The goal of the RET in Engineering and Computer Science Site for Sustainable Polymer Engineering Research (RET) at the School of Polymers Science and Engineering at the University of Southern Mississippi (USM) is to develop long-term professional relationships between faculty researchers and local teachers by providing meaningful research experiences in relevant polymer engineering research efforts and establishing follow-up activities to extend the impact of the program throughout the school year. To that end, teachers and community college faculty engaged in a six-week summer research and training program in cutting-edge research in sustainable polymer engineering. Integrated with the research experience are education and professional development programs, including team-building workshops, short courses in polymer science, field trips to industry, presentation skills development, and workshops in developing activities for laboratory experiments based on their research. The other primary goal is to schedule interactions throughout the year to maintain engagement with teachers. These will include field trips to USM, visits of faculty and graduate students to teacher classrooms, and presentation of workshops at the Mississippi Science Teachers Association (MSTA) as well as other national conferences. By the end of their research experience, teachers develop classroom lessons and laboratory actives with content based on their own research findings. The lessons are designed to engage students in experiments with relevance to the world around them and that address national science standards. The research-based classroom activities are disseminated through the RET website and publication in Teach Engineering. A few research projects that were developed into successful classroom lessons will be highlighted. This presentation will highlight successful tools used to develop lessons and improve the impact of polymer research in the classroom.

Incorporating polymer science into the high school science classroom – NSF RET at the University of Southern Mississippi

255th National Meeting (2018)

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