STEM education practices with an empahsis in engineering and developing collaborative connections among researchers and high school/community college practitioners.
The LaRET program engaged 13 Math-Science teacher pairs during the three-year project. The call for participants went to every school district in the State of Louisiana. The teachers were specifically selected as Math-Science pairs to provide a foundation for implementing engineering concepts across the disciplines within the high school classroom. A secondary purpose of accepting two teachers from the same school was to provide some level of critical mass for "new ideas" implementation and mentoring of other teachers in the school. There were several key outcomes of the program: 1) a 40-hour High School Teacher Engineering Awareness Program [HSTEAP] where they learned the basics of engineering activities that could be easily incorporated in the classroom, including example lesson plans; this 40-hour workshop also provided the teachers with continuing education hours, 2) five weeks of intense research resulting in end of the summer poster presentations and a set of lesson plans to be incorporated in the classroom and 3) a follow up session during the subsequent fall semester where the teachers updated their posters/lessons plans and presented them at a State mathematics and science conference. A complimentary outcome was the development of the HSTEAP portal, which allows all past participants to remain engaged with one another. The HSTEAP curriculum is centered on the Engineering Grand Challenges. Thus, the teachers were introduced to concepts that are readily noticeable to high school students; i.e., energy, water, sustainable infrastructure. This approach also allowed the teachers to learn and understand how math, science and physics provide the collective underpinning of engineering and its application. The teachers were given supplies as part of their HSTEAP training. These supplies allowed them to reproduce activities learned in their Math-Science classrooms. The five-week intensive research engagement resulted in two posters: a scientific poster of the research implemented and a poster illustrating a lesson plan based on the Grade Level Expectations [GLEs] for their class. These posters were implemented by most of the teachers within their classrooms to discuss engineering. Similar to the HSTEAP experience, the teachers were given supply funds that allowed them to implement a hands-on activity within the classroom. As a broader impact, the teachers participated in a State math and/or science conference and shared their results with other teachers in Louisiana. The post-project survey feedback indicates that many of the teachers have implemented some level of activity within their classrooms, as well as changing how they teacher [e.g., more hands-on versus straight lecture]. A common response of the LaRET participants was that they learned a lot about themselves as a teacher and in how they work with one another. This sentiment is crucial as dialogues continue as to how to map across the disciplines in high schools to provide better engaged learning; particularly in the STEM areas.
