Honors Research and Leadership Experience for Chemistry Teachers

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This proposal is a renewal of a previously funded three-year project in which groups of six high school chemisty teachers attend eight-week sessions at the University of Maryland. Each group returns for two additional, sequential eight-week summer sessions. Teachers join research groups and become active participants in state-of-the-art research projects in functioning laboratories where they learn new techniques and background material while being introduced to the basic research experience. Teachers learn how chemical knowledge is discovered in a low pressure environment. In addition to the research experience, teachers are exposed to advanced coursework and seminars on current topics in chemistry including teaching methods. Participants are required to write a report and present a seminar on their research in the final week of the program. This program enables 18 teachers to complete their three-year cycle of research. The University of Maryland is contributing the salaries of the PI, the research mentors and those parts of the teacher stipends which could not be subsidized by their school districts. This cost share is 59% of the NSF funding request.