Science Teacher Workshop: More Information

VA-ANS's Science Teacher Workshop is a bi-annual event. The next workshop is planned for July 2026.

2026 VA-ANS Science Teacher Workshop

VCU's Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering and the Virginia Section of the American Nuclear Society (VA-ANS), invite you to attend this year's Nuclear Science Workshop! This workshop will have a hybrid format, with a 2-day in-person program on July 16-17th.

Middle and high school science teachers are invited to obtain four Continuing Education Credits through two days in person of labs, hands-on activities and tours in an immersive all-inclusive workshop that will provide educators with the opportunity to sharpen their knowledge and understanding of nuclear energy and radiation, enabling them to provide their students with factual and up-to-date information about nuclear science and technology. Prior to the two days in person, lectures on nuclear technology will be made available for teachers to watch at their convenience prior to the in-person portion.

The 2026 workshop will be hosted by the VCU School of Engineering in Richmond and will feature tours of North Anna Nuclear Power Station, as well as VCU's campus and facilities. Participants will see numerous laboratories and hands-on activities, full of ideas to implement in the classroom.

The $95 registration fee includes accommodations at a hotel near the VCU campus, all meals, all tours, four Continuing Education Credits, and all educational materials.

Instructors and lecturers are experts in the fields they are to present and will be discussing topics including nuclear energy and technology, nuclear power plant basics and safety, functionality and use of Geiger-Muller counters, and basic information on, biological effects of, and beneficial uses of radiation. The goal of this workshop is to provide educators with the opportunity to sharpen their knowledge and understanding of nuclear energy and radiation, enabling them to provide their students with factual and up-to-date information about nuclear science and technology.

This year the workshop lectures on varying nuclear topics will be filmed and available for the teachers to watch prior to the workshop. Teachers will then attend the workshop for two days. The two in-person days of the workshop will include group activities and in-person tours.

Our program has also been featured on NPR's "Science Matters".

The American Nuclear Society (ANS) has added high school curriculum to Navigating Nuclear: Energizing Our World^TM, which is now available to educators. Navigating Nuclear is a nuclear science educational program that launched in 2018 beginning with middle school resources and was created by the ANS Center for Nuclear Science and Technology Information in conjunction with Discovery Education^TM. It is the first widely available program of its kind in the country. The high school curriculum is funded by and developed in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Nuclear Energy, as is the elementary school curriculum to be launched in 2020.