Energizing the STEAM curricula with Bioenergy and Bioproducts
Abstract
Abstract Energizing the STEAM curricula with Bioenergy and BioproductsThe mission of the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES) is to prepare professionalsand leaders in an ethnically diverse environment along with improving Science TechnologyEngineering Agriculture, and Mathematics (STEAM) instruction and research in the State ofMaryland while serving a large population of underrepresented minority students. The Bioenergyand Bioproducts Educational Programs (a partnership between Cornell University and five otheruniversities) at UMES are very well aligned with the University of Maryland System’s, “green”initiative. This program is geared towards helping reform educational infrastructure bypromoting multidisciplinary activities and content in the areas of bioenergy and bioproducts.Such an interdisciplinary perspective enhances interactions of investigators, K-16 teachers andfaculty, and pre-service teachers across disciplinary boundaries to provide insight to some of theintractable problems related to the environment. During the one-week institute on Bioenergy andBioproducts for STEAM teachers and faculty held at UMES in the summer of 2012, varioushands-on activities along with bioenergy and bioproducts-related curriculum developmentmaterials were presented to the ten educators. The educators represented middle and high schoolmath, technology, and science teachers; and faculty and graduate teaching assistants involvedwith undergraduate science and math teaching at the university. The activities implemented atthe institute followed Kolb’s experiential learning cycle with some adaptations. The participantsgot the opportunity to acquire concrete experiences involving teamwork, time management, andproject execution skills; reflected on their learning experiences through presentations at the endof the institute; developed concepts related to organic chemistry, engineering design,instrumentation, plant sciences, physics, mathematics, and environmental sciences; and activelyexperimented with virgin and used cooking oils to generate biodiesel, designed and set up asimple algae photobioreactor for culturing algae with the eventual objective of extraction of oilfrom the algal species and converting the oil into biodiesel, and made environmentally-friendlysoaps from the glycerin produced from the biodiesel. Tools and kits were given to theparticipants to assist them in instruction in classrooms and laboratories and for further advancingtheir STEAM curricula with a focus on bioenergy and bioproducts. The evaluation surveysconducted reveal that the educators gained substantial knowledge in the fields of bioenergy andbioproducts and expressed their interest in implementing the content as well as laboratories intheir curricula. In the context of this project, discussions are already underway to promote such interdisciplinaryefforts and synergize activities though the development of a core facility for bio-energy andsustainable bio-products. The project provides a model not just for other minority-servinginstitutions to accelerate reform efforts with interdisciplinary projects but also for otherinstitutions that are examining best ways to position themselves for the future in order tomaximize their key strengths. The key issues can also be captured in the multidisciplinarydimension of the terms "biodiesel/renewable energy" and "environmental stewardship" that havebroad overlaps with the 21st Century’s grand challenges espoused by the National Academy ofSciences and the National Academy of Engineering.