RET-PLUS (Partners Linking Urban Schools)
The Center for STEM Education in collaboration with the Gordon Center for Subsurface Sensing and Imaging Systems (CenSSIS) and the Center for High Rate Nanomanufacturing, leads the coordination of an RET site and multiple RET supplements to build and support science change agents throughout our partner schools.
Using the concept of a Research Continuum, RET-PLUS has changed the focus of support from individuals - teachers and Community College Faculty - to the support of models. This shift has expanded the institutional impact beyond one teacher, one student and one classroom. The Research Continuum begins in elementary and middle school where students learn with increasingly less guidance to ask questions of nature that are testable and design experiments to confirm or deny their speculations. It continues through high school and college as students, with support of their teachers, faculty or other experts, identify areas of their interest for deeper study. Later, they might also have the opportunity to work as part of a team of peers on a design project, or in a university or industrial laboratory as part of a larger team with colleagues with a wider breadth of knowledge.
The RET-PLUS project provides continued support to develop leadership skills of all participants, to foster professional networking, and to hone presentation skills. All participants are encouraged and supported to share their experiences, products, and lessons learned within the region and beyond. By engaging mathematicians, scientists, engineers and educators in collaborative inquiry, we are significantly changing institutional cultures, to produce both more scientifically and technologically literate citizens, and to inspire and empower more urban students to pursue careers in STEM or STEM teaching.
Middle school and high school teachers as well as Community College faculty from the Greater Boston area are selected to participate in research for six weeks during the summer months. In addition to the research focus, the participants:
An additional program outcome will be to create a pipeline of classroom teachers who who lead science, technology, mathematics, and engineering design education locally and nationally.
To date, we have had 92 different teachers in the program from 32 public school districts, 5 community colleges, 2 private schools, 4 charter schools, and 1 education center. School districts have spanned 6 states in addition to Massachusetts (FL, NH, NY, PA, RI, CA).
Using the concept of a Research Continuum, RET-PLUS has changed the focus of support from individuals - teachers and Community College Faculty - to the support of models. This shift has expanded the institutional impact beyond one teacher, one student and one classroom. The Research Continuum begins in elementary and middle school where students learn with increasingly less guidance to ask questions of nature that are testable and design experiments to confirm or deny their speculations. It continues through high school and college as students, with support of their teachers, faculty or other experts, identify areas of their interest for deeper study. Later, they might also have the opportunity to work as part of a team of peers on a design project, or in a university or industrial laboratory as part of a larger team with colleagues with a wider breadth of knowledge.
The RET-PLUS project provides continued support to develop leadership skills of all participants, to foster professional networking, and to hone presentation skills. All participants are encouraged and supported to share their experiences, products, and lessons learned within the region and beyond. By engaging mathematicians, scientists, engineers and educators in collaborative inquiry, we are significantly changing institutional cultures, to produce both more scientifically and technologically literate citizens, and to inspire and empower more urban students to pursue careers in STEM or STEM teaching.
Middle school and high school teachers as well as Community College faculty from the Greater Boston area are selected to participate in research for six weeks during the summer months. In addition to the research focus, the participants:
- Engage in high-quality professional development focusing on research-based pedagogy with an option to earn graduate credits or Continuing Education Credits (in Massachusetts these are referred to as professional development points, or PDP's)
- Earn weekly pay as well as a funding for classroom materials
- Generate innovative lesson plans to implement with students in their own classes
- Construct and present posters based on their research to share with university, home district, regional, and national audiences.
An additional program outcome will be to create a pipeline of classroom teachers who who lead science, technology, mathematics, and engineering design education locally and nationally.
To date, we have had 92 different teachers in the program from 32 public school districts, 5 community colleges, 2 private schools, 4 charter schools, and 1 education center. School districts have spanned 6 states in addition to Massachusetts (FL, NH, NY, PA, RI, CA).