States have multiple existing networks (e.g. universities, school districts, regional offices of education, Extension, professional organizations such as professional science teachers’ associations) that often work independently to provide professional development to teachers. Rarely do these organizations intersect to leverage each other’s strengths and uniquenesses. This project’s goal is to identify common structures and potential nodes of intersection in order to create a larger, more coherent network of teacher professional development opportunities around K-12 science education, particularly in rural communities.

This project builds off of a previous project that surveyed more than 250 science teachers and found that there are PD opportunities in rural areas, but that they are disparate and scattered, and provided by multiple actors and organizations acting independently. This new project comes from the desire to go beyond the survey, to reach out to partners within and across states to find ways of moving forward, finding efficient means of collaboration and support.

This team wrote up a summary of their work here.