Summer Research Program for Science Educators

The goal of the program is to enhance student interest and success in the biologic sciences. In particular, the program targets under-privileged and minority student populations.

The program provides funding for the following:

• For teachers to participate in hands-on research in a laboratory at National Jewish Health for two consecutive summers ($5,000 stipend/summer)
• For teachers to buy supplies for their classrooms
• For teachers to attend the National Partners in Science Conference in January in San Diego

Time for pedagogic development and lesson planning to incorporate what you are learning in the laboratory is built into the 8-week program. In addition, there will be a lecture series on immunology. Finally, graduate students and post-doctoral fellows will be available to support you in the classroom during the school year.

The program is funded by an NIH grant that supports similar programs at Columbia University, Stanford University and the University of Texas Southwestern.

Program Calendar

Example Laboratory Exercise

 

Considerations for Participants

There are two important considerations for participating teachers:

• The commitment to work in the same lab for two summers (paid for both summers)

• The educator teaches at least one basic level biology course each year

We are very excited about this program and hope to create long-standing relationships that support science education in Denver.

 

Professional Development

The program includes one day a week during the summer for professional development. This includes lectures on immunology and microbiology, best practices in pedagogy, demonstrations of experiments that can be done in the classroom, development of an experiment based on the summer research and to be done in the classroom, and time for lesson planning.

 

Outreach

The program includes outreach to the classrooms/school of the teachers. Post-docs or graduate students will be paired with each teacher. The person will volunteer once a month in the teacher's classroom (talking about careers and personal journeys in science, lecturing on science, helping during lab experiments, etc.).

 

Career Days

For the program at National Jewish Health, we will have career days twice a year (Fall and Spring terms) hosted in Molly Blank on a weekend day. We have commitments of participation from everyone from food services to safety to bioengineering to nurses, MDs and PIs.

This year (2009), the teachers will attend the National Association of Biology Teachers meeting, here, in Denver.