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Program Director:
Dr. Joseph Robinson
Professor of Immunopharmacology and Biomedical Engineering
Purdue University West Lafayette, School of Veterinary Medicine
1203 W. State Street
West Lafayette, IN 47906
765/494-0757
wombat@purdue.edu
The links below describe the outcomes and challenges this grantee experienced and what resources they are willing to share.
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Rising Above the Gathering Storm: Energizing and Employing America for a Brighter Economic Future (COSEPUP, 2006) highlights the immediate need for proactive interventions to increase the number of students pursuing careers in the STEM disciplines. This project will develop scientifically accurate and pedagogically valid electronic field trips that will engage young students in science and demonstrate the relevance of science in the world around them. Through the electronic fieldtrip experience, students will relate to science through intrinsically exciting and age-appropriate presentations, better understand the role and relevance of science in society, increase their potential to function as scientifically literate citizens, and learn about career opportunities in science and the academic preparation pathways that lead to becoming a scientist.
A well-planned school field trip can have many benefits: positive gains in attitudes towards science, increased motivation for learning, acquisition of knowledge and skills; and optimal learning through greater variety of instructional strategies. However, only 10 percent of teachers conduct a field trip in a given year with most teachers bemoaning full schedules, lack of planning time, liability, lack of transportation and funding, geographic distance, and lack of assistance. For rural schools, these concerns are exacerbated by isolated locations and insufficient budgets. This project will address accessibility and relevance by targeting Indiana middle schools with a professional-quality series of comparative biology electronic field trips. Moreover, the electronic field trips will include topics and scientists selected to appeal to middle school-aged children and to reflect a gender, age, and racial diversity that will enable students to identify with the scientists and imagine themselves in that role.
Because middle school is a crucial time to engage students in science, electronic field trips developed through this project will target 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students. Via an electronic field trip, middle school students will have the opportunity to visit Purdue University, observe scientists in their laboratories, and interact with leading scientists in real time without leaving school grounds. We will pay special attention to selecting comparative biology topics, visuals, and scientists that appeal to a wide range of audiences, with a particular emphasis on helping girls and minorities to see science careers as both attainable and exciting. While these field trips will serve to enrich the content standards of the middle school curriculum, they will also support instruction of science process standards by allowing students a rare opportunity to see and interact with real scientists. We will further support participating teachers with teacher preparation sessions, materials, content, and curriculum.
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