"Ultimately, it was frustrating," says Short, who teaches at Harborfield High School. "As a teacher, you're always at the mercy of what your district and school will do. Even though administrators, parents, and everybody might want the kids to do the kinds of projects that lead to a Westinghouse [Science Talent Search award]--and even when a teacher has gotten good ideas and made contacts that would really help--you can't do it if your schedule doesn't make time for it in the school day or beyond, and if there aren't money and facilities."
Teacher training programs at the Department of Energy's national laboratories, like the one Short attended in the mid-1980s, are hardly new. The one at Brookhaven Lab, in Upton, N.Y., is part of a program begun in 1958 that brings local high school mathematics and science teachers together with laboratory scientists for a one-, two-, or three-semester course during ...
