HR: 0800h
AN: ED21A-0085
TI: The Teacher Research Academy as a Vehicle for Bringing Cutting-Edge S.T.E.M. Content to the K-12 Classroom
AU: * Kopay, C
EM: ckopay@ucdavis.edu
AF: Edward Teller Education Center, UC Davis School of Education, Livermore, CA 94551, United States
AU: Gilliom, L
EM: gilliom1@llnl.gov
AF: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Chemical Sciences Division, Livermore, CA 94551, United States
AB: The Edward Teller Education Center (ETEC) is an established collaborative of the University of California, Davis School of Education and the Department of Energy National Laboratory at Livermore (LLNL), and exists as a vehicle for providing teacher professional development in the areas of science and technology. Through the leveraged relationships with the scientific community at LLNL and the education expertise in the School of Education, ETEC delivers teacher training and curricula to improve upon the subject matter content skills of teachers, provide modeling of best practices in teaching, and support the integration of current research practices within the context of the classroom. In 2003, ETEC successfully implemented the Teacher Research Academy as its structured teacher professional development model. The Teacher Research Academy provides a four-step professional development continuum, with an option for teachers to earn a Masters of Science in Education through a recent collaboration with the California State University at East Bay, Department of Teacher Education. Since its inception, more than 550 teachers have participated in the Teacher Research Academy and received training in the content areas of biotechnology, biophotonics, energy & environmental technologies and fusion/astrophysics. With recently obtained support from the National Science Foundation, the Teacher Research Academy is proving to be a model program with the potential long-term impact of creating master teachers who: 1) model best practices to their colleagues, 2) have an enhanced ability to connect real-world applications of science to standards-based instruction, and 3) will contribute to sustainable systemic changes in the instructional practices within their communities.
UR: http://etec.ucdavis.edu/academies
DE: 0810 Post-secondary education
DE: 0830 Teacher training
SC: Education and Human Resources [ED]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting