09/10/2026
This summer, 44 New Jersey educators came to Princeton University to be students at the 2026 QUEST Summer Institutes hosted by TeacherPrep. “QUEST reminds teachers that science is a way of learning about the world through curiosity, observation, evidence, and discovery,” says Dr. Jessica Monaghan.
Each week of QUEST engaged local K-12 teachers in exploring a unique series of phenomena and cutting edge science taught by collaborative teams of faculty, researchers, post-docs, graduate students, and local educators. Teachers learned about light-matter interactions, quantum science, invisible and visible mechanisms in biology, field work that guides biological inquiry, structuring data and using LLMs to support big image data set analysis, and the role of groundwater- past, present, and future.
Thank you to the dynamic teams that developed and facilitated the QUEST summer institutes in alignment with the NGSS!
Dr. Janine Nunes, Director, Education Outreach, PCCM, Dr. Erin Sohr, Assistant Director for Education, UMD; Quantum4ALL Team; and lead teacher Barbara Fortunato, WWPRSD
Jonathan Conway, Assistant Professor of CBE; postdoctoral researcher Samuel Eastman; Graduate students Emily Singer, Snigdha Jagarlapudi, Adham Ali, Keziah Chang, Matteo Couto Frignani, Kathryn Jans, Aileen K. of the Omenn-Darling Bioengineering Institute; and lead learner, Heidi Wachtin, WWPRSD.
Daniel Rubenstein, Class of 1877 Professor of Zoology Emeritus, EEB; Prof. Leanna House, Associate Professor of Statistics, VT; Scott Collenburg, Senior Fisheries Biologist, New Jersey DEP Fish and Wildlife, Bureau of Freshwater Fisheries; and lead teachers, Helen Corvelyn, HVRSD, & Wahab Ashraf, NPS.
Reed Maxwell, William and Edna Macaleer Professor of Engineering and Applied Science, Professor of CEE and HMEI, Director of Integrated Groundwater Modeling Center; Dr. Lisa Gallagher, Education and Outreach Specialist; Graduate student, Nick Jadallah; Jasmine Pinchinat, Community Organizer; and lead learner, Heidi Wachtin, WWPRSD.
