Schools as Living Laboratories for Architectural Engineering Research Experiences for Teachers

Kathleen M. Hill; Somayeh Asadi; Matthew M Johnson; Tiffany M. Lewis

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Conference: 2022 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference
Location: Newark, New Jersey
Publication Date: April 22, 2022
Start Date: April 22, 2022
End Date: April 23, 2022
Page Count: 27
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--40069
Permanent URL: https://strategy.asee.org/40069
Download Count: 521

Paper Authors

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Kathleen M. Hill Pennsylvania State University

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Dr. Kathy Hill is the Director of the Center for Science and the Schools (CSATS) at Penn State University. She collaborates with science and engineering faculty to bridge STEM research and precollege education. Her research focuses on building teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge through immersive professional development experiences. She received her B.A. degree in geological sciences from Lehigh University, followed by a M.S. degree in Environmental Pollution Control from Pennsylvania State University. Living in Arizona, she worked in environmental consulting for 10 years, which involved a wide variety of projects across the desert southwest region. With a transition to teaching middle and high school science, she served as a teacher leader on the NASA Phoenix Student Internship Program and founder/coordinator of a school-wide middle school science and engineering fair.

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Somayeh Asadi Penn State

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Matthew M Johnson Pennsylvania State University orcid.org/0000-0002-6987-2670

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Matt is an Associate Professor of Science Education and Associate Director with the Center for Science and the Schools in the College of Education at Penn State University. His research interests focus on how teachers learn about epistemic practices of engineers through in-service teacher professional development programs and how they provide opportunities for students to engage in them to learn disciplinary content.

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Tiffany M. Lewis

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Tiffany is a STEM Education Outreach Specialist at the Penn State Center for Science and the Schools (CSATS) and a former high school biology teacher. Her role at CSATS is to work with Penn State research faculty to bring current research to the classroom by developing content-specific professional development for precollege teachers. Tiffany’s main interest lies in helping teachers break down the walls of the traditional classroom by engaging students in the practices of scientists and engineers through classroom research projects based on authentic research.

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Abstract

Through a collaboration between the Department of Architectural Engineering and the Center for Science and the Schools at Pennsylvania State University, the Building Education RET project was launched as a strategic approach to address global challenges in energy, ecological systems, and human health through transformational integration of technical research into precollege curriculum. Schools are critical instruments for advancing knowledge about sustainability, and they provide the ideal context for active research and teaching in sustainability-focused topics designed to cultivate a new generation of STEM leaders. Our strategy involves engaging teachers and students with their school facilities as “Living Laboratories” to provide a place-based context for math and science education. The Building Education RET site at Pennsylvania State University has immersed teachers in both fundamental and applied research on building science topics including indoor air quality, lighting effectiveness, thermal comfort, and energy efficiency and automation. Systems Thinking is an increasingly recognized competency in sustainability and serves as the overarching learning objective of the Building Education RET program. To date, 12 secondary teachers were prepared to utilize experimentation on air quality, lighting systems, and energy use in their respective school buildings as hands-on and applied STEM-based teaching modules. In the spring of 2020, the Building Education team decided to implement the RET program remotely with teachers conducting research in their homes or in their schools. Teachers from multiple states were able to participate in the program. To engage in research projects, we equipped teachers to collect data through instruments and observations about the quality of lighting, indoor air quality, occupant thermal comfort and health, building automation, building energy consumption, etc. in their teaching environments and other spaces in their school building, or their homes, and they learned different methods to analyze the results. We also engaged teachers in the mapping and evaluation of control systems in either their school facilities or their homes to manage heating, cooling, and fresh air. They learned state-of-the-art data analysis methods to identify opportunities to reduce energy demand. To translate their research into curriculum, science education faculty from CSATS engaged teachers in professional development focused on engineering practices. Weekly sessions supported teachers in identifying disciplinary ideas and engineering practices that were translatable to secondary classrooms. As a culminating product, the teachers developed a classroom research project plan for their students to complete in the academic year.

Citation
Format

Hill, K. M., & Asadi, S., & Johnson, M. M., & Lewis, T. M. (2022, April), Schools as Living Laboratories for Architectural Engineering Research Experiences for Teachers Paper presented at 2022 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference, Newark, New Jersey. 10.18260/1-2--40069

TY - CPAPER
AB - Through a collaboration between the Department of Architectural Engineering and the Center for Science and the Schools at Pennsylvania State University, the Building Education RET project was launched as a strategic approach to address global challenges in energy, ecological systems, and human health through transformational integration of technical research into precollege curriculum. Schools are critical instruments for advancing knowledge about sustainability, and they provide the ideal context for active research and teaching in sustainability-focused topics designed to cultivate a new generation of STEM leaders. Our strategy involves engaging teachers and students with their school facilities as “Living Laboratories” to provide a place-based context for math and science education. The Building Education RET site at Pennsylvania State University has immersed teachers in both fundamental and applied research on building science topics including indoor air quality, lighting effectiveness, thermal comfort, and energy efficiency and automation. Systems Thinking is an increasingly recognized competency in sustainability and serves as the overarching learning objective of the Building Education RET program. To date, 12 secondary teachers were prepared to utilize experimentation on air quality, lighting systems, and energy use in their respective school buildings as hands-on and applied STEM-based teaching modules. In the spring of 2020, the Building Education team decided to implement the RET program remotely with teachers conducting research in their homes or in their schools. Teachers from multiple states were able to participate in the program. To engage in research projects, we equipped teachers to collect data through instruments and observations about the quality of lighting, indoor air quality, occupant thermal comfort and health, building automation, building energy consumption, etc. in their teaching environments and other spaces in their school building, or their homes, and they learned different methods to analyze the results. We also engaged teachers in the mapping and evaluation of control systems in either their school facilities or their homes to manage heating, cooling, and fresh air. They learned state-of-the-art data analysis methods to identify opportunities to reduce energy demand. To translate their research into curriculum, science education faculty from CSATS engaged teachers in professional development focused on engineering practices. Weekly sessions supported teachers in identifying disciplinary ideas and engineering practices that were translatable to secondary classrooms. As a culminating product, the teachers developed a classroom research project plan for their students to complete in the academic year.
AU - Kathleen M. Hill
AU - Somayeh Asadi
AU - Matthew M Johnson
AU - Tiffany M. Lewis
CY - Newark, New Jersey
DA - 2022/04/22
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Schools as Living Laboratories for Architectural Engineering Research Experiences for Teachers
UR - https://strategy.asee.org/40069
DO - 10.18260/1-2--40069
ER -