CSATS Summer Research Experiences for STEM Teachers Program
Dates: June 17 - August 2, 2024
Deadline to apply: Applications Closed
Location: Online or In-person depending on placement (see "Additional Information")
To hear from a former RET teacher and his research mentors check out ourinformational RET webinar recording from 2022. Note: The webinar includes information for the 2023 RET, not 2024.
0:00 - 9:13 - Information about the program
9:13 - End - Hear from our former RET and his research mentors
The Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) Program is a seven-week summer program for middle and high school STEM teachers. RETs conduct research with a host laboratory for the first six weeks of the program and prepare for the summer research symposium during the seventh week. For Summer 2024, the RET programs will be offered online or in-person depending on the placement. Please see the descriptions under "Additional Information" on the left for more information. Teachers selected for the program will participate in ongoing research projects with university science or engineering faculty and work with CSATS science education faculty to develop a classroom research project based on their research experience.
RET programs for the Summer of 2024:
Biotechnology and Climate Change Research (BIORETs)
Bioinformatics Research
Computational Biology Research
Applicants Must:
Be a middle school or high school STEM teacher at a school within the United States with 3 years of classroom teaching experience.
Have a teaching appointment for the 2024-2025 school year, and be able to use curriculum materials developed during the RET program in your classroom during the 2024-2025 school year.
Have a device that is capable of running computer programs and support virtual meetings.
Be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident of the U.S.
Devote 40 hours per week to the program during the seven-week session. This is considered a full-time commitment and you may not enroll in classes or hold other jobs during the day. 32 hours a week will be spent in the research lab working on a research project and 8 hours a week will be spent at Penn State University Park participating in professional development conducted by CSATS faculty.
Complete work requirements to program standards. Please note, failure uphold program expectations may result in removal from the program.
Participants will be paid a stipend for the research experience. We will make every attempt to accommodate reasonable requests for schedule flexibility, while maintaining the program effectiveness.
Use materials from your research experience to develop a grade-level-appropriate classroom research project.
Participant Benefits:
Teachers will receive a $6000 stipend for completing the summer research and developing a classroom research project.
Opportunity to receive up to 3 graduate credits (SCIED 597) from Penn State University (must enroll in the course prior to May 14, 2024).
Application process:
The application requires general contact information, direct supervisor information, 3 professional references, 3 essay questions, a support letter from your immediate supervisor, and a sample lesson plan.
Some placements for the RET program are offered online. Please check under "additional information" for which programs are offered virtually. For virtual RETs, the program is open to any secondary STEM educator to apply.
The RET application is an online form. The application requires general contact information, direct supervisor information, 3 professional references, 3 essay questions, a support letter from your immediate supervisor, and a sample lesson plan.
The deadline to apply for a virtual research experience is March 29, 2024. Please contact Tiffany Lewis, CSATS STEM Education Outreach Specialist, tzs80@psu.edu, if you require submission beyond that date, but are interested in the program.
Yes, you can save the application and return to it later to submit, but we suggest that you prepare your answers in a separate document and copy them into the webpage.
We are sorry to hear that you are having a problem with the application and are happy to help you. If you have a general question or issue, please contact Tiffany Lewis, CSATS STEM Education Outreach Specialist, tzs80@psu.edu.
You will receive an automatically generated email when you submit your application. Note: All automatically generated email messages about your RET application will be sent to you but if you aren’t getting these messages, check your spam or junk folders.
The placements of the RET program are listed under "Additional Information." Here, you will also find the availability of the placement as fully online or in-person.
As an RET, you will spend 6 weeks engaged in an authentic research experience with a scientist or engineer based on your placement. During 6 of the 7 weeks, you will spend 4 days of the week working a full-time workday (8 hours per day) on your technical research and 1 day a week will be spent with CSATS faculty to receive professional development (PD). Even if you are in-person for the research, the PD is held via Zoom for 4 hours with breaks. You will have an additional 3 hours of asynchronous work to do in preparation for the synchronous meetings. During week 7 of the program, you will not be required to officially conduct any research (unless you have tasks to wrap up). This time is intended for RETs to work on their technical posters and/or classroom research projects to present at the RET Symposium capstone event. For more specific information such as work hours, see “Questions about RET Logistics” below.
As an RET teacher, you will gain a better understanding of the nature of research and the current practices of scientists and engineers, which inform current science education best practices. CSATS faculty will then help you translate your technical research experience into a classroom application for your students. For your work in the summer, you will receive a stipend and may be offered additional professional development opportunities (ex. present at conferences) in the future.
