NSF Penn GRASP Research Experience for Teachers

This video is hosted as part of the 2018 STEM for All Video Showcase: Transforming the Educational Landscape at: videohall.com/p/1279

The GRASP Lab at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences hosts 10 middle school math and science teachers per summer through its NSF funded Research Experience for Teachers program. The teachers, all from the School District of Philadelphia, spend over 6 weeks learning about and conducting research in the field of robotics while developing curriculum that could be applied in their classrooms. Teachers worked on computer vision, bio-inspired robotics, human-robot interaction, and flying robots. Every teacher developed their own novel research questions after conducting a literature review, created a methodology, conducted experiments and built prototypes, and then presented their findings to an academic audience. Teachers in the program have demonstrated an increase in the integration of inquiry methods, technology, and rigor in the classroom. The video will provide an overview of the program and demonstrate teachers’ experiences.