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Robert N. Noyce Center for Learning

A Professional Home for Teachers at The Tech

Noyce Center For Learning In honor of the late Robert N. Noyce, co-founder of Intel, the Center for Learning supports K-12 education with outstanding professional development opportunities. The Center encourages innovation and experimentation, bringing the unique resources of The Tech to the essential effort to improve teaching and learning in science and mathematics and to promote the effective use of technology.

Like the galleries in The Tech, the Center for Learning strives to engage participants in the process of innovation. To accomplish this, the CFL employs a design-based, problem-solving approach. Through the CFL, teachers can gain hands-on experiences with science and technology, explore methods to bring real-world design-based problems into their classrooms, and share experiences and collaborations with other teachers and industry experts.

CFL Programs

Design Challenge Institutes for Teachers

Noyce Center For Learning The Center for Learning is building on the rich resources at The Tech and its past work with teachers to offer an exciting approach to improving the teaching and learning of science primarily for teachers of grades 4-8. The Summer Institutes help teachers learn to incorporate problem solving and design challenges into their science teaching.

Inspiring Teachers Workshops

Inspiring Teachers introduces teachers to the resources at The Tech as well as the programs offered by the Center for Learning. From scheduling field trips to building lesson plans around classroom visits, Inspiring Teachers helps participants make the most of the rich resources The Tech provides. Workshops are held the 4th Saturday of the month. They last from 8:45 a.m. to noon. Admission is free and participants are given a free one-year membership to The Tech, a 10% discount in the store, and continuing education credits. To learn more about these workshops, please email cfl@thetech.org.

Workshops on the 2002 calendar are: January 26, February 23, March 23, April 27 and May 25.

Educators' Nights

Noyce Center For Learning These special evening events are organized to give educators an opportunity to preview the latest IMAX attractions, learn more about upcoming programs at the museum, and explore the galleries. Refreshments are served and RSVP is required to attend. To receive email announcements about Educators' Nights, email cfl@thetech.org to have your name added to the list.

Tech Times for Teachers

Tech Times for Teachers is the Center for Learning's quarterly newsletter. It details the current events and programs being offered for educators at The Tech and each issue features a design challenge that teachers can use in their classrooms. If you do not receive it and would like to, please send an email to cfl@thetech.org.

Tech Topics

Tech Topics is an engaging online curriculum resource for students and teachers that encourages in-depth investigations of grades 4-8 science topics. Each Tech Topic begins by building a conceptual understanding of the topic-at-hand, and then allows for exploration of appropriate websites, hands-on activities, and real world applications to deepen students' understanding. Each topic concludes with a project or design challenge. Tech Topics are both aligned with the CA State frameworks and correlated to the galleries and exhibits at The Tech Museum of Innovation.

Resources for Museum Professionals Online (RMPO)

The Tech Museum of Innovation is committed to research and evaluation to determine audience and community learning needs and the effectiveness of our exhibits and programs in meeting those needs. Resources on this site include policies, standards, and guidelines; planning tools; commentary on Tech operations; and other information on Tech exhibits, programs, and operations.

Visit RMPO

Coming Soon

Tech Treks

The Tech Treks enhance learning during a visit to the museum. There is a Trek available for each of the four permanent galleries that poses thought provoking questions and help kids connect the exhibits to their own experiences. Each of the gallery-based Treks has a map of the exhibit highlights and is aimed at students in grades 4-8, but can be successfully used with older students as well. In addition to the gallery Treks, there are five thematic Treks. These Treks are incorporated into the Tech Topics, which are based on topics in the California Science Standards for grades 4-8. Tech Treks link the museum's exhibits to standards-based classroom teaching.

Online Collaboration

The Center for Learning is working to build an online community of teachers wherein they can discuss, compare, and share their ideas with other invested educators.

Educational Collaborations

The Center for Learning at The Tech is engaged in a number of collaborations with Bay Area educational research and service organizations. Inverness Research Associates, a consulting and evaluation group based in Inverness, CA, is conducting a three-year evaluation of the Center's professional development efforts. Led by Dr. Laura Stokes, a team of evaluators will be observing our institutes, interviewing teachers who participate, and surveying administrators to help us improve our offerings and maximize our impact on science teaching and learning in the Bay Area.

WestEd, a regional, not-for-profit educational research, development, and service organization, has been collaborating with Center staff to develop and deliver the Teaching Science as Innovation Institutes. WestEd, particularly the Technology in Education division, has been an invaluable resource to the CFL for curriculum, personnel, and contacts with other educators who are bringing design challenges to the science classroom.