Our Summer Professional Development Institutes are unique, graduate level courses that engage your teachers in hands-on, minds-on, inquiry-based investigations and increase their STEM content knowledge! Our courses will connect your educators with scientists, engineers and STEM professionals.  Your staff will work with educators at our partner institutions to explore real-world phenomena through hands-on, minds-on investigations, and identify how to implement these investigations with their students in the classroom. Educators will earn PDPs and optional graduate credits as they experience inquiry-based learning firsthand. Participants will receive curriculum materials to enable them to bring the inquiry-based, minds-on, hands-on investigations introduced during the course into their classrooms. 

During the institutes, teachers will:

Participate in content and skill-based development sessions aimed at strengthening their students’ interest in and passion for STEM.

Visit partner organization sites and engage in inquiry investigations or field work.

Explore research and development labs at Massachusetts-based STEM companies.

Engage in discussions with experts, scientists, and peers; peer collaboration time; and phenomena-based investigations.

Practice integrating science content with the Science and Engineering Practices to develop inquiry-based investigations for their students.

Discover resources from museums, science centers, and higher education institutes in their communities that they can utilize throughout the year.

Enrich their teaching toolboxes with science investigations that meet the Massachusetts Science and Technology/Engineering Curriculum Framework and NGSS Standards.

Earn Professional Development Points (PDPs) while they improve their confidence in teaching science, and even take an institute for graduate credit.

These institutes will also provide an opportunity for your educators to increase their proficiency with and leverage the power of technology to support student learning in both the classroom and remote settings.

Visit our Summer Professional Development Institutes page to learn about our 2022 Summer Professional Development Institutes.