This summer, CERN welcomed the 10,000th teacher to participate in one of its teacher programmes!

This milestone was achieved in this year’s International High School Teacher (HST) programme, a three-week residential programme that saw 48 enthusiastic teachers flock from all over the world to help inspire young minds.

Taking place every July since 1998, the HST programme aims to increase teachers’ knowledge of the cutting-edge particle physics research currently being carried out at CERN. It also opens up a whole new world of educational resources available for use by the teachers to inspire their students’ curious, young minds.

Delivered entirely in English, HST 2016 was packed full of exciting opportunities in addition to attending lectures, such as visiting CERN’s facilities and presenting a group report on the integration of particle physics into the classroom. Moreover, the variety of social events offered, such as a bowling trip, also provided a fantastic opportunity for teachers of different nationalities to network and build bonds.

“An excellent programme, wonderful people who are now friends,” says a teacher at HST 2016. “I learnt a lot that I am eager to convey and motivate my students with!”

HST is just one of many teacher programmes at CERN: there are also one-week National Teacher Programmes offered in different languages. In 2015, for instance, CERN welcomed 1067 teachers to 37 sessions delivered in 21 languages. The philosophy is the same as that of the HST programme: inspire teachers by showing and explaining the science in the making.

”CERN teacher programmes, especially our flagship HST programme, are great tools to communicate science together with its open spirit” comments Sascha Schmeling, Head of CERN Teacher Programmes and Education Research.  “It also serves the cause of educating people around the world about the scientific achievements of humanity. I am grateful to have the best team to run this programme and I am looking forward to developing it further!”

CERN will further enlarge its teacher courses with the International Teacher Weeks (ITW) Programme, a two-week residential programme that will take place for the first time next year.

Applications for international teacher programmes in 2017 will be open from 1 November 2016 to all teachers with a passion for inspiring the next generation of budding physicists and engineers.