Announcements | News | Essays | Interviews

Upcoming Events (11/20/2009 - 01/21/2010):

Announcements

2009 HUES Summer Institute kicks off August 16th

Once again, as new students converge on campus for freshman orientation, the Center for Science Education's HUES Summer Institute is giving underrepresented science majors a head start toward success at Emory. The institute, which begins on Sunday and ends with a Barbecue social on August, 21st, aims to introduce incoming students to the college experience, while assisting with the development of a personal action plan for success at Emory. Workshops and seminars help to familiarize students with the teaching styles and demands of freshman science courses, as well as other core concepts. In addition, each student is paired with a faculty mentor during the summer program. Mentors and students meet regularly throughout the academic year.

For more information about the HUES Summer Institute or the ongoing HUES (Hughes Undergraduates Excelling in Science) program, contact Ms. Andrea Neal, 404.727.0954. Opportunities are available for both students and mentors.

 

CSE Presents "Blazing Trails: A Discussion with Marshalyn Yeargin-Allsopp, MD."

On February 4th, 2009, at 6:30 p.m., Emory University, White Hall, Room 207. Emory School of Medicine's first female African American enrollee , Marshalyn Yeargen-Allsopop, MD. will share her unique story. Today Dr. Yeargin-Allsopp is a leader in developmental disabilities research at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Learn more about Dr. Yeargin-Allsopp here Limited seating. No tickets required.

 

CSE Director recognized for excellence in mentoring

On March 29, 2007, Emory University's Office of Multicultural Programs and Services hosted its annual Delores P. Aldridge Excellence Awards banquet. Center for Science Education director, Dr Patricia Marsteller, accepted the Aldridge award for Excellence in Mentoring

 

CSE HHMI Grant Gets Renewed for $1.9 Million!!

Emory University is one of 50 research universities in the nation to receive a share of $86.4 million for undergraduate science education from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). Emory's four-year, $1.9 million grant marks the fifth consecutive time since 1989 the university has received the HHMI education grant, one of only a few universities to do so. Emory will use the grant to support ongoing student research, mentoring and education initiatives as well as new program development and community outreach.

 

CSE PRISM Grant Gets Renewed!!

On January 13, 2006, the National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded a 5-year $1.99 million award to the Problems and Research to Integrate Science and Mathematics (PRISM) program, renewing Emory University's highly successful graduate fellowship initiative. The program is designed to transform the next generation of scientists by providing an opportunity for graduate students to practice teaching, communication, and research dissemination skills, and by engaging K-12 students in inquiry-based science education. PRISM selects graduate fellows from a variety of mathematics and science doctoral programs at Emory and Clark Atlanta University. Graduate Fellows are matched with middle and high school teachers to develop and implement compelling, inquiry-based science and math lessons using problem-based learning (PBL) and investigative case-based learning (ICBL) pedagogy. PRISM was initially funded by NSF in 2003, and this successful grant renewal attests to the merits of the program. The renewal includes institutional support from the Emory Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, Office of the Provost, and College to sustain the program as NSF funding wanes over the 5-year term.

 

CASES Online goes live on December 1, 2005

CASES Online is a collection of inquiry-based lessons to engage K-12, undergraduate and graduate students in exploring the science behind real-world problems. Through CASES, teachers can transform students into motivated investigators, self-directed and life-long learners, critical thinkers and keen problem solvers. Learn more about the CSE's newest tool for science educators here.

 

Emory Undergraduate Research Journal (EURJ) has a new website:

Visit www.eurj.com to learn all about Emory University's new multidisciplinary journal for undergraduate research and to download submission guidelines for the charter publication.

 

Read an inspiring essay from Karen Eifler (U. of Portland):

Click here to read Learning from Dandelions.

 

CSE in the News

eScienceCommons - Carol Clark
September 4, 2009

UNDERGRADS BRING NEW IDEAS TO LABS
“It’s almost like being immersed in a different country,” says Zach Rahm, a biology major who is working in an HIV lab, in conjunction with the Emory Vaccine Center. “You’re being immersed in the science that’s being taught in the classroom. It’s very hands-on, and a very different environment."

