The final year of the NSF Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) – Engineering a More Sustainable Energy Future – came to a close on July 31st. Ten (10) Science teachers from local high schools participated in the seven-week program and focused their attention on conducting energy-related research that was used to develop new curriculum for their classrooms. Each teacher completed 280 hours of course study and hands-on laboratory work and presented their final research results and curriculum at a campus-wide poster demonstration at the Jordan Hall of Science. Research topics included Ionic Liquids, global change ecology, fossil fuels, radionuclide sorption to support safer nuclear waste disposal, fabrication of perovskite solar cells, uranium materials, solar power, gas separations, energy efficient carbon capture materials, and selective chemical oxidations.
ND Energy would like to congratulate the teachers on completing a successful research program and thank the ND Energy faculty and associated researchers who mentored the teachers and provided guidance throughout their research experience. ND Energy faculty who participated in the 2015 RET program were Brandon Ashfeld, Joan Brennecke, Seth Brown, Peter Burns, Ruilan Guo, Jessica Hellmann, Jason Hicks, Amy Hixon, Prashant Kamat, and Mark Wistey.
Teacher participants were:
- Thomas Adams, Lake Michigan Catholic High School
- Greg Alberding, LaPorte High School
- Rose Calhoun, Clay High School
- John Gensic, Penn High School
- Peter Hoffman, Elkhart Central High School
- Jeff Kindelan, Clay High School
- Jill McNabnay, Lakeshore High School
- Sean McPherson, Triton Junior Senior High School
- Ann Rutherford, Marian High School
- Mark Wilson, John Adams High School
Funded by the National Science Foundation, this Energy-RET program was held for four years under the direction of principal investigator Dr. Joan F. Brennecke, Keating-Crawford Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and founder of ND Energy.
For more information about the RET programs at Notre Dame, visit ret.nd.edu.
