The perseverance required to troubleshoot the scientific experiment was something Estevez said she will take back to her classroom in Tolland this year.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cHaving failed day after day and struggled through that, I think it puts me on better ground with the kids to understand when they\u2019re struggling and what that\u2019s like,\u201d said Estevez, one of more than a dozen local teachers in UConn\u2019s summer research program.<\/span><\/p>\n The <\/span>Joule Fellows Program<\/span><\/a>, a six-week experience funded by the National Science Foundation, enables STEM teachers from secondary schools and community colleges to work in a university laboratory on an existing research project. <\/span>The fellows worked in teams with a faculty member and a graduate or undergraduate student buddy on an existing research project.<\/span><\/p>\n To help translate the lessons learned in the lab to their classrooms, the fellows participated in the <\/span>DaVinci Project<\/span><\/a>, which incorporates engineering into math, science and technology courses. The DaVinci Project offers information about the wide variety of engineering disciplines and opportunities available to their students.<\/span><\/p>\n There were also networking events as a part of the program.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe want you to create a network for each other, so that you can help each other,\u201d said Aida Ghiaei, program manager and organizer of the fellows program. One aspect of the networking opportunities included weekly lunches where the current fellows could meet together along with faculty, past participants and other engineering personnel.<\/span><\/p>\n Katherine Nuzzo, who was a previous Joule Fellow, said that the experience and connections gained during the fellowship was a vital resource to her curriculum.<\/span><\/p>\n![\"2016](\"http:\/\/d45h139.public.uconn.edu\/sites\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016-Group-300x190.jpg\")