This award provides funding for a three year continuing award to support a Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) in Engineering and Computer Science Site program at the University of New Mexico (UNM) entitled, "Energizing Engineering Education (E3): An RET site at the University of New Mexico investigating energy research and engineering practice", under the direction of Dr. Charles Fleddermann.
The E3 RET site program will advance pre-college education by creating enduring partnerships between New Mexico's under-represented minority (URM)-serving secondary schools, tribal community college and UNM faculty, students and staff. A total of 40 teachers and community college faculty over three years from New Mexico (NM) Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement (MESA), Albuquerque Public Schools, Bernalillo Public Schools, Cibola County Schools and the Southwestern Indiana Polytechnic Institute (SIPI), will participate in a seven-week summer program where as part of interdisciplinary teams, they will plan, conduct, analyze and interpret potentially tranformative energy research at the materials, device and systems levels. Research topics include solar, wind and hydropower, biofuels, fuel cells, nuclear power, batteries, smart grid and solid-state lighting. The E3 program will be seated in three University Research Centers: the Center for Emerging Energy Technologies (CEET), the Center for Micro-Engineered Materials (CNEM), and the Center for High Technology Materials (CHTM). In addition, faculty and graduate student mentors from four NSF Engineering Research Centers will be collaborating with RET participants. RET participants will also collaborate with the College of Education co-PI, Dr. Vanessa Svihla, to develop activities and instructional approaches that model and transfer their RET experience to the classroom. Scheduled interactions throughout the academic year, continued UNM research in the teachers' classrooms, the E3 website and UNM outreach visits will sustain these RET partnerships.
As one of the nation's first "minority-majority" states, New Mexico's students represent the future of the U.S. workforce. The UNM E3 RET site will work to attract these students to STEM majors and careers through the educational enrichment and mentoring of their teachers. By focusing on energy research the E3 RET site will enlist teachers and students in the real-world quest for clean, sustainable energy, which will not only address the nation's critical need, but will brighten the economic outlook of New Mexico.