“If you have an interest, and there’s somebody here studying that interest, you can get involved,” says Pat Marsteller, director of Emory’s Center for Science Education.
Click for full article

 

The Scientist - Bob Grant
July, 2009, Vol. 23, No. 07

WHAT VACATION?
Ah summer! It's a time for easy living, a relaxed teaching schedule, perhaps a leisurely sabbatical, some tall cold drinks, and... undergraduate interns. The National Science Foundation's Research Experiences for Undergraduates program places about 140 undergrads in biology labs every summer, while the National Institutes of Health invites about 800 undergraduate researchers to work in its intramural laboratories in an average year. These aspiring scientists can waste your precious reagents, make egregious miscalculations, and just take up space. But they can also bring big rewards. A summer internship done right can not only launch a young scientist's career, but can also further your research and push it in directions you never expected. All in 10 short weeks.

Here are some stories of successful internships and the tricks that made them work.

. . .

Two Undergrads Better Than One?

The Mentor: Gary Bassell, Emory University neurobiologist.
The Interns: Will Bringgold, 20, and Dan Pong, 21. Internship: summer 2008.
The Program: SURE (Summer Undergraduate Research at Emory)
Before Gary Bassell accepted his new summer interns, he thought about how to carve off bite-sized projects from his postdoctoral students' work. Bassell's lab focuses on understanding the role of mRNA regulation and protein synthesis in axon guidance, nerve regeneration, and synaptic plasticity. "Backburner" questions are perfect for undergrads, says Bassel. "I tend to design an [undergraduate] project that's based on some preliminary data that we have already," he says.
Click for full article

 

Zebrafish - Allison D'Costa and Iain T. Shepherd
June, 2009, Vol. 06, No. 02

ZEBRAFISH DEVELOPMENT AND GENETICS
A major challenge for educators involved in teaching large Introductory Biology courses at colleges and universities is to design labs that try to avoid traditional cookbook approaches. This challenge is part of the wider movement within the science education community that advocates the development of dynamic student-centered learning experiences that engage students in research-oriented learning.

The Biology Department at Emory University has been working since 2003 to revise its Introductory Biology series to reflect the objectives of this educational movement. One of the aspects of the course revision has been to transform the laboratories into an inquiry-based, research-centered, hands-on learning experience using a problem-solving learning approach. A key aim has been to incorporate modern concepts and techniques in the fields of genetics and bioinformatics.

To communicate to students the nature and excitement of scientific discovery, we decided to base the laboratories on (1) current research being conducted by faculty in the department, (2) experiments that use modern laboratory techniques, (3) experiments that use computational biology methods and bioinformatics, and (4) case studies that make a connection between the laboratory topic and a real-life situation.

Two areas of research strength in the Biology Department are in the fields of developmental biology and genetics. Faculty members use several different model systems in their studies. As a result, it was decided to include a laboratory topic that would take advantage of this strength, and use a vertebrate model system to introduce students to these fields of research.

... We would like to thank Dr. Pat Marsteller for her critical reading of this article.
Click for full article

 

Emory Report
June 22, 2009

PROJECT GRAD: A COLLEGE CONNECTION
Atlanta public high school students from Project GRAD pitched in for a service project at Lullwater, June 17. Emory is a host for the scholarship program that aims to help disadvantaged students graduate from high school. "By exposing them to all that Emory has to offer, we're hoping they will be inspired to work a little harder to get into college," says Andrea Neal, of the Center for Science Education. A visit to the Carlos Museum and a crash course in how to apply to college were among their campus activities.

 

HHMI Bulletin - Howard Hughes Medical Institute - Olga Kuchment
May, 2009, Vol. 22, No. 02

TAPPING INTO COOL SCIENCE
Who sent a love note, signed with a kiss, to the captain of the basketball team? A girls' club in Atlanta used chemistry and biology to solve this fictional mystery, and they made the front page of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on February 9th.

