Twenty-nine high school and middle school physics, physical science, and engineering/technology teachers from four states are participating in the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility's Summer Institute for Teacher Enhancement (SITE).
The four week Institute enables teachers to conduct practical and essential group research on a variety of projects at CEBAF including: Data analysis, construction and operation of safety systems, and control system design.
Teachers work in groups of five under the mentorship of a CEBAF scientist. Participants divide their days between research and instructive sessions. Morning sessions consist of workshops, lectures, and classroom instruction; afternoons are spent conducting research with group members and mentors. Teachers also develop experiments based on their experiences and research at CEBAF for later in-classroom use.
SITE participants are instilled with a renewed sense of enthusiasm for science and are enriched by the opportunity to partake in the advancement of essential real-world research. Through their explorative experiences, teachers are able to return to their schools and classrooms to share a wealth of knowledge and spirit of excitement about science.
CEBAF is a research laboratory constructed to probe atomic nuclei to learn more about the quark structure of matter. Under contract with the Department of Energy, CEBAF is managed and operated by the Southeastern Universities Research Association, a consortium of 41 universities in the Southeast.