• Curriculum Development In the year 2000, in place of a new cohort, we convened 10 SEP veteran teachers plus 8 MCB graduate students, SEP and HutchLab staff, and a facilitator to design 2 curriculum units reflecting new understandings about teaching and learning. The work drew on the Understanding by Design (Wiggins and McTighe) approach as well as the 5Es (BSCS and others), problem based learning (Torp and Sage), and the 4MAT (Bernice McCarthy) constructs. Although the cancer theme had problems that have slowed its development, the Elephant Project has really flourished. This biodiversity curriculum incorporates the techniques and equipment of our existing electrophoresis kits into a context that strongly engages students. The premise draws from active investigations by Sam Wasser, Kenine Comstock, et al., and introduces a challenging and very real set of issues as well as the science that can help to inform social and political decisions on the issues. After two years of field-testing and revisions, the Elephant Project debuted this past year to SEP teachers and will be presented at NABT, October, 2003. We plan to have the curriculum available on our web site by January.
• Participation This year SEP welcomed 24 new participating teachers (including 2 from Singapore) as well as a corresponding number of volunteer mentor scientists. Partner sites included the UW Genome Sciences Department, the Molecular and Cellular Biology Graduate Program (MCB: UW & FHCRC), Seattle Biomedical Research Institute (SBRI), Amgen/Immunex, and ZymoGenetics, plus a newcomer: Pacific Northwest Research Institute (PNRI). During the 4-year grant period, 3 new cohorts comprising 77 teachers became new partners in SEP. Ten SEP veteran teachers, 8 MCB graduate students, and SEP staff worked on curriculum development teams. Eleven teachers served as Lead Teachers one or more years. Six teachers from Singapore and 2 from Texas joined us during Summer Sessions. Thirty-seven MCB students served as mentor scientists and gained experience and training in effective communication and science teaching.
• Staff Development Program staff sought effective mechanisms to develop our own professional competence and to foster greater awareness of our program?s contributions to the educational community, to the effectiveness of scientists in communicating science, and to the mission of our institution. Deanna Stelling focused on training for database design and effective work practices. Mary Vail and HutchLab science education postdoctoral fellow Wendy Law attended the HHMI-funded curriculum design workshop at the Genetic Science Learning Center. Nancy Hutchison and Wendy Law participated in two regional training workshops focused on designing effective professional development and reflective practice. Hutchison and Law also developed an ongoing ad hoc committee on minority scientist recruiting and retention that draws membership from across the Hutchinson Center as well as including colleagues at the UW. The group develops strategies to increase diversity and foster participation in the educational pipeline from secondary school science, college, graduate and postdoctoral, through faculty levels. Members build cross program awareness of effective practices and opportunities to connect with minority students and institutions.

• Changing world contexts: The last two years have been extremely challenging times socially, politically, and financially, from the international to the local level. As a result, we are seeing several trends and new pressures on teachers. One example is that many teachers we spoke with were taking this last summer as a time of personal use rather than using it for professional growth. Many schools were laying off teachers, and the public?s general ambiguity about the future seemed to reduce people?s interest in making commitments. Overall, applicant numbers were down, reflecting the ?nesting? or personal focus mentioned. SEP received only 25 applications instead of the typical 35-50 of prior years. In checking with other science education programs, this feeling seemed to be a trend; many experienced reduced numbers of applicants, prompting them to extend deadlines, in some cases multiple times. An interesting exception, however, came from those who are new teachers; new credentialing rules in this state put pressure on novice teachers to collect credits and clock hours. Given that the limited teaching experience of novices puts them mentally in a different stage of profession growth relative to teachers with even just 3-5 years experience, we observed that having 8 first year teachers in the 2003 cohort changed the dynamics and interactions of our sessions. If this trend continues, we believe a program redesign would be needed. We are considering giving preference to teachers with more than 2 years teaching experience. (topic thread continues in 6D2.)
• (topic thread continues from 6D1 above) Budget reductions also forced the closure of our state?s central information source on professional development opportunities for teachers (The Math & Science Course Bulletin, which had been funded by Eisenhower dollars). Obviously some of these circumstances are well beyond our control, but we have identified some avenues. We learned that search engines are not picking up our program web site within the top search results. So, we will work on new tags to address this. Given that the NABT annual conference is in the Northwest this year, we will be able to reach a large audience of potential applicants for SEP. It will also allow us to ask teachers attending about their needs and the mental ?climate.? We could consider extending the geographical area that we serve, although that option has its own challenges.
• Trends and observations. The technology era has fueled an emphasis on counting going under the guise of accountability and measurable results. It?s clear that software is still woefully inadequate in capturing many things that matter. Binary systems only understand 0 and 1; they have no capacity for subtlety, nuance, ambiguity, and diversity. They force us to choose a bin or label?to attach a static value to an individual?s learning and developmental capacity. While I recognize that governments, businesses, and funders have to find ways to allocate limited resources, in my opinion, the present heavy emphasis on what can be counted limits our willingness to take risks, to innovate, to challenge individuals to go in new directions, and to grow and learn.

• Cell Biology Education is an online, quarterly journal owned and published by the American Society for Cell Biology. The Journal publishes peer-reviewed articles on life science education at the K-12, undergraduate and graduate levels. The American Society for Cell Biology believes that learning in biology encompasses diverse fields, including math, chemistry, physics, engineering, computer science, and the interdisciplinary intersections of biology with these fields. Within biology, CBE is particularly interested in how students are introduced to the study of life sciences, as well as approaches in cell biology, developmental biology, neuroscience, biochemistry, molecular biology, genetics, genomics, bioinformatics, and proteomics. The age level of the target audience may be K-12, community college, comprehensive college or university students, graduate students, postdocs, or teacher training at any level. E-mail notification for access to the table of contents for new issues is available. http://www.cellbioed.org/
• The Adaptive School: Developing and Facilitating Collaborative Groups Authors: Bruce M. Wellman , Robert J. Garmston March, 1999 ISBN: 0926842919 Christopher-Gordon Publishers Hardcover $56.95 This guidebook provides skills, tools, and guidance for effective group work, particulary in the context of schools. Topics include Getting Work Done, Doing the Right Work, Working Collaboratively, Managing Systems, Developing Groups, and Adapting to Change.
• Designing Professional Development for Teachers of Science and Mathematics (SECOND edition) by Susan Loucks-Horsley, Nancy Love, Katherine Stiles, Susan Mundry, and Peter Hewson. 2003 Corwin Press ISBN 0-7619-4686-1 This new second edition updates the 1998 classic for science and math teacher professional development designers and facilitators.

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