Education And Human Resource Development

In the field of sustainability, as in many highly-interdisciplinary areas, developing the next generation of materials scientist requires a new type of researcher who can combine depth of knowledge in a traditional discipline with the breadth of vision necessary to work with like-minded professionals from varied disciplines: not just scientists and engineers. MRSEC will work towards the following goals:
1) Spearhead the development of instructional materials in renewable energy for use in pre-college science classrooms so that teachers can share enthusiasm for this kind of research and technology with their students
2) Contribute to and draw from ASU’s well-established sustainability focus via new undergraduate/graduate courses and curricula in renewable energy
3) Actively recruit disadvantaged student groups and women into an REU (Research Experiences for Undergraduates) program focused on renewable energy
4) Promote workshops, extensions to the standard degree curriculum, and seminars that critically assess the societal dimensions of renewable energy.  Our aim is to inspire a new generation of practitioners who are both technically proficient and knowledgeable about the broader implications of sustainable alternatives to traditional energy sources.

K-12:

 1) RET program (Research Experiences for Teachers): The MRSEC will recruit two K-12 and community college teachers annually into its RET program. The intent is to have teachers experience cutting-edge research and reinvigorate them to communicate their enthusiasm to their students. The MRSEC will also partner with high school teachers to translate research into curricula into the classroom in ways that are most meaningful to students and address the science standards.

2) ASU has executed a NSF-funded GK-12 project since 2001 and has begun a 5-year Track II Project in 2006. A workshop for MRSEC graduate students and postdoctoral fellows will be developed based on the GK-12 experience to make them aware of the challenges and opportunities in K-12 science education and outreach. In addition, cooperative teams of graduate students within the MRSEC and the graduate fellows from the GK-12 Track II Project will be formed to integrate recent science and engineering research into the real classroom environment through new instructional materials developed in this MRSEC.

3) The Science is Fun program developed by the LeRoy Eyring Center for Solid State Science has had a very successful track record of over 5 years and is a collaboration between ASU’s School of Materials and the Service Learning Program in Academic Community Engagement Services. The undergraduate interns (about 12 each year) typically visit more than 70 schools (primarily K-8) annually during the Fall and Spring semesters, giving several hundred presentations to well in excess of 15,000 students and teachers. Several materials science-based demonstrations based out of MRSEC will be developed that especially focus on energy and materials.

4) During its fourth year the MRSEC, in collaboration with the Office of the Vice President for Research and Economic Affairs at ASU, will bring out a special issue, focused on Energy and Materials, of Chain Reaction magazine. Students and teachers have responded extremely well to the magazine and its website. Chain Reaction has a circulation of over 500,000 across all 50 states, written for middle school students and teachers and some foreign countries. Its staff has earned national awards and recognition from education and communicator associations as an outstanding publication for young readers.

Undergraduate:

1) The highly regarded Barrett Honors College at ASU is known for its innovative curriculum and talented pool of undergraduate students. The MRSEC will develop a novel upper level undergraduate course that is focused on Energy and Materials. This will be designed to educate a new generation of learners who can work across traditional disciplinary boundaries to realize the enormous opportunities and challenges that the topic of energy and sustainability presents.

2) The Maricopa Community college system is the largest in the country, serving over 220,000 students in their first two years of college. The MRSEC plans to develop partnerships with MCCC that support faculty development and student internships in the area of Energy and Materials in particular and Materials Science in general.

3) Faculty members from ASU’s science and engineering departments will develop a unique multidisciplinary REU site program in "Sustainability through Energy and Materials". The proposed REU site will serve as a magnet to bring together about 12 undergraduate students from different disciplines and ethnic backgrounds to become involved in group projects in advanced materials and processes for sustainable energy solutions.

Recruitment of Diverse Populations:

In addition to the REU site program that will actively work to recruit female students and those from ethnically diverse backgrounds, the MRSEC will leverage and benefit from some of ASU’s niche programs in minority recruitment and diversity. ASU has had past successful partnerships with the schools and colleges of Arizona’s large Native American population, which are often in rural and geographically remote areas. Through Mobile units and Telepresence, including remote experimentation building on ASU’s past successes of the Interactive Nanovisualization for Science and Engineering Education project, the MRSEC will work to expand educational experiences for the students in geographically distant areas. A special website entitled “Meet a Materials Scientist” will be constructed and designed to help K-12 students with class projects, science fair projects etc.

Graduate:  

1) The ASU MRSEC will collaborate with the School of Sustainability in offering a new interdisciplinary Master’s and Ph.D. degree in Renewable Energy. The path towards the creation of this new degree has been successfully paved at ASU with several new cross-cutting courses and programs that currently exist across the College of Liberal Arts and Science, the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering, the Global Institute of Sustainability, and the Biodesign Institute. MRSEC’s strong emphasis on the fundamental science of catalysts, fuel cells and photovoltiacis will complement this effort and serve as an appropriate launching point for this new degree at ASU. This degree will have the full support of the Vice Provost’s Office for Research

2) DC Summer Session:  A two-week long orientation to science and science policy in Washington, DC for graduate students will be implemented. This program was successfully run in 2001 and 2003 by N. Woodbury (MRSEC PI) as part of an IGERT initiative for the Biodesign Institute and the Engineering School. The MRSEC session will focus on  policy-oriented and leadership activities in renewable energy and sustainability issues.

3) PhD +:  A training program to have science and engineering students perform a modest research project on a societal issue associated with their dissertation research. Proof-of-concept is being demonstrated with three CNS-Biodesign fellows.

Resources:

MRSEC’s education and human resource development effort  will be supported by the existence of several ASU niche programs and centers in recruitment, diversity, social behavior and governance, and policy. They include the Student Outreach and Retention Programs (SORP), a comprehensive university model for recruiting and retaining under-represented students in engineering; the NSEC/Center for Nanotechnology in Society (CNS-ASU director David Guston, who is listed as a senior investigator on this proposal), currently funded by NSF at about $1.2M/year; the Consortium for Science Policy Outcome, promoting outcome-based science policy. These programs will provide ample opportunities and resources for MRSEC faculty to build upon to enhance its education and human resource developmental goals.