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1. Development and Application of Assessment Tools for a Research Experience for Teachers Site

   https://doi.org/10.18260/1-2--42701  

   Zhu, Weihang; Weber, Peter (June 2023, American Society of Engineering Education)

   In 2019, University of Houston (UH) at Houston, Texas was awarded an NSF Research Experience for Teachers (RET) site grant titled “RET Site: High School Teacher Experience in Engineering Design and Manufacturing.” The goal of the project is to host 12 high school teachers each summer to participate in engineering design and manufacturing research and then convert their experience into high school curriculum. Given the experience from the first year’s operation and assessment, it was noted that the extant teacher self-efficacy surveys need to be further improved according to the specific needs of RET site. As such, an updated set of assessment tools was developed to evaluate the impact of RET site on high school teacher participants. In particular, a new teacher self-efficacy survey was created from synthesizing multiple sources including Bandura’s Instrument Teacher Self-Efficacy Scale, Collective Teacher Beliefs, and Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale (Ohio State Teacher Efficacy Scale). Besides the new self-efficacy survey, more specific questions were added to pre- and post-summer self-reported questionnaires to better understand the teachers’ perception and receptance of the summer experience. Interviews were conducted individually instead of using a focus group. This allows the interviewee to be more vocal during the interview, allowing more in-depth understanding of their perception for future improvement. The new assessment tools were applied to the second cohort of 12 teachers in summer 2022. The assessment results show that the assessment tools were able to effectively capture teachers’ change in perception and evaluate the affective impact of the RET site. In the future, the tools may be improved and used in similar teacher professional development activities. 

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2. Board 369: Research Experiences for Teachers (RET): Engineering for People and the Planet as Inspiration to Teach Integrated STEM

   https://doi.org/10.18260/1-2--46952  

   Chen, Katherine; Taylor, Donna; Solovey, Erin (June 2024, ASEE Conferences)

   The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) are the focus for a Research Experience for Teachers (RET) Site in Engineering at X University. The relevant and meaningful contexts of the SDGs allow middle and high school teachers and their students to easily make connections between research in a university lab setting to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) concepts in their classroom. Lesson plans inspired by the UN SDGs research experience were developed as an “integrated STEM” problem solving activity by each of the RET teachers. Ten (10) teachers comprising of both pre-service and in-service middle or high school teachers have participated in each cohort over the two years of the NSF RET grant thus far. Six weeks of authentic summer research takes place in 5 different faculty labs at X University under the mentorship of faculty and their graduate students or postdoc. Examples of the research projects include “Photocatalysis for Clean Energy and Environment,” “Genetically Engineering Plasmid DNA molecules to address Tuberculosis Antibiotic Resistance,” and “New Water-Based Technology for Plastic Recycling.” RET participants also attend a weekly coffee session to help guide the teachers through the research process and a weekly ½-day professional development (PD) session to translate the research experience into a classroom lesson plan that aligns to state standards, as well as evidence-backed curriculum design and teaching strategies. Teacher cohort building and community is fostered through group lunches and additional activities (e.g., coordinated lab visits, behind the scenes tour of a local science museum, and industry panel). For evaluation of the RET program, pre/post-surveys measured the teacher’s self-reported ability, confidence, understanding, and frequency of use of the Engineering Design Process (EDP), Integrated STEM, and the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Formative assessment was conducted throughout the summer on various aspects of the RET through surveys and regular check-ins with the teachers. At the end of the summer, focus groups were conducted by an external evaluator for both the teacher participants and the research mentors. Both teachers and mentors declared the program was well planned and executed. The teachers developed close bonds and connections, learned a lot from each other, had meaningful research experiences, and developed a sense of community. The research mentors reported that the teachers provided useful research contributions, were enthusiastic about the research, had genuine lab experiences, developed professional skills, and built good community connections. Areas for improvement included clear expectations for everyone, reducing steep learning curves, and consistency of mentoring across the labs. The RET program continues into the academic year with occasional meetings to report on the implementation of their research-inspired lesson plan in their classroom. The RET participants share that they are bringing in the “real world” relevance to their students with an integrated STEM lens (e.g., climate change and UN SDGs) and that they refer back to their own lab experiences (e.g., importance of measuring chemicals accurately). The research experience has made several positive impacts on the teacher participants that also benefit their students. 

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3. Establishing a Research Experience for Teachers Site to Enhance Data Analytics Curriculum in Secondary STEM Education

   https://doi.org/10.18260/1-2-1153-38350  

   Zhang, S.; Specking, E.; Alimohammadi, M.; Boykin, A.; Bell, S.; Schubert, K.; Davis, S. (September 2021, Proceedings of the ASEE Midwest Section Conference 2021)

   null (Ed.)

