Teacher Research Academy

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The Teacher Research Academy (TRA) offers middle school, high school, and community college faculty a unique professional development experience through Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). In summer 2025, LLNL will offer FREE virtual and onsite TRA programs. Download Flyer

This year, the Science Education program is hosting several TRA “Hot Topics” Sessions.

These two-day sessions will be held over two weeks, June 16-20 and June 23-27, 2025 onsite at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, 7000 East Avenue, Livermore, CA and includes the following “Hot Topics” in:
•    Understanding Energy Technology
•    Drone Design & Application
•    Artificial Intelligence (AI) for the Classroom
•    Data Analytics for STEM Labs using AI

A guided mid-week tour of the laboratory facilities will be provided on June 18 for the first week’s sessions and June 25 for the second week’s sessions. Attendance on the tour day is required to complete the hours needed for continuing education credits. Continuing education credits will be available, with each two-day session, including the tour day, counting as one course unit available through CSU Chico.

The TRA sessions are free to attend. 
Must be a U. S. citizen to attend onsite sessions.
Time: 8:30am-4pm.

 

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Hot Topics Sessions:

Understanding Energy Technology: This session provides an immersive experience into cutting-edge energy technologies and their practical applications, guided by the scientists at the forefront of this research. Hands-on activities, lesson plans, and interactive demonstrations will be provided to effectively teach topics such as energy storage, transport, renewable energy, and future sustainable power solutions.
June 16-17, 2025 | 8:30 am - 4:00 pm

Drone Design & Application: Explore drone development for engineering, science, and computer science classes. This hands-on session covers drone design, programming, and real-world applications, while providing practical tools and lesson plans to integrate drones into your curriculum. Inspire students with STEM concepts like coding and aerodynamics. Transform your classroom into a hub of innovation!
June 19-20, 2025 | 8:30 am – 4:00 pm

Artificial Intelligence (AI) for the Classroom: This session is designed to help STEM educators become more knowledgeable about artificial intelligence (AI). The session will provide opportunities to learn about the underlying principles of AI, how LLNL researchers are applying AI to complex problems, as well as how AI is poised to impact many different fields in the future. A significant portion of the workshop will be dedicated to becoming familiar with existing generative AI tools and building confidence in applying different tools to a range of tasks such as improving subject matter knowledge, creating content for lessons, designing assessments, and assistance with communications. The workshop will target educators who have limited or no experience using AI tools but is open to all that want to engage in learning more on this rapidly evolving technology. 
June 23-24, 2025 | 8:30 am – 4:00 pm

Data Analytics for STEM Labs using AI: In this workshop, participants will conduct a series of simple experiments and use natural language prompts with AI tools to perform computational analysis on their data. Applications will include analyzing biological data relevant to life sciences, interpreting physical measurements for physics and chemistry, and solving engineering problems such as signal processing and system modeling. Participants will conduct statistical analysis of large data sets, perform coordinate transformations on GPS data, fit periodic data to simple harmonic oscillator models, transform time-domain measurements to the frequency domain, and tackle other complex data analysis tasks that have historically required programming skills.
June 26-27, 2025 | 8:30 am – 4:00 pm

Physics with Phones

VIRTUAL WORKSHOP

This online 5-day workshop will focus on hands-on activities designed to use science and engineering practices to explore core disciplinary ideas in physics. The activities will exploit the amazing sensors found in smartphones. During this workshop you will become experienced in using the sensors in open ended exploration that will enable completely new opportunities for students to explore and learn physics.

Session: July 14-18, 2025  | Time: 8:30 am – 3:30 pm