Kirstin Blase, a high school chemistry teacher at Villa Duchesne, is among 13 teachers from across the St. Louis area selected for the 2025 Summer Teacher-Researcher Program at Washington University in St. Louis. The program is part of WashU’s Institute for School Partnership (ISP). The teachers spent up to six weeks gaining firsthand experience in research labs, with the opportunity to implement a lesson field test or pilot in their classrooms during the 2025-2026 academic year. The lessons and labs will become open source at the end of the school year, available to educators nationwide. Ten WashU faculty members from the McKelvey School of Engineering and WashU’s Arts and Sciences participated in the program, including Bryce Sadtler, PhD, associate professor of chemistry. Blase spent weeks observing cutting-edge scientific research by the Sadtler research group. Sadtler guided Blase through discussions about a lesson plan she created for high school chemistry students.