UF CPET: Professional Development for Secondary Science Teachers

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 and the HHMI‐funded ICORE: Emerging Pathogens.These innovative programs integrate experiences from a summer institute into classroom action. During the institute, an experimental sequence in basic and applied science illustrates scientific content, pedagogical methods, and conceptual/technological interrelationships. 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.Sources of research support include UF, NIH, and HHMI.