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Session 2550

Enrichment Experiences in Engineering (E3) For Teachers Summer Research Program

Angie Hill Price, Karen Butler-Purry, Robin Autenrieth, Jan Rinehart, Naomi Gomez Dwight Look College of Engineering, Texas A&M University

Abstract With funding from NSF, faculty from Texas A&M University have developed an outreach program aimed at providing secondary school teachers with laboratory experiences with faculty researchers. The overall mission of the project is to excite, empower, and educate public school teachers about engineering so they in turn will excite, empower, and educate young people they come in contact with each day. After one year of the three year program, the feedback from participants has been overwhelming.

Eleven in-service teachers and one pre-service teacher from urban and rural areas of Texas were hosted for a 4 week summer research program on the Texas A&M campus. Combined, these teachers work with approximately 1400 secondary public school children every year, who are 80% Hispanic and/or African American. The teachers were placed in teams of two based on their school location so that they would be able to develop a supporting network. These teacher teams were matched with faculty research programs in power, water resources, smart materials, food engineering, space exploration, and mathematical modeling. They also engaged in discussions with researchers about the “reality” of research, not just the media version, in order to gain a thorough understanding of topics such as genetic research, the Columbia experience, and alternative energy sources. The teachers then developed lesson plans for their specific content area that utilized an engineering/technology application or example from the NSF sponsored program.

Educational discussions formed an important part of the on-campus experience as well. Venues for these interactions were facilitated peer discussions on the impact of culture on learning, and group work on how to incorporate their experience into the classroom. In addition, industry field trips were provided to develop further engineering and technology awareness. In the future, the participating teachers will be brought back together to discuss their classroom implementation experiences. The combination of the teaming format, the peer discussions, program development and classroom implementation of the research experiences appears to have been successful. Other faculty at the university, having heard of this initiative, volunteered to host next year’s teachers. The participants and the sponsoring school districts have provided positive feedback and continued participation.

Introduction The E3 for Teachers Summer Research Program is a National Science Foundation (NSF) funded four week summer research experience offered by faculty in the Look College of Engineering at Texas A&M University (TAMU) in conjunction with the Texas Engineering Experiment Station

“Proceedings of the 2004 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2004, American Society for Engineering Education”

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Gomez, N., & Rinehart, J., & Autenrieth, R., & Butler-Purry, K., & Hill Price, A. (2004, June), Enrichment Experiences In Engineering (E3) For Teachers Summer Research Program Paper presented at 2004 Annual Conference, Salt Lake City, Utah. 10.18260/1-2--13349