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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 2026 STEM Teacher Residency have closed. 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 2026 are Sunday, July 5th, 2026, through Saturday, July 11th, 2026.

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.

A smiling woman in a lab coat and safety goggles takes notes in a science lab, with two colleagues.
View the package created by three teachers in the 2022 STEM Teacher Residency in Jon Camden's research group.
Explore the Nanoparticles Curriculum Package
Three students in a classroom look at a laptop; one holds up a small drawing of a cat, smiling.
View the package created by two teachers in the 2024 STEM Teacher Residency in Yamil Colón’s research group on machine learning and artificial intelligence.
Explore the Artificial Intelligence Curriculum Package

Further Dissemination

Three smiling women in green ND STEM polos stand by a screen displaying a nanoscience presentation by Kenna, Kwan, Terrasi.

In addition to sharing their curriculum packages, teacher participants often have other opportunities for disseminating their work more broadly, such as presenting at conferences. The three teachers in the Summer 2022 STEM Teacher Residency presented at the National Science Teaching Association (NSTA) Conference in Spring 2024.

More Information

To learn more about the STEM Teacher Residency program, please email researchengagement@nd.edu.