An Instructional Wind Tunnel as a Learning Platform for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics at a National Indian Community College

Abstract

Involving more students in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) programs is one of the biggest challenges in instruction that will have a significant impact on tomorrow’s American society. This calls for novel teaching tools and methods that will interest and excite the students, motivating them to pursue STEM careers while providing highly technical and rigorous teaching programs. This article describes an unprecedented collaborative program between the Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute (SIPI), a National Indian community college based in New Mexico, and the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), a university based in New York. The collaboration consisted in the development of a STEM learning platform based on an instructional wind tunnel at SIPI. The development of this platform was led by a PhD candidate from RPI who, in exchange, gained invaluable teaching experience. This paper describes what was done in one trimester and the next steps that will be implemented in order to make the platform fully operational. Moreover, this paper describes the results that have been obtained thanks to the collaborative effort of the community college and the research-intensive university, with a particular stress on the improvements that have been produced in the students’ STEM education and interest.