Summer Research Experience

The goal of the WVU College of Education and Human Service’s Summer Research Experience is to connect pre-service, early service, and in-service teachers and scientific researchers, so that teachers may take their research experiences back to their classrooms. The Summer Research Experience is part of the National Science Foundation’s Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCOR) in West Virginia, a $20 million dollar grant awarded over a five year period.

The Summer Research Experiences offers the following programs for pre-service, early career, and in-service teachers. To apply to participate, please complete and submit theSTEM Education: Summer Research Experience Application Form online.

Pre-Service Teacher Program

The pre-service teacher program (5 PST’s) at WVU engages pre-service teachers in summer or academic year research experiences in science. The experience will center around the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) telescope in Green Bank, WV. Upon completion of their research experience, teachers are required to present on their work and discuss how it can be connected to the classroom in a “share-a-thon” type of setting.

This program includes a $1,500 stipend to conduct research during one semester.

Early Career Teacher Program

The early career teacher program focuses on the transition from teacher training to professional teacher and includes some tuition for courses as well as stipend. This research experience does not include a research experience at NRAO like the PST program. The program will consist of a 3-day summer retreat during which teachers will gather and work toward improving instruction through self-analysis, analysis of lessons, focused study of instructional practice, and date informed approaches to studying student learning.

This program will have an action research emphasis. In addition to the 3-day retreat, the participants will meet once each month during the semester and will come back to the retreat the following summer to share successes and assist with the next cohort.

This program includes a $3,000 stipend plus tuition/fee waivers.

In-Service Teacher Program

In-service teachers will engage in one week of research and learning how to search for pulsars and GW at the NRAO telescope in Green Bank, WV. The second week will consist of mentoring and working with middle-school students at NRAO. Teachers will also engage in for-credit courses (see below) and, for part of their work, will be given some readings related to the pulsars and GW early in the course. This will prepare them for their work later in the summer.

This program includes a $2,000 stipend plus tuition/fee waivers.

Course 1: Prepare or significantly revise a lesson that was not successful or upon which you would like to improve.

Course 2: How to do research in your classroom. This is the beginning stage of action research. It prepares people for asking appropriate research questions and for working with data analysis. Face-to-face class meetings will be held once a month at a location central to the enrollees, while the rest of the course work will be conducted online. The focus will be on designing the research enterprise for classroom research.

Course 3: Conducting action research in the classroom. This is the follow-up stage of action research. Support for data collection and analysis will occur at monthly face-to-face meetings at a central location. The focus of the class will be on actually carrying out action research in the classroom. These classes will support a continuing process of the improvement of teaching and learning through systematic study.

Apply

Submit STEM Education: Summer Research Experience Application Form Online!