BOWLING GREEN —Ten educators are exploring STEM fields including robotics, mechatronics, and 3D printing through a six-week program at Bowling Green State University.
The aim is to encourage students’ engagement with material related to robotics and advanced manufacturing at the classroom level.
“We would like to impact the work force in Ohio by mobilizing teachers’ ability and research experience to motivate more students to join the work force area — join advanced manufacturing, engineering areas in general,” said Mohammed Abouheaf, an associate professor in BGSU’s school of engineering.
He said the program, Research Experience for Teachers, does just that — provides independent research experience to teachers. According to Mr. Abouheaf, the initiative aims to bolster educators’ delivery of related material and increase “hands on” experience in classrooms, encouraging student interest in manufacturing.
The initiative comes alongside another summer opportunity hosted at the university, Advancing Regional Talent in Smart Technology Enabled Manufacturing. This program offers self-paced, hybrid courses and currently enrolls more than 120 industry professionals in manufacturing, according to a BGSU news release.
Each program is funded by separate government grants. The National Science Foundation provided a $600,000 grant for the six-week program; the U.S. Economic Development Administration’s 2023 STEM Talent Challenge awarded a $333,000 grant for the microcredential training program to the university.
According to Mr. Abouheaf, the university funds logistical support for the RET program, organizing the spaces, offices, and involved personnel. He said that due to logistical constraints, participants are generally from surrounding areas, coming from within “two to two and a half hours maximum” away.
The program is open to K-12 and community college educators who teach STEM subjects.
Mr. Abouheaf, noted that since starting in 2023, RET has changed “a lot in terms of choosing the projects; impacting more the participants; making logistics easier for them; changing the project; the project’s titles, goals. Every time we move to the next year, we have [a] solid foundation for the next experience.”
The educators elect an area to explore throughout the six-week period, Mr. Abouheaf said. The program tends to offer three areas of focus, such as robotics, mechatronics, and 3D printing. He noted that he was enthusiastic about exploring artificial intelligence and its impact on advanced manufacturing.
Lara Fish is a participant in the program concentrating on 3D printing and STEM teacher for K-10 students at Northwood schools. She said through the program she was exploring auxetic structure, a geometric composition that allows the material to expand, rather than thin, when stretched.
“I’ve learned all this information, so I can take that to my students and kind of give them an idea of what they could do as a career,” Ms. Fish said. She added that she was developing a Jumanji-inspired lesson plan, which would allow students to explore auxetic structures and develop experience with 3D printing.
Travis Justice, a returning program participant and BGSU graduate, said he was developing an automated watering system for house plants. According to Mr. Justice, the system will incorporate a sensor that detects the soils’ moisture and determines “how wet or dry the soil is” and “how much water it needs.”
He said he would like to publish a lesson or unit on TeachEngineering, noting that this goal was shared amongst multiple of the current cohort’s participants. He added that he wants to remain informed on “current advancements” and maintain an open mind, “ready to absorb information.”
“I want to incorporate STEM into my classroom, and I didn’t have any creative ways of doing that,” said Valerie Cummings, a chemistry teacher at Woodward High School. She is currently concentrating on coding and programming, working alongside BGSU graduate student Olasubomi Akanbi.
Greg Byrum, a STEM teacher at Lincolnview schools near Van Wert, Ohio, noted that his engineering classes currently do not involve programming. He hopes to introduce students to digital electronics programming, establishing a final assignment involving 3D printing where students can customize their projects.
“One part of the program is to do the implementation of what they did during that experience,” Mr. Abouheaf noted. He added that a BGSU professor visits the participants’ schools, recording feedback about implementation and updates regarding lesson-publication on platforms including TeachEngineering.
First Published July 9, 2025, 11:06 a.m.
