SciTrek Secondary Sign-Up Information

Thank you for your interest in bringing SciTrek Secondary to your classroom! We are currently booking for the 2026–2027 academic year.

SciTrek offers programs for both middle school and high school classrooms. Please use the appropriate form below to submit a module request. A SciTrek staff member will be in touch to confirm your booking.

Middle School Module Request Form: Submit a Middle School Module Request

High School Module Request Form: Submit a High School Module Request

SciTrek brings immersive, interactive science experiences—SciTrek Modules—to middle and high school classrooms in Santa Barbara and Goleta. SciTrek is free to participating schools and students, and stipends are provided for participating teachers. Our programs are designed and overseen by PhD-level staff and UCSB faculty and facilitated by trained UCSB undergraduate mentors.

A SciTrek Module engages students in authentic scientific inquiry and guides them through observations, experimental investigation, data collection and analysis, and evidence-based reasoning. Working in small groups with UCSB mentors, students develop critical-thinking, problem-solving, and scientific communication skills while exploring real-world scientific questions.

Our middle school modules are hands-on, five-day experiences aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Current topics include wave physics, cell respiration, germ growth and inhibition, and conservation of mass in chemical reactions.

Our high school modules extend the SciTrek model to more advanced scientific and biomedical topics. Current high school modules include CRISPR gene editing, glucose sensing, thermodynamics and bioinformatics. Through laboratory-based and computational activities, students gain experience with contemporary scientific approaches while strengthening their skills in experimental design, data analysis, interpretation, and scientific reasoning.

Teacher Collaboration & Commitment

Teachers play a key role in SciTrek Modules, serving as expert leads while undergraduate mentors facilitate small-group learning. Each group of 3-6 students takes ownership of their investigation, while undergraduate mentors inspire engagement by modeling scientific curiosity, commitment to learning, and the pathway to higher education at a leading research university.

SciTrek provides:
✔ Training, support, and a stipend for participating teachers.
✔ In-class mentorship from UCSB undergraduates.
✔ Fully NGSS-aligned, hands-on science programming.

Teacher commitments include:

  • Attending brief preparatory meetings (~30 minutes, held over Zoom) and engaging in pre-module communication to ensure smooth implementation.
  • Participating in a ~1-hour teacher orientation led by a SciTrek staff member at your school to review module content and activities.
  • Middle School: Teaching and overseeing module-specific activities on Days 1, 3, and 5, when undergraduate mentors are not present, and providing active classroom leadership and management on Days 2 and 4, when SciTrek mentors are in the classroom.
  • High School: Providing active classroom leadership and management throughout the five-day module, with SciTrek mentors facilitating module activities each day.
  • Assisting with data collection on student attitudes and learning to help improve our programming.

Contact Us

For questions or more information about booking for the 2025-26 academic year, please contact the SciTrek Secondary Program Manager at chem-scitrekmanager@ucsb.edu.

If you are interested in SciTrek's Elementary Program (grades 2-6), please email scitrekelementary@chem.ucsb.edu for more details and signups.

We look forward to working with you!