BOARD # 298: RET: Year One Lessons-Learned from a Sensing and Measurement Focused Site for Middle School Math and Science Teachers

Todd Freeborn; Erika Machan Steele; Chris Smith Crawford

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Conference: 2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Publication Date: June 22, 2025
Start Date: June 22, 2025
End Date: August 15, 2025
Conference Session: NSF Grantees Poster Session I
Tagged Topic: NSF Grantees Poster Session
Page Count: 6
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/55663

Paper Authors

biography

Todd Freeborn The University of Alabama orcid.org/0000-0001-9979-7301

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Todd Freeborn, PhD, is an associate professor with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at The University of Alabama. He has coordinated REU, IRES, RET, IUSE, and S-STEM programs supported by the National Science Foundation, with many of these programs focused on increasing engagement of engineering students in research. His research focuses on techniques to collect and analyze the electrical impedance of biological tissues, the use of fractional-order equivalent circuit models, and exploring impedance-based sensing for health-focused applications.

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Chris Smith Crawford The University of Alabama

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Erika Machan Steele The University of Alabama

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Abstract

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) program supports summer research experiences for K-14 educators to enhance their scientific disciplinary knowledge in engineering or computer science and translate their research experiences into classroom activities and curricula to broaden their students’ awareness of engineering education and career pathways.

In 2024 an RET site (funded by the NSF) launched at the University of Alabama with a common theme of technologies and applications of sensing systems for physiological and environmental monitoring. This theme was selected because knowledge of how to measure physical quantities of materials, devices, tissues, and the environment is critical to answering research questions across all engineering domains. This then leads to a strong alignment of projects with national and state goals of integrating engineering design and engineering design practices within the context of science content creation.

In the first iteration of our RET, 11 science and math teachers from middle schools in west Alabama participated in research and professional development workshops over 7-weeks. During each week teachers engaged in structured engineering, sensors/programming, and education/curriculum workshops in addition to their faculty directed research. The engineering workshops highlighted the different disciplines and career-paths across engineering and computer science. The sensors/programming workshops guided teachers through using the Arduino Uno platform to measure physical quantities (light, temperature, humidity, sound, and acceleration). The education/curriculum workshop guided teachers through linking their research to education standards and exploring resources available to help teach engineering content in their classrooms. At the end of the 7-weeks the program culminated in a poster symposium with teachers presenting the results of their research to faculty, engineering students, and other professionals on campus.

Based on focus group feedback collected at the end of the program, teachers enjoyed the challenge of learning to do a research project and learned skills they could bring into their classrooms to increase student engagement. However, they noted that more support during the summer to help them develop their curriculum would be useful and help them transition their research to their classrooms. This work will outline the lessons learned from running our site and workshops during Year 1 and outline the planned revisions for Year 2 to address teachers focus group feedback to improve their research experiences and transitioning their work to their classrooms. These lessons and details are expected to support other engineering educators who are planning to launch a RET site or are interesting in possible revisions for an existing site.

Citation
Format

Freeborn, T., & Crawford, C. S., & Steele, E. M. (2025, June), BOARD # 298: RET: Year One Lessons-Learned from a Sensing and Measurement Focused Site for Middle School Math and Science Teachers Paper presented at 2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Montreal, Quebec, Canada . https://peer.asee.org/55663

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - The National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) program supports summer research experiences for K-14 educators to enhance their scientific disciplinary knowledge in engineering or computer science and translate their research experiences into classroom activities and curricula to broaden their students’ awareness of engineering education and career pathways.

In 2024 an RET site (funded by the NSF) launched at the University of Alabama with a common theme of technologies and applications of sensing systems for physiological and environmental monitoring.  This theme was selected because knowledge of how to measure physical quantities of materials, devices, tissues, and the environment is critical to answering research questions across all engineering domains.  This then leads to a strong alignment of projects with national and state goals of integrating engineering design and engineering design practices within the context of science content creation.  

In the first iteration of our RET, 11 science and math teachers from middle schools in west Alabama participated in research and professional development workshops over 7-weeks.  During each week teachers engaged in structured engineering, sensors/programming, and education/curriculum workshops in addition to their faculty directed research.  The engineering workshops highlighted the different disciplines and career-paths across engineering and computer science.  The sensors/programming workshops guided teachers through using the Arduino Uno platform to measure physical quantities (light, temperature, humidity, sound, and acceleration). The education/curriculum workshop guided teachers through linking their research to education standards and exploring resources available to help teach engineering content in their classrooms.  At the end of the 7-weeks the program culminated in a poster symposium with teachers presenting the results of their research to faculty, engineering students, and other professionals on campus.

Based on focus group feedback collected at the end of the program, teachers enjoyed the challenge of learning to do a research project and learned skills they could bring into their classrooms to increase student engagement.  However, they noted that more support during the summer to help them develop their curriculum would be useful and help them transition their research to their classrooms.  This work will outline the lessons learned from running our site and workshops during Year 1 and outline the planned revisions for Year 2 to address teachers focus group feedback to improve their research experiences and transitioning their work to their classrooms.  These lessons and details are expected to support other engineering educators who are planning to launch a RET site or are interesting in possible revisions for an existing site.
AU  - Todd Freeborn
AU  - Chris Smith Crawford
AU  - Erika Machan Steele
CY  - Montreal, Quebec, Canada 
DA  - 2025/06/22
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - BOARD # 298: RET: Year One Lessons-Learned from a Sensing and Measurement Focused Site for Middle School Math and Science Teachers
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/55663
ER  -