Integrating Engineering Research Experiences for Teachers into the K-12 Classroom

Catherine Elisabeth Lugo; Meribah Marie Treadway

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Conference: 2025 ASEE -GSW Annual Conference
Location: Arlington, TX, Texas
Publication Date: March 9, 2025
Start Date: March 9, 2025
End Date: March 11, 2025
Page Count: 11
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/55062

Paper Authors

biography

Catherine Elisabeth Lugo UT Arlington Research Experience for Teachers - Fort Worth ISD

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Catherine Lugo graduated from Baylor University with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Mechanical Engineering and a Minor in Entrepreneurship. Before teaching at Fort Worth ISD, Lugo led the Robotics and Engineering K-12 Programs for the Girl Scouts of Northeast Texas. Lugo will be in her 6th year of teaching engineering and robotics at I.M. Terrell Academy, where she built and developed the robotics program which features VEX Robotics and Drones. I.M. Terrell’s robotics teams have earned several awards, and most recently, team #17505B advanced to the VEX World Championship in the 2023-24 season.

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biography

Meribah Marie Treadway The University of Texas at Arlington

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Meribah Treadway is a graduate of the University of North Texas where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in physics along with a secondary math and physics teaching certification through the Teach North Texas program. Treadway has spent her entire teaching career at James Martin High School (her own alma mater) where she is a part of the Arlington ISD STEM Academy faculty and is the co-coordinator for the annual STEM Leadership Conference. Treadway has taught both mathematics and engineering courses and will be teaching Pre-AP Geometry and Pre-AP Algebra 2 during the upcoming 2024 – 2025 school year.

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Abstract

As part of UT Arlington’s Research Experience for Teachers (RET) in Engineering and Computer Science program, K-12 STEM teachers participated in research with the UTA faculty and graduate students with the goal to translate this research experience into classroom activities that will broaden the student’s awareness of participation in computing and engineering pathways. High school teachers C. Lugo from Fort Worth ISD and M. Treadway from Arlington ISD researched with Dr. K. Hyun, Civil Engineering, UT Arlington and graduate students, A. Imran, and M. Rashidi on mixed methods to evaluate emerging transportation technology which studies America’s future adoption of connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs). These statistics can be predicted through a series of simulated scenarios where the technology cost decreases and the consumer willingness to pay (WTP) increases concurrently. Other factors for CAV adoption include household decisions on buying, selling, and replacing vehicles, access to public transportation, and policy regulations.

The areas of interest were selected to be block groups within Arlington, TX and census tracts within Coppell, TX. Data was then sourced for these two cities from the National Historic Geographic Information System (NHGIS) and the United States Census Bureau. The data was compiled into a spreadsheet and used to calculate variables needed to calculate a series of Monte Carlo simulations to generate 10 participant profiles for each census tract or block group. The profiles for each of these simulated individuals were then entered into a python program to apply the decision making matrix for car transactions to predict their adoption of the various levels of CAV technology for analysis. The results show the predicted adoption of varying levels of CAV technology over the next 16 years for residents at the census tract and block group level. Levels 1 and 2 technology appear to make up a majority of the technology adoption. Many of these features come standard in new cars and have been around long enough to be prevalent in the used car market.

Guided by the research and analysis, teachers Lugo and Treadway created lessons plans that would integrate their research experiences to increase their students’ perceptions and interest in engineering majors and careers. For the Project-Based Research class, students will be introduced to ArcGIS Online as a method of understanding an engineering problem and analysis. Students will be required to identify an engineering problem and develop a solution to the identified problem over the course of the year. For Algebra 2, students will plot the coordinates of items with a mapping software and use a gradient to identify “hot spots” within the region. Students can then derive linear, quadratic, or exponential functions to demonstrate the relationship these hot spots have with their distances from other locations.

Citation
Format

Lugo, C. E., & Treadway, M. M. (2025, March), Integrating Engineering Research Experiences for Teachers into the K-12 Classroom Paper presented at 2025 ASEE -GSW Annual Conference, Arlington, TX, Texas. https://peer.asee.org/55062

TY - CPAPER
AB - As part of UT Arlington’s Research Experience for Teachers (RET) in Engineering and Computer Science program, K-12 STEM teachers participated in research with the UTA faculty and graduate students with the goal to translate this research experience into classroom activities that will broaden the student’s awareness of participation in computing and engineering pathways. High school teachers C. Lugo from Fort Worth ISD and M. Treadway from Arlington ISD researched with Dr. K. Hyun, Civil Engineering, UT Arlington and graduate students, A. Imran, and M. Rashidi on mixed methods to evaluate emerging transportation technology which studies America’s future adoption of connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs). These statistics can be predicted through a series of simulated scenarios where the technology cost decreases and the consumer willingness to pay (WTP) increases concurrently. Other factors for CAV adoption include household decisions on buying, selling, and replacing vehicles, access to public transportation, and policy regulations.

The areas of interest were selected to be block groups within Arlington, TX and census tracts within Coppell, TX. Data was then sourced for these two cities from the National Historic Geographic Information System (NHGIS) and the United States Census Bureau. The data was compiled into a spreadsheet and used to calculate variables needed to calculate a series of Monte Carlo simulations to generate 10 participant profiles for each census tract or block group. The profiles for each of these simulated individuals were then entered into a python program to apply the decision making matrix for car transactions to predict their adoption of the various levels of CAV technology for analysis. The results show the predicted adoption of varying levels of CAV technology over the next 16 years for residents at the census tract and block group level. Levels 1 and 2 technology appear to make up a majority of the technology adoption. Many of these features come standard in new cars and have been around long enough to be prevalent in the used car market.

Guided by the research and analysis, teachers Lugo and Treadway created lessons plans that would integrate their research experiences to increase their students’ perceptions and interest in engineering majors and careers. For the Project-Based Research class, students will be introduced to ArcGIS Online as a method of understanding an engineering problem and analysis. Students will be required to identify an engineering problem and develop a solution to the identified problem over the course of the year. For Algebra 2, students will plot the coordinates of items with a mapping software and use a gradient to identify “hot spots” within the region. Students can then derive linear, quadratic, or exponential functions to demonstrate the relationship these hot spots have with their distances from other locations.
AU - Catherine Elisabeth Lugo
AU - Meribah Marie Treadway
CY - Arlington, TX, Texas
DA - 2025/03/09
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Integrating Engineering Research Experiences for Teachers into the K-12 Classroom
UR - https://peer.asee.org/55062
ER -