Penn State’s Physics Department and Center for Nanoscale Science jointly host a National Science Foundation (NSF) funded Research Experience for Teachers (RET).
The goal of the RET program at Penn State is to provide opportunities to the participating STEM teachers to engage in hands-on research projects with faculty mentors in Materials Chemistry, Physics, and Nanotechnology. Engineering, technology, science, and math teachers, as well as pre-service teachers, with broad interests across disciplines are eligible to apply.
The teachers selected to take part in this six-week program will receive hands-on nanoscience and technology experience through research, with applications to bio-engineering, chemistry, electronics, materials science, optics, optoelectronics, physics, and/or the life sciences. A scientific mini-symposium, attended by the participating teachers, provides the RET teachers the opportunity to present their research work to their peers in an oral and poster format.
Additional professional development activities include seminars, demonstrations, and workshops geared towards connecting state-of-the-art research with K-12 education. Concepts of sustainability as it relates to materials science and the research enterprise are a core component of the professional development content.