It was an early Valentine's Day gift for Patricia Marsteller, HHMI's program director at Emory University, whose student had designed the love-note lesson. Marsteller was thrilled to see it being used as intended. The "Signed with a Kiss" investigative case is one of the varied tools developed over 20 years by hundreds of HHMI grantees.
Click for full story

 

WABE 90.1 FM, NPR - Mary Wiltenburg
May, 2009

BIO ON MY MIND
Today, as Georgia tries to build its biotechnology sector, the state's public schools face a major challenge: preparing workers for thousands of hoped-for jobs in the field. Continuing our series "Bio On My Mind," reporter Mary Wiltenburg goes back to middle school to see how biotechnology could help to change the way Georgia teaches science. "Okay, good morning girls and boys". This is not 7th grade science like you remember it. "we're doing a strawberry today rather than our own personal DNA, okay?" It's not life science like Salem Middle School teacher Ann Marion was taught it. "I came up in the traditional setting where read, you write. I don't even remember us having a lot of visuals." It's not the norm for Georgia students today either. But if the state wants a serious place in the nation's booming new biotechnology sector, experts say, this is what the future of science education in Georgia has got to look like. "A ball of snot." It's Thursday morning, first period, and 20 DeKalb County seventh graders are trying to extract DNA from strawberries. They're mashing the fruit to pulp, stirring in soap, filtering juice, mixing in alcohol, and squinting into test tubes, hoping to see clumps of snot-like DNA rising. "Oh, this is a good sample!" "I know." "Ewww!" This lab itself is an experiment: part of a state initiative targeting science education and workforce readiness in an "Innovation Crescent" between Atlanta and Athens. These and other recent changes in the state science curriculum aim to reverse a trend that's frustrated teachers and employers for decades. Juan-Carlos Aguilar, science program manager for Georgia's Department of Education, says the way science has been taught, it's losing kids. "When you are in elementary school, those kids are so eager to ask questions. And something happens when they lose that sense of wonderness about what surrounds them. And I think that was partly because we were pushing too much information into them." These days, for a majority of kids, facts their parents used to memorize "the protozoa and the mammals and the kingdoms and the periodic table" all of that is just a Google search away, says Pat Marsteller, director of the Emory College Center for Science Education. . . .
Click for full story and audio

 

The Emory Wheel - Anum Mohammad
January, 2009

MORE POSITIONS OPEN IN RESEARCH PROGRAM
The Summer Undergraduate Research Program at Emory (SURE) will offer four new positions this summer because of a grant issued by the Atlanta Clinical and Translational Science Institute (ACTSI). A total of 70 positions will now be offered.

The ten-week summer program is for students at Emory and across the nation. Each student in the program works under a faculty member or graduate student and conducts research alongside the mentor in a specialty area in math and science labs.

According to Pat Marstellar, director of Emory College Center for Science Education and director of the Hughes Science Initiative, ACTSI’s contribution affirms Emory’s long history as a clinical and translational research center of excellence. . . .
Click for full story

 

Emory Quadrangle - David Raney
Fall, 2007

CROSSING OVER, GIVING BACK: EMORY IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Pat Marsteller, senior lecturer in biology and director of the Emory Center for Science Education (CSE), knows something about crossing the lines between higher education and the public schools, and about the rewards involved. She laughs at the proposed title Director of Acronyms, but it might be appropriate. With funding from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and with the help of Emory College science and administration colleagues, she oversees programs called STEP, PREP, GIFT, CREDIT and PRISM, among others, all geared toward getting public school teachers and students ready for higher achievement and greater opportunity. Hughes/CSE initiatives have improved the curriculum of schools across the Atlanta area and as far away as Alabama, affecting thousands of students annually

Both the programs and the people get high marks. Joseph Lichter, a chemistry graduate student, calls Marsteller and the CSE's Jordan Rose "two of the most helpful and encouraging mentors I have encountered here at Emory" and the PRISM program "fantastic." PRISM (Problems and Research to Integrate Science and Mathematics) teams undergraduate and graduate fellows for a full year with middle and high school teachers, engaging younger students with "real world" math and science via "problem-based learning" . . .
Download Full Article (pdf)

 

