Participate in content and skill development sessions taught by professional educators and scientists at each collaborating partner organization. Daily activities include indoor inquiry-based classroom experiences and outdoor field experiences. Take home investigations you can use in your classroom and a collection of teaching resources and field trip ideas!

• Learn how to use the Science and Engineering Practices in your classroom and how they relate to science inquiry.
• Explore STEM resources in your community.
• Discover how to adapt your current curriculum to meet the revised MA Science and Technology/Engineering Standards.
• Become part of a network of teachers from your region and across the state.

One-Week Institutes for Grades 3-8 and Middle & High School Educators

One-week professional development institutes for grades 3-8 educators combine content and skill development sessions. Visit each partner institution’s site for 1-2 days and participate in both hands-on inquiry investigations and content sessions. One-week professional development institutes for middle and high school educators combine content and skill development sessions taught by scientists, content specialists and professional educators. These courses are based out of the lead institution with field trips to area research labs, field sites and local businesses with product development laboratories.

Cape Cod Region
One-Week Institute for Middle and High Educators
From Land to Sea: Practicing Sustainability, Modeling Solutions
Description: Sustainability. What’s the buzz all about? Learn about human threats to Cape Cod and Southeastern Massachusetts’ coastal environment and animals. Discuss real world practical solutions that make a difference to ocean sustainability such as shellfish aquaculture, which improves water quality, and sustainable farming techniques that preserve soil and water. Bring these ideas into your classroom with hands-on, inquiry-based STEM activities.
Partners: National Marine Life Center, Mass Audubon’s Long Pasture Wildlife Sanctuary, YMCA Camp Burgess Farm & Hayward, Massachusetts Maritime Academy
Dates: July 9-13; Half Day Introductory Session June 9; Half Day Fall Call-back November 3
Registration Fee: $400/participant, $375/participant for a team of 2 teachers from the same school district, $350 for teams of 3 or more teachers from the same school district
PDPs and Graduate Credit: 40 PDPs; graduate credit is available for an additional fee
Housing available for Cape Cod Region

MetroWest Region 
One-Week Institute for Grades 3-8 Educators
Landscapes for Learning: A Natural Confluence of Science, Literacy, Mathematics and Place-based Pedagogy
Description: Communities and their landscapes — whether forests, farms, or streetscapes — provide context for the study of ecology, history, culture, and society.  Collect data from local rivers and ponds, explore landscapes that have inspired a confluence of science and ideas for centuries, and learn effective strategies for using nature journals, science notebooks and other literacy tools in your classroom. Bridge your school and community by designing inquiry-based learning that connects students in meaningful ways to their local environment.
Partners: Mass Audubon’s Drumlin Farm Wildlife Sanctuary, Walden Woods Project, Concord Museum
Dates: July 9-13; Half Day Introductory Session June 9; Half Day Fall Call-back November 17
Registration Fee: $400/participant, $375/participant for a team of 2 teachers from the same school district, $350 for teams of 3 or more teachers from the same school district
PDPs and Graduate Credit: 40 PDPs; graduate credit is available for an additional fee

North Shore Region
One-Week Institute for Grades 3-8 Educators
Investigating Ecosystems and Assessing Human Impact
Description: How are humans helping or harming local habitats? Explore ways to investigate this question in your own schoolyard, and in the world around you. Support your students’ active involvement in achieving a positive impact through citizen-science projects that will have them collecting real, local data that can be used by scientists.
Collaborators: Mass Audubon’s Endicott Wildlife Sanctuary, Glen Urquhart School, Plum Island Ecosystems LTER
Dates: July 16-20; Half Day Introductory Session June 16; Half Day Fall Call-back November 3
Registration Fee: $400/participant, $375/participant for a team of 2 teachers from the same school district, $350 for teams of 3 or more teachers from the same school district
PDPs and Graduate Credit: 40 PDPs; graduate credit is available for an additional fee

Southeast Region
One-Week Institute for Grades 3-8 Educators
Inquiring Minds Want to Know: How to Use Marine Science and Technology in the Classroom
Description: Design floats to meet buoyancy criteria, review marine organisms’ adaptations and engineer prosthetics for ocean animals, and then head to the shoreline to practice water-sampling techniques. Shore up your background knowledge and explore a variety of tools, methods, and techniques to make marine science and technology more accessible to students.
Partners: Lloyd Center for the Environment, Battleship Cove, National Marine Life Center; University of Massachusetts – Dartmouth School for Marine Science & Technology (SMAST)
Dates: July 16-20; Half Day Introductory Session June 16; Half Day Fall Call-back November 3
Registration Fee: $400/participant, $375/participant for a team of 2 teachers from the same school district, $350 for teams of 3 or more teachers from the same school district
PDPs and Graduate Credit: 40 PDPs; graduate credit is available for an additional fee

Berkshire Region
One-Week Institute for Grades 3-8 Educators
Going Green with your Students: The Science and Engineering Behind Clean Energy
Description: Western Mass leads the state in renewable, clean energy projects. Become an environmental scientist by experimenting with solar, hydroelectric, wind, and biomass technologies to reduce our carbon footprint. Explore and develop strategies to help students incorporate engineering design practices into renewable energy projects. Go green and teach green!
Partners: Flying Cloud Institute, Trustees of Reservations, Center for EcoTechnology
Dates: July 9-13; Half Day Introductory Session June 16; Half Day Fall Call-back November 17
Registration Fee: $400/participant, $375/participant for a team of 2 teachers from the same school district, $350 for teams of 3 or more teachers from the same school district
PDPs and Graduate Credit: 40 PDPs; graduate credit is available for an additional fee

Central Region
One-Week Institute for Grades 3-8 Educators
Parts and Purpose: Using Inquiry to Explore Structure and Function in Nature’s Laboratory
Description: Join scientists and science educators as we explore animal and plant biology, nutrient flow and pollinator systems at work all around us. Analyze soil nutrients, investigate how birds, insects, and seeds move through their environment, and explore the co-evolution of the pollen-collecting adaptations of bumblebees and the bee-attracting adaptations of flowers. Learn how to weave these topics into your classroom as an inquiry-based adventure.
Partners: Mass Audubon’s Wachusett Meadow Wildlife Sanctuary, Tower Hill Botanic Garden, Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Dates: July 9-13; Half Day Introductory Session June 9; Half Day Fall Call-back November 3
Registration Fee: $400/participant, $375/participant for a team of 2 teachers from the same school district, $350 for teams of 3 or more teachers from the same school district
PDPs and Graduate Credit: 40 PDPs; graduate credit is available for an additional fee