Twelve science teachers in the Capital District will be participating in Questar III’s Summer Science Research Program this summer. This selective fellowship offers science teachers the opportunity to work in a science lab for two summers, four days a week, alongside a professional scientist or researcher.
Currently in its second year, the fellowship also provides professional development and an opportunity to collaborate with the group on lesson plans and science activities one day per week. Speakers from all over the region come to speak to the fellows about an array of topics. The program also allows teachers to attend seminars and give presentations throughout the academic year. Participants receive a stipend, as well as funding for classroom equipment.
Sean Higgins, first-year fellow, assists a student with an in-class science activity.
Fellows are placed in a variety of locations for their internships, including but not limited to the University at Albany’s Cancer Research Center, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Wadsworth State Health Labs, Momentive, Albany College of Pharmacy, and the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering. The summer culminates with each fellow presenting their work to the entire group; administrators from the fellows’ schools are also invited to the presentations.
The institute is modeled after a program started at Columbia University in 1990 by Dr. Samuel Silverstein, the John C. Dalton Professor of Physiology and Cellular Biophysics and Professor of Medicine at Columbia University. The program increased student achievement and improvement in meeting NYS graduation requirements. After the Columbia program’s success, Silverstein collaborated with Questar III to help establish the program upstate.
Questar III Senior Science Specialist Jane King says that the program gives teachers the hands-on experience they need to know how to do science research, resulting in new and improved lessons in the classroom.
Science teacher Nichole Mantas at Lansingburgh CSD was placed in the Royzen lab at the University at Albany last year, working with organic chemists. “It truly teaches you how to actively think. We want our students to act and work like scientists, historians, mathematicians, poets, and engineers, but as teachers, once we leave college, how often do we get that opportunity? In research, you’re pulled out of your comfort zone to once again think like a scientist because you are a scientist,” she said.
Maple Hill teacher Nathan Porter was placed in the College of Nanoscience and Engineering last year. “I see more confidence in my students,” he said of the experience. “I think going through the program has given me a better idea of how to scaffold the process with them—where they need to start and where the need to be in the end.”
He says that now, instead of offering his students step-by-step instructions for a lab activity, he builds “one-sentence labs” that encourage students to navigate their way using the scientific method.
Cairo-Durham teacher Sean Higgins is looking forward to his first year with the program. “It will give me more real-world experience, more information that I can bring back to my students,” said Higgins. “Plus it’s nice that they provide funding for equipment so that I can do some of these labs and experiments in the classroom.”
