Materials Research Science and Engineering Center

EDUCATION and HUMAN RESOURCES
OUTREACH

BrownOut: The Classroom Visits Program

In this program, MRSEC faculty and students make presentations to local science and math classes (grade K-12) to discuss issues in engineering as examples of the joint application of math and science. These presentations are developed by faculty and students and are often based on our current research, and/or teaching. We aim to make the materials hands-on and exciting, but also quite quantitative. They usually involve detailed calculations and careful measurements.  A full list of available topics is sent to all area schools and is available online. Teachers apply online to arrange a presentation, free of charge.  Every effort is made to adapt the presentation to fit in with the current studies of the classes, and teachers are encouraged to incorporate the materials into their curricula.

This year the program’s focus was on recruiting new student-presenters, developing new presentations, and forging partnerships between the MRSEC and two Providence Public High schools: The Met School and Hope High School. Both of these are minority-majority schools. At Met, Brown Students visited each week, doing BrownOut presentations and forming mentoring relations with the students there. At Hope High, Prof. Blume is using her sabbatical to work with students and faculty in their physics classes. She develops and runs engineering-based lab projects in the classrooms. In addition, Hope High students came to Brown for field trips.

In addition to these partnerships, BrownOut Presentations are offered to all areas K-12 schools.

The Brown students who are selected to make the presentations undergo training before they are sent to schools; they are coached and video taped making sample presentations. The students gain an appreciation of the responsibility of a technical professional to share his or her knowledge with the younger generation.

We make a special effort to visit schools with heavy minority enrollment. Since 2001 we have reached over 3900 students, including over 980 minority and 1900 female students.

Although this year BrownOut was less active than in previous years due to the graduation and/or study abroad of many of our key presenters, the program will continue in the coming years with an increased effort at reaching minority and female students. For example, we will attempt to contact teachers at all-girl and/or high minority enrollment schools to offer the BrownOut services directly.

RET: Research Experience for Teachers

This program has run since the summer of 2001 under the direction of Professor Blume. K-12 teachers spent the summers doing paid research with Brown faculty and students. A major goal is to help the teachers bring their experiences to the classrooms with suggested problems, projects, and demonstrations. Applications are solicited from public and private schools in Rhode Island and Massachusetts via email and paper notices. Teachers are typically offered a two-year commitment. Each week, the teachers heard lectures or went on tours of different research labs on campus. The group was also given a tour of the construction site of the Brown’s new life sciences building. Professor Blume gave informal lectures on other engineering topics and classroom demonstrations, according to the interests of the group. Bicycle design, archery science and surveying are some example topics.

This year, four teachers participated, in addition to Mr. John Shilko, our program facilitator. Two teachers are from Hope High School in Providence, two from the Gordon School in East Providence. Their topics are listed below.

All teachers developed curricular projects, which aimed to bring math and science together in an applied setting meant to motivate and excite students.

This summer, a formal assessment of our outreach program is planned, to be undertaken by the Educational Alliance at Brown. The Alliance is an administrative department at Brown, funded through contract and grant activities awarded through federal programs, private foundations, professional organizations and regional agencies. Consequently, they are well positioned to serve as an external evaluator, providing both formative feedback and outcome-based information on the strengths and developmental needs of this program.

REU: Research Experience for Undergraduates

Sheldon was also responsible for organizing the summer REU program in 2006.  Ten students participated (including 3 women and 3 underrepresented minorities).  Prof. Karen Haberstroh also joined the Brown REU team in 2006.  She brought with her 5 years of experience in running a successful REU site in Biomedical Engineering at Purdue University.  Building on these experiences, Dr. Haberstroh led the REU students in a wide range of activities, both inside and outside of the laboratory.  In particular, students: (1) attended weekly lab meetings where they presented and updated their work to date; (2) attended workshops on preparing a poster and oral presentation; (3) participated in an interactive panel discussion with graduate students and a post-doctoral associate; (4) attended ethics seminars; (5) made presentations at a campus wide poster symposium on undergraduate research; (6) attended the RET end of the summer workshop; and (7) visited two local industries (EMC, a larger company in Hopkinton, MA, and Instron, a smaller company in Norwood, MA), where they toured the facilities and joined a panel discussion with company employees at various levels of their career. 

Sheldon recently developed a revised approach for co-supporting Brown students in the REU program, in collaboration with Dean of the College at Brown.  With this leveraging, Brown students who participate in the 2007 REU program will receive the majority of their support from non-MRSEC sources.

General Outreach

Day-long visits to the Brown campus have been organized to allow students, teachers, and parents to take advantage of science facilities at the University and to help bridge the gap between K-12 students and the college experience.  Examples of such activities include visits to a virtual-reality Mars tour in Brown's "CAVE" (center for advanced scientific computation and visualization), the Ladd astronomical observatory, among others.

On November 4, 2006, students and faculty at Brown's MRSEC and the Division of Engineering hosted one hundred girls and their parents during a one-day conference entitled "Empowering your Future“, aimed at engaging girls in a range of hands-on science and engineering activities. Graduate and undergraduate students led workshops showcasing real-life applications of scientific principles. The girls worked in teams to tackle an engineering problem or explore a scientific principle while their parents learned ways to encourage curiosity, foster strong study skills, and help their daughters complete college applications.

On March 19, 2006, Sheldon presented materials which highlight the MRSEC K-12 Outreach activities at the Materials Education Showcase (Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, DC).

MRSEC also participated in a Recyclable Materials Competition Outreach event as part of National Engineers Week 2007 with RISE (Rhode Islanders Supporting Education) students and mentors as well as Brown Engineering undergraduates.  The mission of Rhode Islanders Sponsoring Education is to provide educational opportunities and mentoring to children of incarcerated parents in order to break the intergenerational cycle of poverty, violence and addiction that often threatens these children.

top of page

Welcome | Highlights | Research | Publications | Collaborations | Outreach | Personnel | Newsletter

Copyright © 2003, Center for Advanced Materials Research
Brown University, Providence RI 02912