PNNL

Preparing the next generation to enter the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) workforce expands beyond internship opportunities. To prepare students and address the workforce gap in STEM careers, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) invited a cohort of seven high school and middle school educators from the Pasco School District to the Pathway Summer STEM Institute for K-12 Educators (STEM Institute). 

The educators, who serve underrepresented student populations, learned about computational and mathematical science innovations and opportunities in a multi-week summer program that brought them into the laboratory for an active learning and immersive experience that will continue during the school year. The STEM Institute is sponsored by the Office of Workforce Development for Teachers and Scientists and is part of the Office of Science Reaching a New Energy Sciences Workforce (RENEW) initiative.

“The RENEW STEM Institute gives us an opportunity to bring in educators and connect them to our researchers and our world-class facilities so that they can have a better understanding of the Department of Energy national laboratory system and career pathways that are available, especially in energy sciences,” said Elizabeth Stephens, STEM Workforce Development team leader. “Our goal is that they take the knowledge and the skills that are learned at PNNL into the classroom and share different types of opportunities and career pathways that exist with their students.”

While educators typically do the teaching, during the STEM Institute experience they were allowed the space to learn. PNNL researchers spoke to educators about topics like artificial intelligence, data science and data visualization, high-performance computing, machine learning and large language models, quantum information science, and more. Tours were given of PNNL facilities where research takes place, like the Energy Sciences Center, the Visualization and Interaction Studio, the 5G Innovation Studio, and more. 

Researchers and student interns also met with the cohort to share their personal journeys into the STEM field and shared about the opportunities that were available to them through a national laboratory. 

“I enjoyed listening to the stories from the presenters and hearing about how they got to where they are today,” said Shelia Tomlinson, a middle school teacher at Ellen Ochoa Middle School. “It gave me time to understand how to shape my teaching for students to see a greater picture.”

In between tours, discussions, panels, and presentations, the cohort collaborated with their peers and PNNL Office of STEM Education staff on lesson plans to incorporate into the classroom. 

“I also enjoyed being able to practice on AI and figure out ways to use it in my classroom,” said Tomlinson. “I am hoping to show students more skills in statistics and computational thinking and give them the time to work through a real-world project. I want to help them learn how to question what they are seeing and show them different ways to address a problem.”

At the end of the summer experience, the STEM Institute cohort invited their administrators and peers together for a showcase and closing ceremony.

“One of the participants shared an AI generated video and poem about the impact and influence that the experience and team had on her,” said Stephens. “It was very humbling for us and our research partners to hear the influence and the impact that we had, because we know that the passion is going to carry through into their classrooms and impact the future students that we're trying to reach.” 

While the educators have returned to the classroom for a new school year, they have access to continued support through the STEM Institute.    

“They leave with a lesson plan that they have practiced teaching to their peers and received feedback on,” said Stephens. “And they get to decide when the best time is to implement it. We provide them technical resources and make sure they are supported leading up to, and after, they integrate it into their teachings.”

The cohort will come together again for a workshop later in the school year to discuss highlights, challenges, and lessons learned to refine the lesson plans for the remainder of the school year.

Visit our webpage to learn about how PNNL partners with K-12 educators in STEM education.