RE-SEED (Retirees Enhancing Science Education through Experiments and Demonstrations) is a Northeastern University program that prepares engineers, scientists, and other individuals with science backgrounds to work as volunteers, providing in-classroom support to upper elementary and middle school science teachers with teaching the physical sciences.

After completing a comprehensive free training program, participants volunteer in middle school classrooms on the average once a week for at least one year. RE-SEED began in 1991 with six volunteers. To date close to 500 RE-SEED volunteers have worked in schools in about 100 communities throughout the country offering about 500,000 hours of their time.

Nationally, 75 percent of 7th and 8th grade students are taught physical science by teachers who do not have a major or a minor in the subject (The National Science Board, Science and Engineering Indicators 2000). RE-SEED volunteers possess talent and expertise that complement those of science teachers. They bring with them a wealth of knowledge and experience that allows them to make science interesting and relevant to everyday situations.

RE-SEED volunteers work closely with the host science teachers to help them enrich and implement their school curriculum. Overall the volunteers become involved members of their schools' and even their districts' teaching team, sometimes taking part in curriculum adoption decisions.

RE-SEED Fact Sheet

The Need

• Nationally, only 17% of middle school science teachers have a degree in science (Science and Engineering Indicators, 2000)

• In a low-income school, students have less than a 50% chance of being taught by a math or science teacher who has a degree and a license in that field. (Stanford University)

Program Components

• Recruits retired science and engineering professionals

• Provides rigorous 40-50 hour training to the volunteers

• Places trained science and engineering professionals in classrooms where they spend on the average, one day a week for at least one year full year

Program Features

• Activity/inquiry-based program that stresses critical thinking

• Focuses on the physical sciences 

• Integrates Mathematics and Science 

• Combines content with up-to-date pedagogy 

• Aligned with the Massachusetts Mathematics, Science & Technology Frameworks, the National Science Standards, and the MCAS test

Volunteer Contributions

• Increase students' interest in science

• Expand teachers understanding of the physical sciences

• Make science relevant to students by bringing real-life science into the classroom

• Increase students' and teachers' understanding of scientific principles and concepts

• Assist students with science projects and science fairs

• Make and bring science equipment to school

• Mentor students and act as role models

• Have given almost 500,000 hours of their time (cost < $6/hr)

Program Accomplishments

• Trained and placed close to 500 science and engineering professionals in classrooms 

• Impacted more than 100 school districts 

• Maintained an excellent retention rate (70% of participants volunteer for more than a year) 

• In other US states (ME, NH, RI, MD, CA, CO, AL, VA, SC)

• One of the two US science education programs chosen by Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering for implementation in Sweden

Please contact us by email at reseed@neu.edu or phone 888-742-2424 if you are interested in learning more about these training programs.