Teachers Academy


Creating Access to World Class Science and Engineering for K-12 Teachers and Students

BCCP Homepage Academy Activity Instructors For Students For Teachers For Berkeley Lab Staff Facilities Center for Science and Engineering Education Academy Homepage
		Berkeley Cal Teach Partnership

		The Berkeley Lab Academy for Science Teaching and Learning will develop and model a summer institute for Cal Teach students following their Junior Year. This will lead to a new generation of UC Berkeley middle and high school science teachers for California that will be part of the scientific and engineering enterprise. The Berkeley Cal Teach Program goals for the summer institute are to: Deepen student’s content knowledge Develop student’s pedagogical skills to transfer the summer experience the classroom. Background Berkeley Lab’s Center for Science and Engineering Education developed and implemented a ten week summer undergraduate Preservice Teacher Intensive Research Institute in 2002 to 2005. The first of the ten weeks included orientation to the lab, safety training, a course on journal writing, and tours of research facilities. The core experience of the institute consisted of 4 two-week consecutive sessions. Each session consisted of a small group of 5-6 students preparing for an experiment, collecting and analyzing data, developing a science presentation, and creating a lesson translating the experience to the classroom. A lead Berkeley Lab scientist typically taught the students scientific principles needed for the experiment in the morning, and an experienced teacher joined the students as a coach. Afternoons were spent in the lab setting with the lead scientist and his or her group. Examples of two week sessions include: micro fingerprint analysis at the ALS Infrared beam line, A neutron activation analysis with irradiation at a nuclear reactor, building and testing a cosmic ray coincidence detector, and a gamma ray analysis of terrestrial radio activities as related to antiterrorism. The final week students prepared for their final presentations and reports. Students received a stipend of $400/week and were expected to work 40 hours each week. Goals for Preservice Deepen content knowledge for each student in four areas, earth, life, physical science and engineering (prepare for breadth CSET Test) Transfer content knowledge to classroom setting Develop understanding of scientific inquiry and engineering design and construction Encourage understanding of the interconnection and relationship between science disciplines Introduce frontier science and technology topics Instill view of science teaching as integral to the scientific and engineering enterprise Design Criteria and Funding Requirements 50 students per summer x $5000/student = $250,000/year 8 to 10 week internship program Exposure to scientists and engineers at UCB and Berkeley Lab Access to and use of science and engineering laboratories and investigators at UCB and Berkeley Lab Small group learning opportunities (5 students per group)