REU Site: Bioengineering Education Research

Northwestern University, Evanston IL

Investigators

Abstract

Proposal: 0851930 PI Name: Robert A. Linsenmeier "This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5)." This three year REU site award will provide an opportunity for undergraduate students to do research focused in the area of bioengineering education. It will build upon the practices established during a successful REU program at the Vanderbilt-Northwestern-Texas-Harvard/MIT (VaNTH) Engineering Research Center for Bioengineering Educational Technologies. Mentors for this REU site program will be selected from Northwestern University, Vanderbilt University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology or the University of Texas at Austin. There are very few opportunities for engineering students to learn about educational pedagogy or to do research in engineering education. The objectives of the program are: (1) to expose students to quantitative and qualitative aspects of research in engineering education, and to expose them to research methods more broadly; (2) to have each student work with a mentor to perform a project that contributes to the development of curricular materials for bioengineering using learning science principles, and/or understand how to evaluate educational innovations for there impact on student learning; and (3) to contribute to real ongoing research projects. Students may also work on middle school and high school outreach projects involving biomedical engineering concepts. In addition to the research projects, students will receive training in communications and ethics in the context of research and advice about preparing for and applying to graduate school. The Principal Investigator will recruit undergraduate students from bioengineering programs, other fields of engineering and science, or education. Special emphasis will be placed on the recruitment of minority students to enhance the possibility that such students will become excited about research and be motivated to pursue graduate study.