SWEPTs. IISME's Summer Fellowship Program is
one of about 75 different Scientific Work Experience
Programs for Teachers (SWEPTs). Although independent of
one another, these programs all share the common aim of
providing hands-on immersion experiences to science,
math, and technology teachers in order to improve the
quality of education in those fields for all students.
In virtually all SWEPTs, teachers receive summer
fellowships in which they are paired with industry or
research-laboratory scientists and engineers, work in
their laboratories or offices, and earn between $400-750
a week. During their fellowships, participants in most
programs also develop a strategy or plan for transferring
their summer experience into updated and enriched
classroom instruction. Most SWEPTs offer teachers
year-round assistance in the form of workshops, training,
networking opportunities, etc., as they strive to make
this transfer.
The SWEPT Network. The group of
loosely-affiliated SWEPTs, which has no formal structure
or formal membership requirements, is referred to
informally as the www.SWEPT Network.
It has evolved over time since its beginning in the late
1980s, when funding from the NSF and the William Randolph
Hearst Foundation enabled the Triangle Coalition for
Science & Technology
Education{http://www.triangle-coalition.org/default.htm}
and IISME to work together to replicate IISME's Summer
Fellowship Program nationally.
Currently, IISME maintains an online directory, with
abundant information, for all known www.SWEPTs,
provides online advice on how to start a www.SWEPT,
and helps facilitate the SWEPT Network through
conferences, a newsletter, and a www.SWEPT
electronic mailing list. www.The
Triangle Coalition supports the SWEPT Network by
sponsoring conferences periodically and providing
consultants and seed funding to help initiate new SWEPTs.
