Science and Engineering Saturday Seminars: Fostering connections between K-12 educators and University researchers

In this talk, I propose to tell you about a successful ongoing venture organized by the STEM Education Institute at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Every Spring semester for the past 16 years, the STEM Education Institute at UMass Amherst has offered the Science and Engineering Saturday Seminars, a series of four-hour workshops held on Saturdays in which University faculty and students present their current research and innovations to K-12 educators through lectures and hands-on activities. Attending these workshops enables teachers to stay up to date with research advances, and an experienced teacher is on hand to assist attendees in adapting the material presented by researchers into lesson plans for their classrooms. Teachers can either choose to attend individual workshops and receive professional development points, necessary to maintain their certification to teach, or register for the entire set to receive three graduate credits through the continuing education program of the University of Massachusetts. In turn, University faculty/researchers have the opportunity to communicate their research to a broader audience, and to provide teachers with the materials and means to spark the interest of a new generation of prospective scientists. I will present data collected from exit surveys of teachers, and discuss what makes a workshop a success. Presented materials are made available online through a Creative Commons license, and I will review download data on these.