"Providing Teachers With a Real World Context to Teach Science"

TThe Teacher Research Academy (TRA) offers middle school, high school and community college faculty unique professional development experiences at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). TRA teachers participate in a continuum of standards-based instruction, enabling them to progress from novice to mastery in exciting scientific disciplines while they experience the application of real world science in an environment teachers seldom experience.

Teacher Outcomes

Teachers who complete the TRA:

• Increase their understanding of science and technology.
• Gain experienced using scientific equipment to perform standards aligned experiments.
• Improve their ability to provide students a context to understand how science is applied.
• Improve their ability to guide student research.

TRA Activities

TRA provides you with opportunities that most science teachers never experience.

• Meet scientists.
• Visit research laboratories.
• Observe science being performed in the laboratory.
• Learn technical writing skills to better communicate scientific information.
• Experience the nature of science through direct involvement.
• Use science equipment, processes, practices found in research laboratories.
• Apply science to solve real problems.

Academic Credit

Participants can earn academic credit from three Universities:

• CSU East Bay College of Education offers graduate credit toward the completion of a Master of Science degree in Education.
• CSU Chico extension credit for Levels 1 - 4 of the TRA program.

Location

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) Livermore, CA.

Schedule

The TRA program is offered each summer. Workshops are held in June and July. Internships start in June and end in August. Level 1 is held for 3 days. Level 2 and 3 are held for 5 days. Each workshop starts on a Monday at 9 AM and ends at 4 PM. View the beginning dates of the class schedule for the coming summer.

TRA Faculty

The faculty are master science educators from high schools, community colleges and universities. Each has extensive expertise in the science content they teach and experience providing teacher professional development. Scientists and engineers from LLNL contribute their expertise to keep the instruction on the "cutting edge."

Fee Schedule

The TRA program is offered free of charge by LLNL. A registration fee of $20.00 per workshop is assessed to provide hospitality to participants.

Getting Started

• Review the TRA model to develop your understanding of the program.
• Choose the science content option best for you: 
  • Biotechnology (flyer Levels-I, II, III, IV) (flyer Level-V)
  • Climate Change and Possible Solutions (flyer)
  • Fusion and Astrophysics (flyer)
  • Biophotonics
• Register on-line. You must be a U.S. Citizen to attend TRA.