Work in progress: Integration of sensors into middle school classrooms

The University of Maine (UM) with support from the National Science Foundation (NSF) is involved in an outreach effort to introduce sensor science and engineering into Maine secondary school curricula. Graduate students in sensors, a high profile UM research area, are partnered with secondary school teachers to integrate sensors into their classrooms and to serve its career role models. The goal is to motivate students to pursue science and engineering disciplines and associated career paths. The primary mechanism for establishing direct contact with schools is a sensor-oriented UM-NSF Research Experience for preachers (RET) program. Prior to the 2004-05 academic year, the effort was targeted at high schools. Recently, however, the focus has been middle schools. In this paper, the program organization, the motivation for focusing on middle schools, the mechanism used to introduce GK-12 Sensors! into middle schools, 2004-06 activities and future work are presented.