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Beyond the Classroom: Connecting Students to Real-World Scientific Research Video
This 10-minute video from the Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Center for Life Science Education, in conjunction with the School of Medicine, emphasizes the rewards of student research as it follows several high school students through the process of preparing and presenting their research projects at a statewide science competition. The students, who are participants in teacher Ryan Templeton’s high school class on scientific research, first had to obtain outside mentors. Students worked side by side with mentors who helped them learn the processes and practical skills of science—how to write a grant application, how to design and execute experiments, and how to present their research findings in papers and oral presentations. In interviews, the students, Templeton, and several judges at the statewide competition explain the value of learning science by doing it. They contend that research projects not only give students a clearer understanding of what scientific discovery is about, but they can also help students obtain college recommendations and summer jobs. The video is part of a larger public education campaign called “Secrets of the Sequence,” a series of more than 50 downloadable videos and accompanying lessons for science educators worldwide. The videos help teachers apply genetic research across the biology curriculum and create an avenue for students to learn from leading scientists and ethicists about the moral, ethical, and legal impacts of recent discoveries in the life sciences. A lesson plan for the “Beyond the Classroom” video (one of five videos being produced to explain concepts in systems biology) is under development.
Beyond the Classroom: Connecting Students to Real World Scientific Research
In this video that describes the value of research experiences for high school students, a student shows data from a research project she conducted in a mentor's lab.
Media: QuicktimeProgram Director: Jacqueline T. McDonnough, Ph.D.
Award Years: 2007
Summary: Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine is an academic medical center in Richmond, Virginia. Its HHMI-funded educational initiatives include:
- The development of five new science videos and accompanying classroom lessons as additions to its successful educational campaign, “Secrets of the Sequence,” an Internet video series that highlights scientific advances and helps teachers apply genetic research across the biology curriculum;
- The creation of week-long workshops to expand teachers’ knowledge in systems biology, family history and genetics, and research design. The workshops will enable teachers to develop strategies to help students understand fundamental processes of biological systems and design and conduct their own scientific investigations; and
- The development of science education programs for students in grades 4–12 in partnership with science teachers from four public school districts in Central Virginia. Many of the activities take place at Virginia Commonwealth University’s ecological field station on the James River and in research laboratories at its medical college.