HOUSTON -- Some Texas teachers are spending part of their summer in the classroom at the University of Texas Health Science Center. But the tables are turned -- this time they are the students learning from the experts, KPRC Local 2, Your Education Station, reported Wednesday.

The goal of the Health Education and Science Discovery program, also known as Heads Up, is to improve science education and create future scientists.

Science teachers from across Texas are learning everything from hands-on experience in a surgical lab to lectures about diabetes and genetics.

"This reinvigorates me. It refreshes me. It brings me up to date," said Della Sue Webb, from Hamilton Middle School.

Webb said she is determined to become a better role model in the classroom.

"We need to get the kids into science. The whole world around them is science," Webb said.

The program includes video lessons so teachers can expose their students to top science researchers and physicians.

"We see students in the classroom watching these videos and they go, 'I can do that. I can be like him because he looks like me,'" said Nancy Murray, with the UT Health Science Center at Houston.

After three days of learning at the medical school, the teachers take the information back to their school districts to share with other teachers and their students.

Teachers said that by helping students embrace science, it opens up their minds to a world of new opportunities.

"I think most of them think they can't do it -- that it's for nerds or for geeks, and they don't realize it's for everyday people, and that it can be a lot of fun, and that it is our future," said Marguerite Bagwell, an Alvin ISD health occupation science teacher.