As part of the professional development sessions, you will learn how to translate your research experience into a classroom application that fits within your existing curriculum. At the conclusion of the summer, you will create a classroom reach project using content and/or practices you learned from your research experience. CSATS provides a template for this process. You will present your project to CSATS faculty and other CSATS RET fellows to receive feedback. During the following academic year, you will then pilot your research project unit in your classrooms and collect data to inform the outcome of predetermined project goals. CSATS faculty will remain as an available resource during the implementation process throughout the academic year.
RET participants are paid a stipend for their full participation in the seven-week program. The stipend is paid by check in two installments over the course of the summer. You will receive the first installment mid-way through the summer and the second installment upon completion and acceptance of your classroom research project and completion of other end of the program tasks.
You have the opportunity to receive up to 3 graduate credits through Penn State if you enroll in the course through Penn State by May 14, 2023. You are responsible for tuition payment. If interested, please reach out to Tiffany Lewis, STEM Education Outreach Specialist, tzs80@psu.edu to learn how to enroll in the course BEFORE May 1, 2024. We can also provide 36 hours of Act 48 credits.
The RET program is a full-time, Monday-Friday commitment for the 7-weeks. If you decide to work another job or take classes, this must occur OUTSIDE of your RET program time commitments. Please take this into consideration when planning to work or take classes outside of the RET program. Please understand that failure to complete requirements to program standards will result in removal from the program.
Each lab has its own culture and rhythm. You and your lab mentor will work out a specific schedule for you, which will include time spent working on your research project, attending lab meetings, etc. Generally you will start around 8 or 9 AM and finish at 4 or 5 PM. You will also receive time for lunch.
The RET Symposium is a time for RET teachers to share the research that they have conducted during the summer with others. You will present your technical research poster via Zoom at the end of the RET program.
Note: This research placement is being offered in-person or hybrid at Penn State Harrisburg Central Pennsylvania Research and Teaching Laboratory for Biofuels. This placement is funded by the National Science Foundation and engages secondary school teachers in a research experience with Dr. Sairam Rudrabhatla and assisting faculty in the Department of Biological Sciences as well as the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Penn State Harrisburg. The goal of this Convergence Research Experiences for Teachers (C-RET) site is to translate the Synthetic and Systems Biology (Syn/SysBio) research approaches for their applications in food, health, energy, and the environment (FHEE) to secondary classrooms. The proposed innovative STEM research experiences will allow teachers to discover and generate knowledge on a) enhancing yield, nutritional quality and improving disease resistance in crops, b) gene editing of industrial hemp and other crops using CRISPR/Cas9, c) remediating abandoned mine land soils while capturing greenhouse gases, d) treating drug resistant infections with plant-derived antibiotics and e) machine learning for plant monitoring. The C- RET will provide a rich, authentic 7-week research experience for teachers in Syn/SysBio projects in an aim to transform the future of STEM education, deepen students’ science engage. Teachers will also co-design curriculum to enhance their middle-school STEM curricula.
Note: This placement is preferred to be in-person at University Park. This
placement, funded by the National Science Foundation, will allow a teacher to engage with Dr. Denise Okafor at Penn State University Park. This project aims to understand how small molecules (or ligands) can bind
proteins and control their function. This is what happens with drugs: they find
and bind to their protein targets to modify their function, either causing them
perform an activity that the cells need, or blocking them so that they stop
undesirable activity. Focusing on a transcription factor known as FXR
(farnesoid X receptor), we aim to learn what features of ligands enable them to
recognize FXR and turn ‘on’ its transcriptional activity. Teachers will perform
experiments and analyses that predict and test interactions between FXR and
ligands. The teacher will develop a module on protein-ligand interactions to
enhance their curriculum.
Note: This placement is being offered in-person at University Park or virtually. This placement is generously supported by the
National Science Foundation to engage high school teachers in a research
experience with Dr. Mingfu Shao in the Department of Computer Science and
Engineering and Huck Institutes of Life Sciences at Penn State. Dr. Shao’s research group focuses on computational
biology, an interdisciplinary research area spanning biology, computer science,
and mathematics. Teachers in any of these 3 areas will be seen fit. The project
aims to computationally reconstruct the sequences of the RNA molecules
expressed in cells, using the data produced by biotechnologies called RNA
sequencing (RNA-seq). The teachers will assist in RNA-seq data analysis, method
design, and implementation. Teachers will also co-design a module to enhance
their high-school STEM curricula; the tentative topic would be the modeling of
data with graphs.
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