Publication

As part of a NSF-funded ITEST grant, the ETID Department at Texas A&M University is developing a STEM Teacher Education initiative that helps secondary education math and science teachers to better understand advanced technology concepts. This new initiative will be presented to approximately twelve teachers for three consecutive summers to create a cadre of educators who are able to excite high school students and motivate them to choose engineering/technology career paths as they enter their undergraduate degree programs. This paper presents an overview of and results from the two-week workshop hosted during summer 2017. Included in this overview will be an outline of the building automation/energy management experiential learning that was undertaken and how IoT was integrated into this important technology discipline. Examples of edge devices, sensors, wireless communications, and IoT processes such as publishing, subscribing, and building sensor/actuator dashboards for IoT-based building monitoring and control systems will be provided. Evaluation data, teacher feedback and anecdotal information will also be presented. In addition to plans for upcoming summer activities, the paper will summarize the industrial support received for this initiative and how undergraduate students assisted in the development and presentation of a portion of the technical content and laboratory exercises.