STEM Teacher Residency
The STEM Teacher Residency program provides upper elementary, middle, and high school teachers with a professional development opportunity to conduct research in a faculty STEM lab during the summer and develop curriculum for their classrooms. For one week, teachers spend multiple sessions in the lab working closely with a faculty or graduate student mentor to learn about and engage in the research process. The remaining time they spend with members of the Research Engagement team to begin to translate their research experiences into meaningful curriculum materials for their classrooms. This Residency is run in partnership with the Notre Dame Center for STEM Education.
Applications
Applications for the Summer 2027 STEM Teacher Residency will open on February 1st, 2027 and close March 1st, 2027. Please note that currently, the STEM Teacher Residency Program only takes applicants who have completed the STEM Teaching Fellows program.
The dates for the STEM Teacher Residency for Summer 2027 will be released later this fall.
Participant Goals
-
Gain exposure to current STEM research being conducted in faculty labs at Notre Dame
-
Understand the essential elements of a high-quality curriculum, including how it can be packaged for other educators to use
-
Develop, implement, revise, and disseminate high-quality STEM curriculum connected to topics and concepts related to the research area of focus
Academic Year
The Residency also includes an academic year component where teacher participants meet virtually four times during the year with a member of the Research Engagement team. The goal of these check-in calls is to provide mile markers for the curriculum development and dissemination process:
-
Finalize research-based lesson plans
-
Implement the lessons
-
Distribute student surveys to assess student learning, engagement, and STEM interest
-
Revise lesson plans and provide teacher reflections
-
Develop a curriculum package for dissemination
-
Explore other dissemination opportunities (e.g. practitioner journals, conferences)
“This program allowed me to further build both my knowledge and experience as a scientist, which allows me to be a better educator.” —STEM Teacher Residency Participant, 2019
Products
As part of each STEM Teacher Residency, the teachers create a curriculum package of research-based lessons for other teachers to implement in their own classrooms. Click the images below to access each of the curriculum packages.
Explore the Nanoparticles Curriculum Package
Explore the Artificial Intelligence Curriculum Package
Explore the Black Box Files AI Curriculum Package
Further Dissemination
In addition to sharing their curriculum packages with the STEM Teaching Fellows, Research Engagement, and Notre Dame communities, teacher participants often have other opportunities for disseminating their work more broadly, including presenting at conferences.
To date, five teachers have presented at the National Science Teaching Association (NSTA) Conference to share their curriculum packages to a national audience of educators: three teachers from the Summer 2022 Residency (Nanoparticles Package) at NSTA 2024 and two teachers from the Summer 2024 Residency (World of AI Package) at NSTA 2026.
More Information
To learn more about the STEM Teacher Residency program, please email researchengagement@nd.edu