Center for Materials for Information Technology
Research Experience for Teachers
The MINT Center has a mission of outreach to middle school students (6th, 7th and 8th grade). Middle school is the time when the students make curriculum choices that impact their ability to take pre-college high school courses. This, in turn, impacts their ability and desire to pursue science and engineering degrees in college. Our MRSEC brings middle school teachers into the Center to participate in a Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) program. The objective is to get materials science topics into the middle school curriculum. The teachers spend approximately eight weeks, from early June to early August, in the Center, working with MRSEC faculty and IS Program personnel to develop classroom activities for the IS program, as well as developing computer aided instructional software for use in their classrooms. The teachers also spend time with MRSEC faculty to learn about cutting edge materials science research and about careers in materials science and related disciplines.