Emory Report - Carol Clark
August 06, 2007

LIPSTICK and HIP-HOP BRING LESSONS TO LIFE IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Stella is in 10th grade. One day, she picks up her boyfriend's chemistry book and casually flips through it. Inside she finds a love note addressed to him and signed with a pink lipstick kiss. It's not Stella's shade. How can she determine whose lipstick it is? "High school students really get a kick out of solving this case," said Pat Marsteller, director of the Emory College Center for Science Education. The hypothetical case study was developed through one of CSE's enrichment programs for Atlanta public schools, which help teachers make math and science lessons come alive in the classroom through problem-based learning. In the case of Stella and the lipstick, for example, the high school students learn how to use chemical processes to separate and analyze the materials in the lipstick sample, then compare the analysis to tubes of lipstick.
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Public Health - Sylvia Wrobel
August, 2007

REAL-WORLD SCIENCE
Faculty and students in the Rollins School of Public Health (RSPH) are about to gain 200 new research partners. Their soon-to-be investigators often have first- or second-hand knowledge of possible research topics, including risk factors such as diet and obesity and risky behaviors such as substance abuse, violence, and sex. In fact, these new partners will be the major drivers in choosing what issues to study. Being 9th and 10th graders, they first need some training in research methodology and ethics.

Emory faculty, including those from the RSPH, will provide that training in collaboration with the students' teachers. All want to transform the students' perception of science from a mysterious "black box" into a powerful and accessible process that can address issues affecting students and their communities. They also want to model to these students about what it means to be a scientist and encourage them to consider science as a career.

The program is part of a $900,000 grant to Emory from the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation's Pathways to Success. Spread over 2 1/2 years, the grant will help raise student achievement at the New Schools at Carver. The "old" George Washington Carver High School was one of Atlanta's lowest performing secondary schools. The "New" Schools at Carver is designed to change that with small, personalized environments; rigorous college-prep curricula; and strong community partnerships that include Emory and other Atlanta-area universities.

The Blank Foundation grant to Emory calls for mentoring, tutoring, and postsecondary preparation for students and professional developmental support for teachers in various disciplines at Carver. It also includes the creation of specialized career readiness opportunities in Health Sciences and Research (HSR), one of the five schools at Carver.

Interdisciplinary by design, the Carver initiative is led by Pat Marsteller, director of the Emory College Center for Science Education and the Howard Hughes Undergraduate Science Initiative. Serving with her are faculty and graduate students in the College, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, and the RSPH. Carey Drews-Botsch and Fleda Jackson of the RSPH, Madge Donnellan of the School of Nursing, and Michelle Lampl of the Department of Anthropology are collaborating with HSR faculty and students at Carver.

"Whatever our research specialization, we are joined by our commitment to engaging the broadest community possible in how good science works," says Marsteller.
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Emory Report - Kim Urquhart
May 29, 2007

MARSTELLER HONORED AS MENTOR
Pat Marsteller often advises her students and colleagues to "find a mentor and be a mentor." Marsteller's embodiment of this belief in her work as director of the Emory College Center for Science Education, director of the Hughes Undergraduate Science Initiative and senior lecturer in biology earned her the 2007 George P. Cuttino Award for Excellence in Mentoring. "Everybody at all levels need mentors," she said. "Mentors are a combination of advisers, role models and eventually, we hope, friends." A relationship with a mentor may "start out as somebody who knows more than you about a pathway to success," Marsteller said, "but eventually, in addition to showing you what success looks like, encouraging you along the way and giving you constructive criticism and advice, they hopefully will become your life-long friends and supporters."
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Nature.com - Kendall Powell
April 14, 2007

THE PLACES IN BETWEEN
Taking time between university and graduate school to gain more research experience is time well spent. Kendall Powell uncovers a growing trend for US students.

When Emmanuella Delva graduated from university in 2002, she soon realized that her chemistry degree and limited research experience were not enough to get her into competitive doctoral programmes in biomedical science. Her disappointment was huge. "My confidence was pretty low and I didn't think I was cut out for graduate school," she says. So when an adviser suggested a postbaccalaureate ('postbac') programme at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, she jumped at the chance to get a taste of graduate school without the five-year commitment.

