Stanford’s Summer Research Program for Teachers (SRPT) offers eight-week research fellowships for teachers of middle school and high school who teach in the San Francisco Bay Area. Teachers work in a Stanford lab four days a week, and meet once a week as a group for science and engineering lectures by Stanford faculty, lab tours, and seminars on teaching.

Beginning in summer 2013, a subset of these teachers was funded by the National Science Foundation in a complementary program called Computing and Engineering Research Experiences for Teachers (CERTS). The expectations and activities for CERTS and SRPT are identical.

The purpose of this program is to re-energize teachers, expose them to a broad array of scientific fields, give them in-depth, hands-on research experience, and send them back to their classes filled with more confidence and enthusiasm and increased knowledge about the world of science and engineering research and its applications.

Teachers receive a stipend of $9,000 for the summer and into the school year and they are eligible for five units of Stanford Continuing Studies credits. This is an intensive program that requires participants to be on campus 40 hours per week. Program dates are not very flexible.

Teachers apply via our nonprofit partner IISME (Industry Initiatives for Science and Math Education). Information and application can be found at here.

Not teaching in the San Francisco Bay Area but interested in similar programs? Check out this directory of NSF-funded RET programs around the country.

Kaye Storm, Director