Conference: Biomedical Engineering/Bioengineering Scholarship in Practice Apprenticeship Workshop

Biomedical engineers and bioengineers (BME) address today’s most pressing healthcare challenges by applying engineering principles to biological science. Graduates go on to work in a variety of healthcare fields, including medical devices, therapeutics and diagnostics, and clinical practice. BME faculty are subject matter experts in the science and engineering of biology but are often not formally trained in the science of learning and education research. The purpose of this project is to train a cohort of 15 BME faculty in education research tools that they can use to better support the education and professional formation of future biomedical engineers and bioengineers, a specific goal of the NSF’s Research in Formation of Engineers (RFE) Program. With this expertise, we will build a community of reflective BME educators who possess the training to evaluate and assess their educational approaches.

This project will enable a BME Education Research workshop that will broaden and deepen education research participation in the community. The workshop is specifically designed to give participants the space to cultivate their education research ideas in a scaffolded environment with resources to advance their work in real time. Two of the biggest barriers to engaging discipline-based faculty in education research is time and access to the appropriate educational research tools. For this workshop, participants will be mentored by education researchers and implement what they learn. The goal is for participants to use the time and support to develop research plans that can be put into action after the workshop. We will focus on fundamental topics–such as research question development, quantitative and qualitative data collection procedures, and data analysis approaches that are critical for conducting educational research. The goal is to facilitate active engagement with education research content and utilize a peer-learning environment to develop education research projects. To achieve this goal, the following structure will be implemented: 1. Participant cohorts will be based on shared commonalities in research agenda as defined by a pre-survey; 2. Cohorts will work closely with the mentor team in small groups; 3. Cohorts will also come together throughout the workshop to discuss the fundamental engineering education concepts being introduced. This workshop is designed to prototype an effective multi-day, experiential engineering education research workshop.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

Award Number: 2516355
Principal Investigator: Aileen Huang-Saad
Funds Obligated: $50,000
State: MA