Getting Back in the Game: a High School Teacher’s Experience with a Research Experience for Teachers Opportunity

In April of 2025, I learned through an area physics teachers’ group that Dr. Bill Fairbank at the Colorado State University Fort Collins campus was seeking a high school teacher to work with his graduate students over the summer. An NSF grant would fund the position. Looking for an activity for my summer break from teaching high school Physics in Boulder County, and always interested in supplementing my income, I contacted Dr. Fairbank. I worked in the nEXO lab at CSU from June to August 2025. The experience proved to be far more rewarding than I had expected. It allowed me to engage in Physics at a level not often possible when teaching introductory high school Physics and Chemistry classes. It also taught me a great deal about the differences between “lab science” as practiced in a high school classroom and “real” research conducted in working labs. It is an opportunity that I would recommend not only to my fellow high school teachers, but one I would strongly encourage researchers to seek out and bring in those teachers to join their projects for the summer.