The University of California, Davis School of Education (UC Davis) has a three-year exploratory project focusing on the assessed impact of a teacher professional development (TPD) program around the applied sciences. Specifically through this grant the researchers seek to examine the measurable impact of an established teacher professional development program currently offered through the UC Davis Edward Teller Education Center. The Edward Teller Education Center is an established collaborative of the UC Davis School of Education and the Department of Energy National Laboratory at Livermore, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), and exists as a vehicle for providing teacher professional development around the area of science and technology innovations. The mission of the Edward Teller Education Center is consistent with the overarching Grand Challenge of bringing cutting-edge STEM Content in K-12 classrooms. Through the leveraged relationships with the scientific community at LLNL and the education expertise in the School of Education, ETEC delivers teacher training and curricula to improve upon the subject matter content skills of teachers, provide modeling of best practices in teaching, and support the integration of current research practices within the context of the classroom. The Center draws upon an instructor cohort that pairs a regional master teacher and relevant LLNL scientists in curriculum development and delivery. This proposed validation study addresses Area B: Developing Resources and Tools under the area of Instruction for K-12 Students and Teachers, and examines the ETEC professional development model defined as the Teacher Research Academy. The UC Davis School of Education designs and implements outcomes-based assessment approaches that are used to quantitatively and qualitatively ascertain measurable and distinguishable differences in the teaching practices of the participants in the ETEC TPD program. The resulting outcomes of this project provide useful metrics for the further refinement of this TPD program. The proposed assessment considers (a) reported changes in teaching practice; (b) teacher's professional attitudes towards science; and (c) trends in student outcomes. If validated, the effort could result in a model program to be shared with industrial and federal laboratories nationwide.
