Programs for High School Teachers

Campus Walking Tours

The Stanford Visitor Center offers a range of no-cost tours, exploring the highlights of Stanford’s beautiful campus.

ChemEx2 (Chemistry Experiences and Experiments for Learning)

 Chemistry Experiences and Experiments for Learning (ChemEx2) supports student-centered chemistry instruction that uses hands-on experiences to promote curiosity and the ability to make evidence-based claims. In ChemEx2, teachers are introduced to multi-faceted chemical phenomena and empowered to create targeted learning experiences that are adapted to their students. We seek to build a community of reflective practitioners who transform the way chemistry is experienced by students.

CSET Professional Learning for Teachers

The Center for Supporting Excellence in Teaching (CSET) offers short courses focused on the development of effective instructional practices for a variety of content areas and grade levels. Dates and topics vary but many courses are focused on STEM. See especially their Content Deepening Courses  and Professional Learning Design Labs.

Design Thinking Workshops for Educators

The Stanford School of Design (d.School) K12 Lab Network offers various workshops for K-12 teachers and administrators, including Discover Design Thinking and Project Wayfinder Educator Training.

Field Trips to a Haptics and Robotics in Medicine Lab

The Collaborative Haptics & Robotics in Medicine (CHARM) Lab offers field trips and demos/presentations about haptics (i.e., the sense of touch) in local K-12 classrooms and on campus. The CHARM Lab creates robots and human-computer interfaces that use haptics in order to improve human health, safety, and quality of life. The word haptics refers to the sense of touch.  There is no cost but the schedule fills up quickly.

Inspiring Future Scientists: K-12 Science Classroom Visits

This program arranges classroom visits by Chemistry graduate students to local high school and K-5 classrooms. Stanford undergraduate and graduate researchers give hour-long science lessons showcasing various scientific principles. The demonstrations will be hands-on, and the students will be actively engaged with questions posed throughout the lesson.

Intrologic Summer Sessions for High School Teachers

Stanford has developed an innovative approach to teaching introductory logic. Based on "Herbrand" semantics, Intrologic is a curriculum that can be taught as a stand-alone course or embedded in a course suitable for grades 9-12. The course addresses data and analysis & algorithms and programming concepts in the CSTA Teaching Framework.  This curriculum has been approved for "g' credit in California Schools.  Scholarships are available. For more information, see intrologic.stanford.edu .

MRS Outreach Ambassadors

MRS Outreach Ambassadors are graduate students in the Stanford Chapter of the Materials Research Society who offer in-class demonstrations and lectures on the materials of our world, materials of the future, and careers in science and engineering. Teachers may request a school visit at no charge.

Project Motivation Campus Visits

Project Motivation, affectionately known as ProMo, is a student group dedicated to promoting higher education to minority youths through on-campus visits and tours. Project Motivation helps K-12 students tour part of campus, see a dorm room, hear college stories from undergraduates and get the scoop about college life. There is no charge for these visits.

Science Teaching Through Art (STAR) School Visits

Teachers can arrange for a visit to their local high school by Stanford researchers participating in the Science Teaching through Art (STAR) program. STAR encourages the intersection of art and science by using art and visual aids in communicating research to a general audience. There is no charge for these visits.

Stanford Optical Society

The Stanford Optical Society are graduate students that offer teacher training events, hands-on interactive booths for thousands of public visitors, and the development of demonstrations/optics curricula for K-12 students. Their strong base of volunteers are committed to teaching and getting students of all ages excited about light!

Please get in touch if you're interested in having the Stanford Optical Society demonstrate optics or otherwise planning events with them, email optical-society@stanford.edu

Stanford Science Penpals

Stanford Science Penpals connects 6th-12th graders across the U.S. to Stanford scientists. The goal is to expose kids to diverse scientific careers, answer science questions, and share a love of science! Penpal exchanges start in September and end in June. We encourage students to get in touch with us.

Stanford Youth Diabetes Coaches Program (SYDCP)

The Stanford Youth Diabetes Coaches Program (SYDCP) is a validated “train the trainer program” in which health care professionals and trainees teach healthy high school students (grades 9-12) from underserved schools to coach family members with chronic health conditions.  High schools, often through their CTE coordinators, host the program in collaboration with health care training programs such as family medicine residency programs located in their communities. The program takes place once a week for an hour, over a period of 8 weeks.  The curriculum is based on Kate Lorig’s Adult Chronic Disease Self-Management Model, Social Cognitive Theory, and peer health coaching, and is designed to address the burden of chronic disease in underserved communities by focusing on health knowledge, communication skills, goal setting, problem solving, and healthy behaviors. The SYDCP has been implemented widely over the past twelve years as an in-person program in 12 US states and in Canada. The SYDCP was recently adapted for remote implementation(via Zoom) during the pandemic and implemented successfully as a remote outreach program.  The program's positive impact has been documented in a number of peer-reviewed publications.  

Summer Research Program for Teachers & Teaching Engineering & Design Innovation (TEDI)

Stanford’s Summer Research Program for Teachers (SRPT) and the Teaching Engineering & Design Innovation (TEDI) program offers eight-week research fellowships for teachers of middle school and high school who teach in the San Francisco Bay Area. Teachers work in a Stanford lab four days a week, and meet once a week as a group for science and engineering lectures by Stanford faculty, lab tours, and seminars on teaching. The purpose of this program is to re-energize teachers; expose them to a broad array of scientific fields; give them in-depth, hands-on research experience; and send them back to their classes filled with more confidence, enthusiasm and increased knowledge about the world of science and engineering research and its applications.

Teachers receive a stipend of $9,000 for the summer and into the school year and they are eligible for five units of Stanford Continuing Studies credits. This is an intensive program that requires participants to be on campus 40 hours per week. Program dates are not very flexible. Teachers apply via our nonprofit partner Ignited. Information and application can be found here.

Visit Stanford Anatomy With Your High School Class

Stanford's Clinical Anatomy invites high school teachers to bring their students to visit the labs and facilities. Through customizable programs, instructors help students discover, learn, and apply human anatomy in a professional context by introducing students to many of the same learning resources used by Stanford medical students.