   This paper introduces the background and establishment of the first Research Experience for Teachers (RET) Site in Arkansas, supported by the National Science Foundation. The Arkansas Data Analytics Teacher Alliance (AR-DATA) program partners with school districts in the Northwest Arkansas region to promote research-driven high school analytics curriculum and education to reach underserved students, such as those from rural areas. At least thirty 9th-12th grade mathematics, computer science, and pre-engineering teachers will participate in AR-DATA and work with faculty mentors, graduate students, curriculum coaches, and industry experts in a six-week RET Summer Program and academic-year follow up to develop and disseminate learning modules to enhance current curriculum, attain new knowledge of data analytics and engineering applications, and benefit professionally through the RET program activities. The learning modules developed will reflect current cutting-edge analytics research, as well as the development needs of next-generation analytics workforce. 

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4. Long-Term Outcomes of RET Programs on Female and Minority Student High School Graduation Rates and Undergraduate STEM Major Rates (Fundamental)

   Nichol, C.; Crawford, C. A.; Barr, C.; Cerda, I. (January 2021, ASEE Annual Conference proceedings)

   null (Ed.)

   Research Experience for Teachers (RET) programs are National Science Foundation (NSF) funded programs designed to provide K- 12 Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) teachers with immersive, hands-on research experiences at Universities around the country. The NSF RET in nanotechnology encourages teachers to translate cutting-edge research into culturally relevant Project-Based Learning (PjBL) and engineering curriculum. Traditionally, the evaluation of RET programs focuses on the growth and development of teacher self-efficacy, engineering content knowledge gains, or classroom implementation of developed curriculum materials. However, reported methods for evaluating the impact of RETs on their female, minority student populations' high school graduation and undergraduate STEM major rates are limited. This study's objective was to compare RET high school student graduation rates and undergraduate STEM major rates across gender, race, and ethnicity to a comparison sample to determine the RET program's long-term impact on students' likelihood of pursuing STEM careers. The approach of collecting and analyzing the Texas Education Research Center Database (EdRC) data is a novel methodology for assessing RET programs' effectiveness on students. The EdRC is a repository of K-12 student data from the Texas Education Agency (TEA) and Higher Education data from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB). This joint database contains demographic, course registration, graduation, standardized testing, and college major, among others, for all students that attended a K-12 public school in Texas and any college in Texas, public or private. The RET program participants at Rice University (2010 – 2018) taught numerous students, a sample size of 11,240 students. A propensity score matching generated the student comparison group within the database. Students' school campus, gender, race/ethnic status, and English proficiency status were applied to produce a graduation comparison sample size of 11,240 students of Non-RET participants. Linking the TEA database to the THECB database resulted in college STEM participants and comparison sample sizes of 4,029 students. The project team conducted a logistic regression using RET status to predict high school graduation rates as a whole and by individual variables: gender, Asian American, Black, Caucasian, and Latinx students. All models were significant at p less than 0.05, with models in favor of students RET teachers. The project team conducted a logistic regression using RET status to predict student STEM undergraduate major rates as a whole and by individual variables: Gender, Asian American, Black, Caucasian, and Latinx students. African American and Caucasian models were significant at p less than 0.05; Gender, Asian American, and Latinx models were marginally significant (0.05 less than p greater than 0.1), where RET students had higher STEM major rates than matched controls. The findings demonstrate that RET programs have a long-term positive impact on the students' high school graduation rates and undergraduate STEM major rates. As teachers who participate in the RET programs are more likely to conduct courses using PjBL strategies and incorporate real-world engineering practices, female and minority students are more likely to benefit from these practices and seek careers utilizing these skills. 

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5. The Laboratory Practice of K-5 Teachers in an Engineering RET: Triangulating Perceptions and Experience

   Crippen, K; Evans, G; Simmons, C (January 2021, Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the American Society for Engineering Education)

   This study advances our team’s overall design and development goal of creating a valid and reliable observation protocol for science and engineering practices (SEPs) experienced by teachers working in research laboratories under the auspices of Research Experience for Teachers (RET). This protocol offers the potential for addressing a wide range of persistent questions related to the experience of RET participants by looking inside the blackbox of apprenticed professional research practice. Framed by cognitive apprenticeship and situated in an engineering RET for K5 teachers, we independently document the SEPs that were consistently experienced across laboratory contexts and thus define a generalized teacher experience. Further, we identify key associations among the teacher's perception of their work, an independent observation of that activity and the perceptions reported by their graduate student mentors. Findings indicate that teacher participants’ perceptions of involvement and not actual experience was a more important predictor of confidence in practice. Perhaps most striking was the negative relationship between teacher confidence when working with mentors (r = -.242), which is similarly described by the mentors for working with teachers (r = -.356). This implies a strong need for further work and support for helping these unique individuals to understand each other’s goals and perspectives and for finding a way to work together that generates mutual feelings of confidence and satisfaction. 

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