Professional Development Opportunities for Teachers

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Professional Development Opportunities for Teachers

QuarkNet

In its eighth year, QuarkNet brings high school students and teachers to the frontier of 21st century physics that seeks to research some of the mysteries about the structure of matter and the fundamental forces of nature.

QuarkNet centers are connected to high-energy physics experiments operating at CERN in Switzerland, at Fermilab in Illinois, at SLAC in Califormia and others. QuarkNet has 52 centers associated with research groups at universities and labs across the U.S.

Physicists mentor and collaborate with high school teachers. Through these collaborations:

Students learn fundamental physics as they analyze live online data and participate in inquiry-oriented investigations.
Teachers join research teams with physicists at a local university or laboratory.

QuarkNet is a multi-year program: each center begins with summer research positions for two lead teachers. The lead teachers and their mentors offer a three-week summer institute for up to ten additional teachers the second summer. QuarkNet supports centers for the equivalent of one week in the following years. QuarkNet is a flexible program that allows local centers to design a program that meets teachers’ needs within the resources available to mentors. A staff of five teachers supports the centers.

This project is supported in part by the National Science Foundation and the Office of High Energy Physics, Office of Science, U.S. Department of Energy.