Teachers
NREL promotes excellence in teaching and learning and contributes to improving critical elements of the science, mathematics, and technology education system. Teachers are offered research and development opportunities to enhance their content knowledge, instructional strategies, and leadership abilities.
DOE Academies Creating Teacher Scientists (DOE ACTS) Program
DOE ACTS is a national program run by the Department of Energy's Office of Science through national science laboratories. This experience is designed to revitalize the research interests of science teachers and improve their content knowledge and scientific skills.
This opportunity provides teachers with professional, science, and technological research experiences through an eight-week summer research appointment at NREL. Participants conduct supervised, state-of-the-art renewable energy research and participate in professional development as a summer research associate. In addition, resources and scientific consultation are provided to the teacher for at least three years. Participants are expected to continue their research experience the next summer in a four to eight week program at NREL or another participating national laboratory.
DOE Pre-Service Teacher (PST) Training Program
The U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science Pre-Service Teacher (PST) Internship Program provides laboratory research opportunities to highly motivated pre-service teachers (undergraduates or graduate students preparing to be teachers). The program facilitated by several participating national laboratories including NREL ushers a cadre of pre-service K-12 teachers through a clearly defined 10-week research project under the mentorship of a laboratory scientist or engineer. Interns are supervised by a laboratory program manager and master teacher to develop transfer strategies of their experience to the classroom.
For more information about either program at NREL contact Linda Lung, 303-275-3044.
