EPSCoR Research Fellows: NSF: Expanding Pathways for Rural Students into Engineering

This Research Infrastructure Improvement EPSCoR Research Fellows project provides a fellowship to an assistant professor and training for a postdoctoral fellow at the University of North Dakota (UND). This work will be conducted in collaboration with engineering education research faculty at Montana State University. Through the fellowship, the PI will research effective engineering teaching in a rural community while using local interests and assets to help teachers develop effective, meaningful engineering education for their students. Engineering education, particularly focused on local energy sources, is vital to workforce development, especially in rural communities. However, many teachers are unprepared to teach engineering subjects, and different rural communities have different educational needs. This project addresses these concerns by using a research approach that focuses on local contexts and community involvement. It will promote the development and spread of effective engineering education methods; enable more rural students to access engineering education; expand the engineering workforce; and provide a model for education research that meets rural communities’ needs while building on their unique strengths.

Using community based participatory research (CBPR) methods, this project will focus on a collaboration with one rural school. Researchers will work with community members and teachers to develop and conduct an energy engineering educational experience that embeds local contexts and knowledge, examining the effects such an experience has on teachers’ self-efficacy in teaching energy concepts through engineering. The project will enhance understanding of engineering education and collaborative research best practices, particularly in rural communities. The PI and her trainee will receive rigorous training in CBPR, a methodology that is particularly appropriate for rural communities because of its emphasis on local contexts, assets, and needs. She will use that training to catalyze new research at UND, particularly in the Center for Engineering Education Research, and will serve as an institutional source of expertise for faculty and students across disciplines. This project will also form the basis for advanced research; expand regional collaboration; promote relationship-building between UND and rural North Dakota communities; and support the crucial development of the engineering workforce. This project is supported by the EPSCoR Research Infrastructure Improvement Program: EPSCoR Research Fellows, which supports early- and mid-career investigators in eligible jurisdictions to develop collaborations at the nation’s private, government or academic research institutions.

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: 2531729
Principal Investigator: Julie Robinson
Funds Obligated: $299,999
State: ND