Professional Development

Engineer Your Future! Help your students get the most out of your K-12 engineering classes, build on your leadership skills, or just have fun exploring engineering yourself.

Upcoming opportunities:

WGBH/NSTA Web Seminars (ongoing)
Catch a live, 90-minute web seminar, or review the archive for downloadable presentation files of past webinars, such as these:

Design Squad: Today's Students, Tomorrow's Engineers
Learn all about Design Squad, a PBS reality competition series in which teenagers tackle engineering challenges from real-world clients, and how to give kids a working understanding of physical science concepts while increasing their enthusiasm for engineering. Free educational resources include the middle school Design Squad Teacher's Guide with activities that meet educational standards and use low-cost, readily available materials. (archive, November 2009)

Designed to Inspire: On the Moon
NASA and WGBH representatives presented to 125 participants information on the Design Squad PBS series and highlighted the free On the Moon Activity Guide. Design Squad encourages aspiring engineers through engineering activities for the science classroom. The webinar included a web tour of additional educator resources available on the Design Squad and NASA websites. (archive, June 2009)

Podcasts of some of the WGBH/NSTA webinars are also available. Example topics: Everyday Engineering: Time's Up, Turkey - Pop-Up Thermometers or What Makes a Bic Click? or What Makes a Squirt Gun Squirt?; Science Sampler: Engineering - Adventures in Teaching; Get a Grip! A Middle School Engineering Challenge; Talking to Kids about Engineering; etc. To find more, search all of the 200+ podcasts with the keyword "engineering."


Engineering Education Service Center (ongoing)
Arrange for biomedical engineer, author and award-winning motivational speaker Celeste Bain to conduct high-energy and high-content presentations for your group. Example 50-minute presentation topics for teachers, mentors, outreach programs and parents include: Motivating Students to Pursue Engineering, Creative Outreach for Engineers, and Grow Your Own Engineer, and a one-day workshop for educators: Teaching Engineering Made Easy. For students, 50-minute presentations include: Engineers Can Do Anything!, 51.326 Reasons to Study Engineering Technology, Engineering Makes the World Go Around, Math Is Just One Tool in the Box, Engineering in the Entertainment Industry, and Girls Rule! More information at http://www.engineeringedu.com/pw/ttopics.html and http://www.engineeringedu.com/pw/stopics.html


Engineering By Design (ongoing)
The International Technology Education Association (ITEA) Center to Advance the Teaching of Technology & Science offers professional development opportunities with the Engineering by Design Curriculum Specialists (EbD). Arrange for EbD to provide seminars, institutes and workshops.


Tell us about another upcoming professional development opportunity!

Find more resources for K-12 STEM Teacher Professional Development:
- National Science Teacher Association (NSTA)
- National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM)
- American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
- American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE)
- International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE)
- International Technology Education Association (ITEA)