Promoting engineering research with entrepreneurship and industry experiences: a teacher professional development program

Under a project-based learning environment, this effort created a professional development program that provided teachers training in mechatronics and robotics; immersion in collaborative research; a framework for standards-aligned lessons development; and experiences to cultivate entrepreneurial abilities and interact with industry engineers. Over its 3-year duration, the effort engendered experiential learning to enrich teachers' STEM experience, cultivate their familiarity with new concepts and skills, and foster a professional learning community. Teachers brought their learning to schools by implementing new lessons and encouraging students to participate in an entrepreneurial contest, promoting real-world STEM learning, and increasing student motivation to pursue STEM disciplines.