Teachers from Prince George's County Public School District participating in a teacher training program.
Teachers in a professional development workshop.
The application period for our 2024-2025 cohort is closed. Applications for the 2025-2026 cohort will open in early 2025.
Through the Research Experience for Teachers (RET) summer program at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC), local middle school teachers will have the opportunity to work with environmental scientists. Teachers will have opportunities for hands-on fieldwork and lab work experiences working side-by-side with researchers. Additionally, teachers will participate in professional development workshops designed to help them work with students outdoors and integrate real world data and data analysis into their classrooms. Over the summer, teachers are expected to develop at least one lesson plan based on their experiences that they can implement in their classrooms during the school year. SERC researchers and education staff will continue to serve as a resource for teachers and students throughout the school year.
Teachers will be expected to be on-site at SERC at least 3 days per week. The specific days will vary based on the projects that you are involved with over the summer.
We anticipate selecting 8 teachers to paricipate in each cohort. All accepted teachers must be classroom science teachers. We are prioritizing middle school teachers from Anne Arundel County Public Schools, Baltimore City Public Schools, and Prince George's County Public Schools in Maryland and Washington DC Public Schools.
Benefits for teachers:
- Participate in cutting-edge environmental science research
- Participate in professional development activities
- Opportunity to conduct an independent research project
- $8,100 stipend
- Costs covered (including sub coverage) to attend a professional research or STEM education conference
- $2,500 for supplies to implement new activities based on your RET experience in your classroom
- $1,200 to support a field trip to a local STEM organization
- Classroom visit (in-person or virtual) from SERC researchers
- Opportunity to receive up to 5 continuing professional development credits (MD-based teachers only)
- Smithsonian badge which allows you to access museums through the staff entrance and receive a discount in all Smithsonian museum stores
Have Question? Please reach out!
If you have questions about the program, please email program lead Alison Cawood at cawooda@si.edu. Our team would be happy to set up a time to talk to you individually or to a group of teachers at the same school if multiple people are interested. You can also read about the experiences of a few of our program alumni here and here.
