Teacher Research Academy summer series in full swing

While a good number of teachers are vacationing this time of the year, some teachers elect to continue the learning through the summer months tduring the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's (LLNL)Teacher Research Academy (TRA).

The academy, which kicked off in June, is a summer-long series of professional development workshops for teachers and features content developed from LLNL research in areas such as biotechnology,computational modeling and fusion and astrophysics.

The Technical Writing for Science class, taught by LLNL retiree, T.R. Girill, in its second year, has been a popular addition to the curriculum. This workshop prepares teachers to build the technical writing skills of their science students and how to adapt work-world communication problems to implement the new Common Core state standards.

The academy 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.

The academy's goal is for teachers to increase their understanding of science and technology; gain experience using scientific equipment to perform standards-aligned experiments; improve their ability to provide students a context to understand how science is applied; and improve their ability to guide student research.

During the academy, teachers meet LLNL scientists, visit research laboratories, observe science being performed in a lab and learn technical writing skills to better communicate scientific information, experience the nature of science through direct involvement and use science equipment, processes and practices found in research labs.

Visit the LLNL Science Education Program websitefor more detailed information about the Teacher Research Academiesand other educational outreach programs.

Registration for this summer's TRA is closed. For information about TRA 2015, contact albala1 [at] llnl.gov (Joanna Albala), education outreach manager, at 2-6803.