ABSTRACT
In 2018, the Smart City Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) and Research Experience for Teachers (RET) (SCR2) Mega-Site program was launched, aiming to improve the participation and graduation rates of post-secondary students of underrepresented and minority groups in the field of Engineering. Funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the SCR2 program has been successfully conducted for the last three years, engaging a consortium of 14 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and 1 Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI). Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland, is the lead institution for this program. The SCR2 program is designed to engage underperforming REU students in research opportunities demonstrated to improve students' retention and graduation rates. In addition, teachers from local community colleges and high schools are recruited in this program as RET participants. The experience of RET participants in hands-on engineering research projects helps them encourage their students to pursue engineering as a career. The SCR2 program offers summer research experience (eight weeks for students and six weeks for teachers) focusing on smart and connected cities. In this paper, we present our learnings from the last three years of the SCR2 program, which will inform the progress of engineering education and training in the United States. While the 2019 SCR2 program was able to offer on-campus research experience and mentorship for the REU/RETs, the 2020 program had to go virtual to accommodate the extraneous circumstances posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite this transition, the 2020 program engaged 32 undergraduates and 12 teachers, who successfully participated in 12 research projects across three host sites. Learning from the experience of the summer 2020 virtual program, the 2021 SCR2 program was redesigned as a hybrid program and was able to bring six host sites together, offering 18 projects in which 47 undergraduates and 23 teachers participated. One major success of the program was the positive impact of remote learning on both students and teachers. Despite the hybrid nature of the program, students excelled in their technical skills due to the effective collaboration using video conferencing tools. However, during the post-program survey, one primary concern was reported regarding the reduced participation of women students in the program. Simultaneously, the women participants reported less satisfaction and reduced confidence and knowledge gain than men. The transition of the SCR2 program from on-site to online and finally hybrid model exemplifies how innovation in engineering education can overcome the challenges posed by the health crisis. However, it is evident from the assessment results that more attention is needed concerning the experience of women in the program to improve their sense of belongingness in the field of engineering. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2022.
ABSTRACT
It has become increasingly important for K-12 students to learn how to investigate patterns, correlations, and significance in data. The Berkeley Engineering Research Experiences for Teachers plus Data (BERET+D) pairs undergraduate pre-service teachers and experienced in-service science and mathematics teachers (PSTs and ISTs) to engage in engineering and data science research, exploring and analyzing data sets drawn from a variety of STEM fields and laboratories across the UC Berkeley campus. In addition to conducting independent summer research projects with guidance from university research faculty, the program provides opportunities for: (1) PSTs to develop data science-based lessons inspired by their research and aligned to the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), (2) ISTs to create data science-based curricula designed to inspire middle and high school students to see STEM classes as exciting and with real-life applications, and (3) ISTs to collaborate with and mentor PSTs preparing to enter K-12 STEM classrooms. Contributing towards broader impacts, CalTeach recruits a racially and socioeconomically diverse population of PSTs, and all ISTs were recruited from local public schools, in order to educate, prepare, and encourage more minority and female K-12 students to consider higher education and careers in STEM. During the first two summers of this project (2020-2021), participants completed over forty data-science related projects, developed over thirty K-12 data-science related lesson plans in math, science, and engineering, and created six classroom-ready and publicly accessible (teachengineering.org) curricular units showcasing data science. As an example of these curricular units, and as further evidence of the project's broader impact, one IST has developed an ongoing partnership between their classroom and a research laboratory on campus allowing high school physics students to learn data science techniques by analyzing and interpreting distant satellite signals collected by radio telescopes. Preliminary evaluation of this ongoing project revealed that participants viewed data science as important and essential in K-12 curriculum, that data analysis is a critical and useful skill for youth, and that data science aligns closely with the science and engineering practices called forth by NGSS. Though constrained by work-from-home restrictions due to COVID during the first two years, participants described their experience as positive and valuable, particularly in conceiving of ways to engage young learners with data-science through remote instruction. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2022