UF Center for Precollegiate Education and Training: University Partnerships for Teacher Professional Development

Abstract

The University of Florida Center for Precollegiate Education and Training (UF CPET) promotes the use of university resources for the preparation and enhancement of STEM teaching in secondary schools. UF CPET offers an array of teacher professional development programs, the two largest being the NIH SEPA‐funded Biomedical Explorations: Bench to Bedside. This innovative program integrates experiences from a summer institute into classroom action. Teachers work with science and education researchers to develop lessons and laboratory exercises that convey these content‐based principles in the context of career choices. During the school year, research proposals, resources, formal presentations, review of classroom outcomes and incentives for ongoing professional development provide continuing support to incorporate scientific processes, real‐world skills and enthusiasm for bioscience careers into classrooms. Continued support from UF CPET encourages science teachers' personal enrichment and professional advancement in biotechnology education and empowers them as agents of change in their classrooms and communities. Our newest program, the Summer Research Experience (SRE), a teacher‐scientist partnership model in which teacher fellows spend three weeks in an intensive residential research program. The primary outcome of this partnership program has been the development of our Biomedical Curriculum Series, comprised of thematic modules which are hands‐on and inquiry‐based, stress collaborative learning and biotechnology applications, as well as nature of science components and 21st century skills.