Peabody Fellows at the Yale Peabody Museum

The Peabody Fellows programs are the Museum’s flagship series of in-depth professional development opportunities for K-12 teachers. The very first Peabody Fellows program was launched in 1997 as a science literacy initiative for elementary school teachers, students and their families. Since then it has expanded to serve middle and high school teachers as well, and to address a wide range of science and social studies topics closely aligned with Connecticut State Standards.

Follow these links to our Peabody Fellows pages:

• Climate Change and Vector-Borne Disease

• Samurai and the Culture of Japan's Great Peace

• Teachers Collaborative on Global Change

• Indigenous Peoples of the Americas

• Astronomy

• Earth Sciences

• Event-Based Teachers Collaborative

• Past Peabody Fellows programs

Peabody Fellows Underlying Principles

Peabody Fellows programs are built around three primary goals:

• To build teacher capacity for bringing current research and accurate science and social studies content into classrooms in an engaging, inquiry-based style.
• To develop innovative standards-based curriculum resources that use museum collections to investigate science and social studies content.
• To increase student understanding of science and social studies content and their practical application of science process skills.

Teachers begin their experience as a Fellow by taking part in a 3- or 5-day summer institute that includes curriculum writing or refinement, hearing about current research from experts in the field, and learning how to teach with real museum objects and specimens. Fellows agree to teach the curriculum unit in their classroom and administer short assessments before and after. In addition to the free summer institute and curriculum, most Peabody Fellows programs also offer a stipend, CEUs, a free class visit to the Museum, a one-year family membership, and other benefits.

Vital Statistics, Fall 2013

• 17 years of Peabody Fellows teacher professional development
• 620+ teachers are Peabody Fellows, having completed one or more programs
• 41,000+ students have benefited from program curricula and innovative teaching methods

CLICK HERE to see a summary of student learning outcomes since 2008!

See what other teachers are saying!

“I can’t wait to teach my students and other teachers what I have learned!”

 “The lessons were highly engaging and real world learning for my students. It was truly a wonderful experience for me and for the classes.”

“It was amazing being in the field with experts. It will really help build my content knowledge.”

“The institute and curriculum address so much of what and how I need to teach science.”

“Learning from primary sources and sharing ideas with other teachers has been invaluable.”

“This has been such a wonderful experience for me and my students!”

Peabody Fellows programs have been generously supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Science Foundation (NSF), the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, Yale's Council on East Asian Studies, and The Bay and Paul Foundations.