Summer Research Institute for Teachers
The Berkeley Engineering Research Experiences for Teachers (BERET+D) is an NSF-funded program that provides teachers and teachers-to-be with paid summer research fellowships. The program promotes the development and teaching of lessons that connect engineering and data science research to K-12 science and mathematics curricula. Teachers will receive a $6000 stipend for 6 weeks of full-time research plus a bonus stipend opportunity for attending professional development workshops during the academic year.
BERET+D places in-service and pre-service teacher pairs within faculty labs at UC Berkeley under the supervision of a common research mentor. In-service teachers have at least three years of classroom experience teaching predominantly underrepresented students in nearby public middle and high schools. Pre-service teachers are UC Berkeley students majoring in math, science or engineering and enrolled in one or more of the series of courses offered by the CalTeach program. To be in CalTeach, a student must have a commitment to pursue a career in teaching math or science in the K-12 classroom.
Research disciplines include Bioengineering, Chemistry, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, Materials Science and Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Molecular and Cellular Biology, Integrative Biology, Earth and Planetary Science, and Physics.
As part of this program:
- One in-service and one pre-service teacher are paired in a host lab under the same research mentor, but working on their own unique research project.
- In-service teachers will work full-time for 6 weeks, where they will participate in all lab related activities and meetings, as well as regular check-ins with their research mentors.
- Teams use their summer research experiences as the basis for developing new engineering lessons and curricular materials for classroom use. During and after the summer, teams work together to develop a curriculum unit of a few days to several weeks, and then jointly teach it in the in-service teacher's classroom during the academic year.
- Teachers are paid a stipend of $6,000 and can apply for additional grants to implement their lessons.
- Teachers engage in weekly professional development sessions with other teachers and present their research results in a poster session at the end of the summer.
- Four additional professional development sessions will be offered throughout the academic year to support implementation of newly designed curriculum. Generally, the trainings will take place on an evening or weekend day in the months of October, December, February, and April. Additional stipends will be available to teachers who participate in professional development.
To Apply
SRI Summer 2023 will take place in-person on June 26 - August 4, with a final poster presentation during the week of August 7.
The application is available now and the deadline to apply is April 10, 2023.
Please email sri_calteach@berkeley.edu with questions.