Office of Research Experiences & Education
Building the future of safety science
UL Research Institutes’ Office of Research Experiences & Education focuses on bringing current and future generations into the world of safety science through various programs and initiatives for students ranging from middle school to post-graduate degrees and into internships and fellowships.
Our efforts to educate and engage future scientific thinkers means bringing them into the research and discovery that ULRI’s scientists engage in every day. OREE’s education experts translate ULRI’s open-access research into free educational resources for middle and high school teachers and students. Additionally, our team focused on workforce and professional development programs as well as career readiness opportunities ensures under-resourced students continue to persist in STEM fields through college and beyond.
Explore our programs and learn more about us below.
Secondary classrooms and communities
Our open-access education platform Xplorlabs allows students to explore real-world phenomena based on ULRI’s expert research. Through use of Xplorlabs, OREE facilitates partnerships between teachers and community educators, including fire professionals, in their own neighborhoods.
We also host teacher fellowship opportunities for educators across the country to access ULRI safety science-focused research that can be taught in their classrooms. The fellows offer valuable feedback on Xplorlabs content and pedagogy throughout their yearlong fellowship and serve as longtime advocates for safety science and sustainability teaching.
Academies and pathways
OREE’s work with post-secondary classrooms and communities focuses on access to opportunities in safety and sustainability science for high school to graduate students. When post-secondary students encounter the world of safety science for the first time as a high school student-intern, undergraduate engineer, or postdoctoral student, they’re uplifted and accompanied in their journey through OREE’s programs.
Our work across the career readiness and higher education continuum ensures that under-resourced students can access the STEM opportunities available to them and feel supported and encouraged in those roles, no matter when their STEM journey begins — empowering them to persist in safety science careers.
Engagement and persistence in STEM
OREE leads rigorous professional support for students from high school through graduate school who enter UL Research Institutes and UL Standards & Engagement as interns and fellows. By supporting career advancement and professional growth, we’re preparing and advocating for the next cohort of safety scientists.
With the 2023 pilot launch of OREE’s Student Engagement Program, interns and fellows who join the organization are supported and engaged through professional development opportunities, mentorship, and connection building.
Our research experiences team also collaborates with the institutes and offices to recruit well-qualified interns, engage them throughout their internship, and works to hire them as full-time employees.
Research and program evaluation
Education research and evaluation are the foundation of our work, and drive innovation across OREE’s programming. In our education research, we study the systems and human interactions that shape safety science learning. This research illuminates real-world solutions across communities, and points to opportunities for new educational programming. Our program evaluation informs the design and ongoing reimagining of OREE’s K-20+ programs. One area of ongoing primary research focuses on young people’s perspectives on STEM internships and career training, which will help shape the experiences of safety science professionals emerging in the field.
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Xplorlabs
Solving with Science
Xplorlabs enables students and educators to solve real problems through science and engineering, and become part of the movement to make the world a safer place.
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