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University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine
Award Year: 1994

Report Year:

Outcomes, Challenges, and Resources


Outcomes
  • Over the course of the entire grant period, HHMI funds have been integral to the SEP Summer Internship program that serves predominantly high school juniors, but also SFUSD secondary science teachers. Nominated by their science teachers, high school students are selected through a rigorous application and interview process for a internship in a UCSF biomedical research laboratory. Similarly, teachers are selected and placed in laboratories most closely related to their subject area and curriculum interests. Each SEP intern, whether a teacher or a student, had a day-to-day scientist mentor in the laboratory. Over the course of the funding period, the program expanded to include teacher interns annually, almost doubled the number of internships available to students each summer, and worked to promote greater student involvement from SFUSD high schools throughout the city.
  • In addition, HHMI funds have sustained and expanded the MedTeach / HealthTeach program, which partners teams of 3-5 volunteer UCSF medical and pharmacy students with sixth grade classes in San Francisco's public middle schools. Each MedTeach / HealthTeach team visits its assigned class several times a month over the course of an academic year, teaching lessons on human biology and health, topics that are the focus of the sixth grade curriculum. The UCSF students' lessons are closely aligned with their teacher partners' lesson plans, and the teams receive advice and feedback on their lessons from their partner and the SEP staff. Each team participates in an orientation, which includes topics about teaching and learning, the District's health and science education policies, and the individual school's population and atmosphere. Over the course of the funding period, HealthTeach was founded as a collaboration with the School of Pharmacy to build upon MedTeach activities, MedTeach and Health Teach teams increased their use of the SEP Resource Center, and the program worked to promote greater teacher involvement in the planning of MedTeach lessons.
  • The SEP Daly Ralston Resource Center has been physically renovated and the material collection of educational resources significantly expanded, transforming it into a comprehensive source of support for science teaching and learning for SFUSD K-12 teachers and students. In addition to the material expansion of the Resource Center, there was a concomitant expansion of informal professional development opportunities for teachers through the Resource Center and an increase in SEP staff time devoted to the development, maintenance, and staffing of the Center. The Daly Ralston Resource Center has grown to be the cornerstone of all SEP partnership activities, providing both material and intellectual support to SFUSD teachers and UCSF volunteers in developing and implementing hands-on science learning experiences for San Francisco's public school students.
Challenges
  • Scientists are often eager to participate in K-12 science education and volunteer in schools. The benefits of involving scientists in K-12 education are potentially enormous, resulting in role models for students, insight into the nature of science for teachers, and opportunities for authentic scientific inquiry for both. In addition, scientists themselves benefit from their involvement, learning to communicate science simply and developing their own teaching philosophy and methodology. However, scientists often lack an understanding of the culture of education, modern science pedagogy, and the basics of lesson planning. During the grant period, the UCSF Science & Health Education Partnership developed a short course to orient scientists to K-12 science education. This short-course, consisted of three, two-hour sessions, includes an introduction to topics such as classroom and materials management, student assessment, equitable teaching strategies, cognitive development, and cooperative learning. The course is designed to equip biomedical scientists with teaching strategies that will enable them to 1) Focus on the Concrete, 2) Involve All Students, 3) Get to Know Their Learners, 4) Consider All the Parts of a Lesson, and 5) Rely on the Expertise of Their Teacher Partner. Course pedagogy models teaching strategies and lesson structures appropriate for K-12 classrooms.
  • While programs such as SEP are more sustainable when they are supported by multiple funding sources, this approach continues to have drawbacks. The administrative burden of reporting, budget forecasting and reconciliation in a context of multiple reporting formats and overlapping fund years can take valuable resources away from program implementation. Further, and more importantly, funding agencies--from Federal to State to private--have varying agendas that may or may not be in concert with each other. These varying agendas, not only of funders, but also of other stakeholders, can be an impediment to a coherent and long-term vision and strategic plan.
  • We have nothing additional to report.
Resources
  • To find out more about the UCSF Science & Health Education Partnership, visit our website: www.ucsf.edu/sep.
  • The UCSF SEP will gladly share information about its Scientist Orientation Workshop Series to prepare science and health professional for partnerships with K-12 teachers and students.


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