Fellowships
The heart of the Wright Center is the fellowship program. Each year, some of the best and brightest teachers of science and mathematics are chosen, through open competition, to spend a full-year sabbatical at Tufts. These are "master teachers" who have demonstrated outstanding expertise and commitment to science teaching at the elementary or secondary-school level. Here, the Fellows develop further their creative and novel educational products, curricula, and activities, thereby enriching not only their own careers but also sharing their innovations with other teachers.
Full-year Fellowship
The cadre of Wright Fellows in residence currently numbers a half-dozen, forming a critical mass of teacher talent ideal for the Wright Center. Fellows have previously come from twenty-two of the United States, as well from school systems in Europe. Each Fellow benefits from a year of residence within a fast-paced university environment, and each gives much back to other pre-college teachers who attend workshops and seminars on such diverse topics as biology and ethics, satellite imaging in the classroom, environmental marine studies, space science and aerospace engineering, art and science, as well as use of the internet and world wide web in the classroom.
The major activity of the Fellows will be to develop further their innovative approach to science and science teaching and to disseminate their expertise to other teachers. To that end, Fellows will have the opportunity to audit courses offered by the Arts and Sciences faculty in mathematics, natural science, and engineering as well as related areas such as history and philosophy of science. They will be introduced to the work of the Tufts Center for Science and Mathematics Teaching, the Teacher Resource Room, and the Science Visualization Laboratory. The Fellows will be encouraged to participate in the many collaborative programs of the Wright Center, including associations with the Boston Museum of Science, the Massachusetts Space Grant Consortium at MIT, the Science and Technology Center, Tufts' Department of Education, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study, Smithsonian and NASA, and the Foundation for the Future. Most Fellows lead seminars and conduct workshops describing the innovative curricula they have developed; each Fellow has a functional duty at the Center, amounting to about 20% of their time, well matched to the Fellows' interests. Successful applicants need to provide their own housing in the Boston area.