In a scholarship program created to recruit and better prepare secondary physical science teachers, undergraduate physics majors had an opportunity to participate in an innovative classroom-based field experience. These field experiences took place in the unique classroom contexts of two STEM-focused academies within traditional public K-12 schools. In this exploratory case study, I examined the opportunities the undergraduates had to observe and participate in high-leverage science teaching practices (HLPs) during the field experience. I also examined the HLPs the undergraduates attended to in their discussions of effective science teaching before and after the experience. The types of HLPs the undergraduates had opportunities to observe and/or participate in during the experience were consistent across the two academy contexts. In particular, undergraduates were most often exposed to the HLP of facilitating classroom talk. Further, undergraduates tended to add HLPs to their visions of effective science teaching after participating. This study provides evidence that STEM academy classrooms as sites for early field experiences can expose potential physics teachers to reform-based teaching.