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1. Lessons Learned from Year 1 of NSF Research Experience for Teachers Site at North Dakota State University

   Ajmera, B. (August 2022, 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition)

   A new Research Experience for Teachers (RET) site was established in the Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering at North Dakota State University (NDSU) with funding from the National Science Foundation Division of Engineering Education and Centers (NSF Award #1953102). The site focused on civil engineering instruction around the theme of mitigating natural disasters for secondary education (6th to 12th grade) teachers. Eight local teachers and one pre-service teacher (who comprised the first cohort) were provided with a six-week long authentic research experience during the summer, which they translated into a hands-on curriculum for their classrooms during the 2021-2022 academic year. Partnerships were developed between the host institution, area teachers and local partners from civil engineering industries. This paper will summarize the lessons learned by the authors as well as the effectiveness of the program activities to accomplish two objectives: (1) provide a deeper understanding of civil engineering and (2) develop better abilities among secondary education teachers to prepare future science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) leaders. Several strengths were identified by the authors as they reflected on the summer activities including the successes in creating strong connections between the teachers, faculty members and graduate students, and the industry partners as well as the agility of the core research team to overcome unexpected challenges. However, the reflections also revealed several areas for improvement that would increase the accessibility of the site to underserved and/or underrepresented teacher populations, better utilize the resources available and in general, improve the quality of the program and curriculum developed by the teachers. Included within this paper are suggestions that the authors would make to improve current and future RET sites. All of the teachers agreed or strongly agreed that their participation in the RET program increased their knowledge of STEM topics and specifically, civil engineering topics. The participants agreed to varying extents that they will use the information they learned from the program to teach their students and will implement the new strategies they gained to promote increased student learning about STEM topics. Furthermore, the feedback that they provided corroborated some of the same changes the authors plan to implement. 

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2. 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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3. Impact of a Research Experiences for Teachers Site on Secondary Educator Preparedness for Civil Engineering Instruction in the First Year

   https://doi.org/10.46328/ijemst.4737  

   Ajmera, Beena; Crary, Sarah (June 2025, International Journal of Education in Mathematics, Science and Technology)

   National Science Foundation (NSF) funded Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) programs provide opportunities for professional development for teachers. The goal of the RET site at North Dakota State University (NDSU), established in May 2020 (NSF Awards #1953102 and #2224135), was to increase the knowledge of secondary (6th to 12th grade) educators in the use of civil engineering to mitigate natural disasters and their ability to prepare their students to become leaders in STEM disciplines. The primary goal of this study is to assess the effectiveness of the professional development provided in preparing participants to teach STEM topics in their classrooms. The study utilized a mixed method approach and an external evaluator to present data on the responses to two online surveys and a self-interview conducted with the secondary educators in the Summer 2021 NDSU RET cohort. Three themes emerged: (1) difficulty with math, (2) lack of connection/examples, and (3) issues with open-endedness and time to get a response. Nearly all the teachers noted that experiments and simulations with data were helpful strategies in engaging their students in STEM topics. They found value in connecting these topics with real-world problems in the student’s lives. Teachers had increased knowledge about the research projects, real-world applications, and other ways to engage their students in STEM (specifically, civil engineering). Their knowledge was further increased by their interactions with other teachers in the RET program as well as through the presentations that the other teachers delivered during the summer activities. 

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4. First Year Experience from RET Site: High School Teacher Experience in Engineering Design and Manufacturing

   Zhu, W. (January 2022, 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition)

   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. In summer of 2021, the first cohort of 12 teachers from Region 4 of Southeast Texas participated in the RET program at UH College of Technology (COT). This six-week program, open to local high school STEM teachers in Texas, sought to advance educators’ knowledge of concepts in design and manufacturing as a means of enriching high school curriculums and meeting foundational standards set by 2013’s Texas House Bill 5. These standards require enhanced STEM contents in high school curricula as a prerequisite for graduation, detailed in the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills standard. Due to the pandemic situation, about 50% of the activities are online and the rest are face to face. About 40% of the time, teachers attended online workshops to enhance their knowledge of topics in engineering design and manufacturing before embarking on applicable research projects in the labs. Six UH COT engineering technology professors each led workshops in a week. The four tenure-track engineering mentors, assisted by student research assistants, each mentored three teachers on projects ranging from additive manufacturing to thermal/fluids, materials, and energy. The group also participated in field trips to local companies including ARC Specialties, Master Flo, Re:3D, and Forged Components. They worked with two instructional track engineering technology professors and one professor of education on applying their learnings to lesson plan design. Participants also met weekly for online Brown Bag teacher seminars to share their experiences and discuss curricula, which was organized by the RET master teacher. On the final day of the program, the teachers presented their curriculum prototype for the fall semester to the group and received completion certificates. The program assessment was led by the assessment specialist, Director of Assessment and Accreditation at UH COT. Teacher participants found the research experience with their mentors beneficial not only to them, but also to their students according to our findings from interviews. The mentors will visit their mentees’ classrooms to see the lesson plans being implemented. In the spring of 2022, the teachers will present their refined curricula at a RET symposium to be organized at UH and submit their standards-aligned plans to teachengineering.org for other K-12 educators to access. 

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5. Reflections from the First Year of a National Science Foundation Research Experience for Teachers in Civil Engineering

   Ajmera, B; Crary, S (January 2024, Journal of STEM Education Innovations and Research)

   Through funding from the National Science Foundation to create a Research Experience for Teachers site at North Dakota State University, the authors provided summer research experiences to current secondary (6th to 12th grade) educators to improve their understanding of the civil engineering field and develop new curriculum modules for their classrooms. Reflection of the first summer program in 2021 highlighted several modifications that could be made to improve the quality of the program and curriculum developed, increase the accessibility to underserved and/or underrepresented populations and to better utilize the limited resources available. This paper summarizes the successes of the RET program and provides several concrete recommendations for future programs. Specifically, recruiting of both teachers and faculty could be more effective when personal communications through known contacts are used. Flexibility in the approach without compromising rigor and expectations allows for a more inclusive program that supports underserved and marginalized populations. 

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