Educators
We offer programs and resources for educators to connect their lessons to Berkeley Lab research and scientists. For monthly updates on new programs, sign up for our Educator Newsletter.
Teacher Externship Week 2024: QCaMP
The strangeness of quantum physics is being harnessed to revolutionize computing as we know it. At QCaMP, you will get a primer on computing fundamentals, learn hands-on about quantum physics, and apply those phenomena to solve computing problems in new ways.
QCaMP 2025 will take place in late June 2025 for California teachers, in-person at Berkeley Lab. QCaMP is FREE and participants receive a learning stipend. There will be potential travel support in addition to the stipend.
Modules introduced during QCaMP can be incorporated into classroom settings and linked with existing Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) K-12 framework. The program also includes pedagogical discussions, feedback, and resource sharing.
Registration will open in February 2025.
For more information about the program, please visit the following websites:
Educator Programs
Berkeley Lab staff are volunteering to virtually share their experiences and work in STEM with classrooms. We invite students and teachers to meet researchers, ask questions, and get an inside look at STEM professions.
Bookings are currently closed.
Teacher Workshops and Externship Weeks
Teacher Externship Weeks and one-day Teacher Workshops give educators an opportunity to learn about the innovative research happening at Berkeley Lab with the goal of finding ways to connect their curriculum to Berkeley Lab research.
Registration is currently closed.
Educator Resources
The Berkeley Lab K-12 team has developed open-source curriculum for educators to use in their classrooms. These curriculum provide students with authentic STEM experiences reflecting the innovative research happening at Berkeley Lab. The curriculum are aligned with NGSS or CSTA K-12 CS Standards.
To access the curriculum, please complete a quick form. A link to the curriculum will be sent via email.
Data Science Curriculum
The data science curriculum from Berkeley Lab Director's Apprenticeship Program (BLDAP) is designed for students with little to no experience in coding to learn skills in Python necessary for data science. Students utilize Jupyter notebooks throughout the course.
The overall goal is for students to learn how to use Python to clean, analyze, and visualize large data sets in order to communicate effectively their conclusions about the data set. Students apply the skills they learned on actual data sets provided by researchers in Berkeley Lab.
LEED Sustainability Building Design Challenge
In this engineering design challenge, students are tasked to redesign a community center to be more sustainable by following LEED criteria. Students will have to select a certain number of LEED criteria based on feasibility of the building’s location and structure, as well as making sure to follow the community’s needs. Students will then build a physical model of their proposed redesigned community center.
Powering Your Home With Solar Energy
In this design challenge, students explore how solar energy can provide electricity to residences by creating and designing their own model house powered by a solar panel. Students plan where they want their lights in their homes and design circuit layouts that connect LEDs to their solar panel. Students observe the behavior of their LEDs based on how much light the solar panel receives and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of solar energy.
Other Resources:
Live Science is a series of live shows that explore innovative research and related hobbies at home. Each episode highlights scientists and researchers at Berkeley Lab. Accompanying teacher guides and student activity worksheets contain NGSS-aligned lessons related to the episode's topic.
STEM Career Talks are themed career talks every Friday of the month to learn about the wide diversity of STEM professions. Each session, we will be joined by Berkeley Lab staff, Bay Area professionals, and other guest experts to talk about their careers and how they got there. Talks are recorded for everyone to view at a later time.
View our running Virtual Resources list for a wide range of programs, platforms, and media for all grade levels and subjects.