Dr. Lisa Friis (PI) and Dr. Paulette Spencer’s (Co-PI) project entitled “RET Site: Bioengineering Toolkits for 4th Grade Teachers (BET 4Teachers)” has been awarded for $500,000 (first 2 years guaranteed, 3rd year funding contingent on outcomes) by the National Science Foundation, Research Experience for Teachers (RET) program.
Project Summary
Intellectual Merit: In the proposed RET program, entitled “RET Site: Bioengineering Toolkits for 4th Grade Teachers (BET 4Teachers)”, bioengineering faculty and graduate students from the University of Kansas (http://www.bio.engr.ku.edu/) will partner with the Greenbush, Kansas Southeast Kansas Education Service Center (www.greenbush.org) to provide research experiences in bioengineering for fourth- and fifth-grade teachers. The goal of this strategy is to encourage female and minority students at this level to retain their interest in science and mathematics through the formative years of 4th and 5th grades by exposing them to an engineering discipline that does not suffer from lack of participation of females and minorities. We hypothesize that this influence at the critical age will carry through the students’ academic career and make both female and male students more likely to pursue careers in engineering or science, regardless of the discipline.
While KU has expertise in research and higher level education, the Greenbush program is a successful virtual and physical center for education of K-12 teachers from all parts of the state. Greenbush has the “unyielding belief that every student, regardless of geographic location, deserves equal educational opportunities.” The elementary education community in close proximity of Lawrence is well supported by the University of Kansas. The underserved populations in the Midwest are often found in the rural areas, remote from the university settings. The Greenbush organization has built a tremendous service to these underserved populations. We are organizing a partnership with Greenbush to develop K-12 “Toolkits for Teachers” kits in the area of bioengineering. The KU PI was the 2006 Chair of the Education and Professional Development for the Society For Biomaterials (SFB) and in this role, she was instrumental in developing a plan for creating these kits within the SFB student chapters. As part of the Center’s outreach activities, this plan, i.e. “Toolkits for Teachers” will be implemented, with the Greenbush staff. This activity will benefit the underserved population of Kansas while also providing valuable feedback and trial implementation of the kits.
Broader Impact: Six RET participants will be recruited each year and work directly with KU faculty and graduate students for an initial intensive four week period. Each teacher participant will develop his/her own toolkit for use in elementary student classrooms with input from his/her KU colleagues. During the fifth week of the RET program, the RET participant and KU colleagues will work together with their Greenbush partners to further refine the toolkits and develop simpler, less expensive toolkits for wider distribution. The sixth week of the program involves first implementation and demonstration of the toolkit to 24 additional Kansas teachers who will participate in a workshop at Greenbush. After initial implementation by RET participants and workshop attendees and outcome review by KU and Greenbush partners, the “Toolkits for Teachers” will be made available online for broader impact. The PI will work with the External Advisory Board to translate these toolkits into the greater bioengineering community.
Seven eastern Kansas elementary schools and one southeastern community college represent the current collaborative effort for this project. Demographics of these schools represent a growing Hispanic population that is typical across many areas of Kansas. Six teacher participants will be recruited from these districts, with coupled teacher pairs given preference in the selection process.
Objectives of the Proposed RET Site
The objectives of the proposed University of Kansas (KU)-Greenbush Research Experience for Teachers (RET) project are to: (1) promote basic bioengineering concepts to students at the 4th and 5th grade levels, (2) stimulate perceptions of girls and minority students at this level to think of themselves as engineers and scientists, (3) further develop and nurture long-term connections between KU bioengineering and the local and extended educational communities, (4) provide the instructional and research resources necessary for elementary school teachers to develop instructional toolkits that will be used in their classroom for hands-on science and engineering activities, (5) develop online resources to support classroom activities in bioengineering throughout Kansas, and (6) initiate translation of the toolkits to a national level through work with professional societies.
The goal of this strategy is to encourage female and minority students at this level to retain their interest in science and mathematics through the formative years of 4th and 5th grades. A recent survey of 4th grade students showed that 66 percent of girls and 68 percent of boys reported liking science. By middle school, researchers have shown that girls self-report lower interest in science than boys – the damage has already occurred. Researchers have shown that this trend starts at a young age. For example, one study showed that when second grade students were asked to draw a picture of a scientist, both boys and girls drew a white male in a lab coat. If they did draw a woman scientist, most pictures depicted her as unhappy and gruff. Researchers believe that these stereotypes persist and grow as the child matures so that by 8th grade, boys are twice as interested in STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) disciplines as girls. The stereotypes influence proficiency scores as well. One 1997 study by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) showed that in 1994, science proficiency scores were similar for girls and boys at age 9 (4th grade), but significantly lower for girls at age 13 (8th grade). This trend continues throughout high school, college, and graduate school. According to statistics published by the National Science Foundation (NSF), in 2003, 83 percent of engineering PhDs in American universities were awarded to men.
In this proposed RET program, teachers working under the direct supervision of faculty members and graduate students at KU, will conduct bioengineering research and develop hands-on interactive toolkits for their elementary classrooms. These toolkits will expose students to bioengineering principles at the elementary level and will encourage the girls and minority students to see themselves in the role of a scientist. By targeting 4th and 5th grade teachers, we hope to positively impact students’ self-perception before they have had time to adopt the stereotypic descriptions of scientists and engineers. We hypothesize that this influence at the critical age will carry through the students’ academic career and make both female and male students more likely to pursue careers in engineering or science, regardless of the discipline.
