Session R3A San Juan, PR July 23 – 28, 2006 9 th International Conference on Engineering Education R3A-17 Development and Optimization of Instruction Modules for High School Teachers on Materials Science and Engineering Education O. Marcelo Suárez 1 , Jeannette Santos 2 , Wendy C. Crone 3 , and Greta M. Zenner 4 1 O. Marcelo Suárez, Associate Professor, General Engineering Department, UPR-Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, msuarez@ece.uprm.edu 2 Jeannette Santos, Associate Professor, General Engineering Department, UPR-Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, jsantos@ece.uprm.edu 3 Wendy C. Crone, Associate Professor, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, crone@engr.wisc.edu 4 Greta M. Zenner, Assistant Director, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, gmzenner@wisc.edu Abstract - An important investment for providing high- quality education to high school students as prospective scientists and engineers is the training of their teachers. One of the objectives of our Partnership for Research and Education on Materials program has been to take a very active role in the preparation of high school teachers in the area of materials science and engineering. We accomplish this by providing the teachers with a significant research experience for five weeks during each summer. Participating teachers, assisted by researchers and undergraduate and graduate students, develop a materials science related project within the context of their background as science educators. Each teacher’s project must follow established educational standards, as requested by their corresponding high schools and school district. Organizational aspects, professional development activities, and the results of this experience are presented. Index Terms – High school education, Materials science and engineering, Instruction modules, Teachers’ training. BACKGROUND In April 2004, the US National Science Foundation granted the University of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez (UPRM) one of four Partnership for Research and Education on Materials (PREM) awards [1,2]. This five-year project established a link between UPRM (the leading institution) and the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW) in order to advance the education of minority students in the area of materials science and engineering (MSE). The project consists of two synergistic parts: a) research on nanostructured and functional materials and b) education and outreach. In order to accomplish the main goals of this endeavor, i.e. advancing minority involvement in higher education on materials, more than twenty faculty members from UPRM and UW engineering and science programs are involved. The total number of participating graduate and undergraduate students from both institutions reaches thirty. UPRM PREM formed the Office of Education and Outreach (OEO) to coordinate all educational aspects of the project and to manage the outreach focused mainly on local public high schools. Among the key educational goals is the oversight of the establishment of a Masters of Science program in materials science at UPRM. The OEO is also responsible for the logistics of the PREM project (organization of seminars, training of PREM students, administrative tasks, clerical assistance, etc.). In terms of outreach, the OEO supervises numerous activities intended to raise awareness among high school students of the growing opportunities in the area of MSE. All OEO activities have had and will continue to have support from all PREM faculty and students. MATERIALS SCIENCE AWARENESS IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS In order to broaden the impact of the project, the OEO decided to promote MSE awareness in potential UPRM engineering students. This started a multifaceted initiative that included the following activities: a) training of public school teachers in MSE issues, b) directly intervening in the public school student body through the creation of MSE clubs (led by students and supervised by trained teachers), and c) opening opportunities for science fair projects within PREM-supported laboratories. For this to occur, the OEO received ample support from the Mayagüez School District, which facilitated an initial contact with the local public high schools. Public schools were favored due to their constant lack of appropriate funding and the possibility of broadening opportunities to low-income students was an added incentive for PREM personnel. This paper relates the experiences of the first group of high school teachers participating in this large effort and the impact of that undertaking on MSE education at the high- school level. TRAINING OF PUBLIC HIGH-SCHOOL TEACHERS Before the general planning of the Teachers’ Summer Activities (TSA) program, the OEO coordinated with the Mayagüez School District Superintendent’s office to announce this opportunity to all high-school science teachers. In addition, District officers also made individual recommendations and helped to identify highly qualified teacher candidates for the TSA.