We are accepting requests for spring 2025 and beyond. If you are interested in science support from the Academy Teacher Professional Development team, please complete this short contact form and we will be in touch within two weeks. You may also want to check our upcoming workshops calendar to see if anything meets your needs.
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"I felt like today gave me a real sense for how to apply the different parts of the standards to my teaching. Working with the grade level teams created strong questions and answers." -Kindergarten Teacher, Mill Valley School District
"I appreciated that your instruction modeled the inquiry instruction that we were being taught." -Teacher, Jefferson Elementary School District
"I value the different approach and you making me think in a different way." -Teacher, Marin Primary and Middle School
"I valued the time to delve deeply into specific lessons with colleagues." -Teacher, Marin Primary and Middle School
"I valued the hands-on opportunity. It shows us, not tells us, what to do with our kids." -Teacher, Jefferson Elementary School District
"I love how we decorated and USED our own Science Notebook. I LOVED using the materials to design our own investigation." -Teacher, Marjorie H. Tobias Elementary
"I valued the opportunity to explore, engage, and have a lot of fun learning with my colleagues!" -Teacher, Marin Primary and Middle School
Customized Science Support for Schools and Districts
Learn more about how the Academy's Teacher Professional Development staff can support your team of educators!
Is your school or district seeking professional development in science instruction for a group of educators?
Read on, then complete the contact form to start a conversation with the Academy's Teacher Professional Development team. We would love to work with you to determine whether we can support your team of educators.
How do we support teachers?
Our team can customize a professional learning sequence based on the goals of your school or district, and are available during the academic year from September through April, pending our team's capacity.
We can provide virtual workshops and coaching, or host teachers in our world-class museum and outside in Golden Gate Park. We may also be able to travel to your Bay Area location.
We are open to partnerships that include, virtually or in-person:
- Delivering PD experiences that range from 1.5 hours to multi-day sessions
- Building the capacity of teacher leaders within and across school sites
- Coaching teachers one-on-one in the classroom
- Coaching groups of teachers at school sites
- Facilitating planning days for groups of teachers
Below are our existing offerings for virtual and in-person science support, but if you don't see what you're looking for, please contact us and we may be able to customize something just for you!
Menu of offerings and cost information
Virtual experiences for teachers
All of our virtual workshops are highly interactive and engage participants in small-group discussion and individual exploration. Educators participate in activities as learners, and reflect with colleagues about how to apply ideas to their own teaching. We can welcome up to 95 participants per session, and our workshops range from 1.5-hour single sessions to a 9-hour learning experience over three days. Our growing list of virtual learning opportunities includes:
- Better Than a Webinar: How to Facilitate Interactive Online PD
- Digging into Data
- Engaging Learner's with the Academy's Online Resources
- Engineering: Beyond Building Bridges
- Inquiry Anywhere
- Let's Go Outside!
- Low Floor, High Ceiling: Making Science Tasks More Spacious
- Talk, Write, Draw: Tools for Meaning Making in Science
- The ABCs of Hands-on, Minds-on Learning
- ... We also offer virtual coaching for small groups of teachers
In-person experiences for teachers
We can deliver one-day sessions or multi-day series focused on any of the following themes:
- NGSS: Introductory & Intermediate Workshops
- Making the Most of Science Notebooks
- Levels of Inquiry/Student Investigations
- Hands On, Minds On: Activity Before Content
- Exploring Phenomena: Using Science to Figure Things Out
- Science Discourse for the NGSS classroom
- Mindset Matters: Learning and the Brain
- Taking Your Teaching Outside:
- Let's Go Outside! (PreK-3+)
- Thriving California (grades 4-8)
- ...and more!
How much does this cost?
We may have access to funds that can offset the cost of custom PD for California-based schools, districts, and organizations. You can let us know via our contact form if that’s something you’re interested in!
Previous partnerships with schools, districts, universities, and county offices have ranged in cost from approximately $1K (e.g. delivering a 1.5-hour conference-style session) to $70K (e.g. year-long, multi-modal support for an entire district around implementing new NGSS-aligned curriculum).
The cost of the Academy's custom PD depends on the length of the partnership, scope of work, and how much customization is requested or required.
The Academy's Teacher Professional Development team looks forward to learning more about your context and needs in order to craft meaningful science support to fit your goals and budget.