Professional Development & STEM Engagement
NAU helps STEM educators improve instruction.
CSTL’s Professional Development (PD) team helps current STEM educators improve their teaching practices through customized support sessions. The team provides a deep and lasting impact through systemic improvement of science educators based on research and evidence-based practice methods. They promote high quality STEM education across Arizona, United States, and the world to engage learners in in-depth STEM learning.
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Induction Tab Open
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Broader Impact Support Tab Closed
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Current & Past Partners Tab Closed
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Induction Accordion Open
CSTL supports new secondary science and math teachers through Induction courses
- Supports first and second year science and math teachers in secondary classrooms
- Begins with teachers participating in 2-day face-to-face summer meetings
- Course continues online, meeting once per month throughout the school year
- Provides 40-45 hours for professional development
More info on Induction here.
Broader Impact Support Accordion Closed
NAU’s CSTL supports the broader impact of STEM research
- STEM outreach and education
- Professional development of STEM educators
- Reaching underserved audiences
- A series of 1-2 week summer institutes
- A series of weekend institutes throughout the academic year
- 1-3 day workshops
- Web-based professional support
- Short courses, presentations, and workshops at conferences
- Mentoring, coaching
- We design and implement professional learning that incorporates research-based strategies and materials that support the vision of A Framework for K-12 Science Education
Current & Past Partners Accordion Closed
- Community organizations and non-profits
- School districts/local education agencies
- Governmental organizations
- Informal education organizations
- Business/industry
- Higher education
- K-12 teachers
- Students
- Families
- Educational researchers
- Administrators
- Citizen scientists
- Grand Canyon Trust
- Arboretum
Learning Goals Accordion Closed
- Increase STEM content knowledge and instructional skills
- Develop STEM leadership skills
- Engage in three dimensional integration of science and engineering practices, disciplinary core content, and cross cutting concepts
- Gain experience with specific STEM curricula such as Making Sense of Science® and Engineering is Elementary®
- Review and build STEM lessons and/or units
- Examine student work and reflect on STEM teaching
Professional Development Opportunities
Ongoing | Consultations: Embracing New Arizona Science Standards. More info here.
Our team partners to secure funding to improve STEM education and believes that STEM professional learning:
- Supports high quality STEM education and educators at multiple levels
- Is ongoing, sustained, collaborative
- Goes beyond a single workshop model for implementation
- Improves STEM content and pedagogy
- Provides development of STEM Leadership
- Is job embedded
- Is based on research and best practices
- Promotes the vision of A Framework for K-12 Science Education
Partnerships
We partner to find funding to design high quality learning experiences. We conduct qualitative research. We continually seek to learn and improve. We share what we learn and seek opportunities to learn from others. We promote high quality, research-based curricula and materials necessary to engage learners in STEM.
Current Projects
Developed from partnerships, The CSTL PD team is involved with several exciting projects.
- iCREATE – iCREATE helps foster a passion for STEM while providing a technology-rich experience to develop students’ skills.
- FEWSION for Community Resilience (F4R) – Community outreach to map and to dialogue Energy, Food, and Water Systems (FEWS).
- APS STEM Focus Schools for the Future
- Planetary Learning that Advances the Nexus of Engineering, Technology, & Science (PLANETS).
– Provides pilot, research and learning opportunities
– Partners: NASA, Museum of Science, Boston, US Geological Survey Astrogeology - Power of Data (POD) – Enables secondary teachers to utilize geospatial technologies (GST) within authentic STEM projects to increase 6-12 grade students’ 21st century skills, GST and STEM career awareness.
– Partners: Horizon Research, Inc, GISetc, NAU Geology, Geography, Planning and Recreation, Esri
– Advisors: WestEd (MSPs), Making Sense of Science (MSS) - Engineering Is Elementary (EIE) – Professional learning sessions prepare you to facilitate immersive EiE professional development workshops for teachers in your school, district, or state.
- Making Sense of Science (MSS) – Workshops to delve into Systems as a cross-cutting concept as outlined in the Framework for K-12 Science Education and more fully understand forces, motion, and how the two are related.
- Place4FEWS
- and many more…
Partner with us
Contact Center for Science Teaching and Learning
If you have questions or would like to support our efforts please contact us.
Will you be a new teacher this fall? Consider participating in CSTL’s Induction seminar!