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Program Director:
Dr. Robert Tombes
Professor
National Academy of Sciences
Department of Biology
1000 W. Cary St.
Richmond, VA 23284-2012
8048273519
rtombes@vcu.edu
The links below describe the outcomes and challenges this grantee experienced and what resources they are willing to share.
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Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) will develop programs to increase math and science literacy for students in Central Virginia, to enhance research and life sciences knowledge for K-12 science teachers, and expand Internet-based life sciences videos and lessons for a national classroom audience. All three initiatives will expose students and teachers to the developing concepts of Systems Biology, which are being incorporated into VCU's undergraduate and graduate instruction as well as its research units. VCU is building a pipeline of students from all backgrounds who are prepared to enter science and health careers.
The VCU School of Medicine will work with the VCU Center for Life Sciences Education to deliver year-round programs for students and teachers in four local school districts. Two programs will be developed for local students (4-12) and in partnership with the science teachers in each public school district. Many of the planned activities will take place at the Rice Center, VCU's 343-acre ecological field station on the James River, and in research labs on the Medical College of Virginia and Monroe Park Campuses in Richmond. The students will be supported by VCU undergraduates who are themselves participants in a unique science careers mentoring program and who also come from disadvantaged backgrounds. Participating teachers will be partnered with graduate students and post docs, as well as interested members of VCU's Retired Faculty Council.
VCU will also develop week-long workshops to expand teachers' knowledge in systems biology, family history/genetics, and research design. VCU has a track record in delivering teacher education with participating faculty from its School of Education, College of Humanities and Sciences, and School of Medicine. The programs will help teachers develop the knowledge and pedagogical strategies to facilitate student understanding of fundamental processes of biological systems and to assist their students in designing and conducting their own scientific inquiries. Five years ago, VCU initiated a successful public education campaign called the Secrets of the Sequence in partnership with five research universities, the National Academies of Science and corporate partners. The downloadable videos and accompanying lessons are available at no cost to science educators worldwide from the VCU website. To date, more than 62,000 copies of the videos have been downloaded from the Secrets of the Sequence website, which receives thousands of visits per month. With support from HHMI, VCU will create five new videos/lessons on topics related to systems biology and scientific advances directly relevant to student science literacy and state standards.
Through student programs that are steeped in inquiry-based learning, science teacher training that is strongly supported within our research environment, and curricular development that is effectively disseminated, VCU School of Medicine and VCU Life Sciences will enhance our role as a community partner. Evaluation will be managed through the Office of the Associate Vice Provost for Institutional Effectiveness and will specifically collect and analyze quantitative and qualitative data on student achievement over a period of time in the program, teacher retention and evaluation, and curricula testing and measurement for Secrets of the Sequence videos.
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