Using technology-based experiences to connect engineering design, science, and mathematics for secondary school teachers

Educators are faced with an ongoing challenge of creating engaging, student-centered learning situations that relate classroom topics to practical application. As a result of their comfort with the use of information technology, contemporary students and teachers can find traditional classroom methods of lecture and guided laboratory experiments limiting. Recently, the need for increasing the number of students graduating in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields United States has been recognized as a threat to continued economic development. This need, coupled with increasing technological literacy, has created an opportunity to leverage leading edge cyberinfrastructure in an outreach program targeting secondary school teachers. This paper demonstrates the implementation of a targeted outreach program that engages pre- and in-service teachers of mathematics and science using state-of-the-art virtual design and earthquake engineering technologies. The research places teachers into a intimate workshop-based program that uses engaging experiences to develop content knowledge and provide connections between education standards and practical application of theoretical concepts.