"I thought I would give it a shot to see if graduate school was something I was doing just because it was the next logical step," says Delva, now a fourth-year doctoral student working on autoimmune skin disease at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. She represents a growing number of students taking time out between their degree and postgraduate work.

"It really is a significant trend," says Pat Marsteller, director of the Center for Science Education at Emory. "A few years ago there was a big drop in the percentage of students going directly into graduate degrees." Instead, they are working as lab technicians, doing postbac programmes or experiencing the 'real world' before attending graduate school, she says.
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Emory Report - Kim Urquhart
September 11, 2006

ART OF SCIENCE
As a graduate student in biology, Pat Marsteller studied alligators. At Emory she has sunk her teeth into transforming science education during her tenure as director of the Emory College Center for Science Education (CSE), director of the Hughes Undergraduate Science Initiative and senior lecturer in biology.

"There is just a ton of things going on around here on all kinds of levels," Marsteller said, reaching across her crowded desk to a to-do list taped to the side of her computer. From writing grants to directing the programs those grants fund, to teaching courses that this semester range from science writing to evolution, she has dedicated her 16-year career at Emory to creating new ways to facilitate learning.

Her involvement at Emory extends to more than 20 committees, including the executive committee of the lecture track faculty. She is also active in national and international organizations..
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Emory Report - Beverly Cox Clark
September 05, 2006

PRISM PROGRAM SHINES A LIGHT ON SCIENCE
Astronomer Nicolas Copernicus' sun-centered theories of the universe are on trial again, this time in a South DeKalb science classroom at Columbia Middle School.

Instead of a dry lecture and drill on Copernicus' foundational theories of modern astronomy from the 1500s, students enthusiastically play the roles of judge, jury and lawyers as an innovative way to learn about our solar system.

Eighth grade science teacher Dericka DeLoney and Emory graduate student Aron Barbey lead the exercise, but it's the students who are noting the facts, asking the open questions, and coming up with their own theories, much like any scientist tackling a new problem. And boredom is definitely at bay. "You're working, but you're having fun," said eighth-grader Markiesha Lucas.

At a time when the National Academies of Science and others are sounding a loud alarm over the poor state of science in our nation's schools, DeLoney and Barbey are at the forefront of an inquiry-based science education movement that seeks to reverse the trend.
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The Champion Newspaper - Andy Phelan
August 31, 2006

BRINGING SCIENCE ALIVE
The yellow crime-scene tape that cordons off part of the room tells passers-by that something has gone terribly wrong.

Within the tape boundary, a person lies unconcious on the floor with foam dripping from the mouth. A bloodied hand holds a broken beaker, and the victim is surrounded by test tubes, potentially dangerous chemicals and is not wearing any safety equipment.
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The Champion Free Press - Andy Phelan
August 18, 2006

THROUGH A PERUVIAN PRISM
High on a cliff in the Andes Mountains of Peru where cumulus clouds cover jagged peaks and the ancient city of Machu Picchu peeks out from the edge of a precipitous abyss is not the typical place you expect to find DeKalb County teachers.

But at 8,000 feet among the ruins of this classic Inca city is where Columbia Middle School earth science teachers Katherine Shamsid-Deen and Dericka DeLoney were dispatched on a mission this summer in search of the next great lesson plan.
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Emory Report - Beverly Cox Clark
June 26, 2006

SUMMER RESEARCH PROGRAM SUREly IMPACTS UNDERGRADS
In a crowded lab deep within the Rollins Research Center, Emory College student Jim Zhong spends his summer surrounded by jars of fruit flies and larvae, doing the rudimentary work of breeding insects and preparing specimens for research.

But he also has spent a lot of time at the microscope working to document certain gene markers in fruit fly embryos that may help explain why our own genes sometimes fail at their jobs. It's the type of exciting, hands-on research most young undergrads don't experience.

"The research is fun. It's new stuff, not just an experiment in a textbook," said Zhong, a rising junior. "It's been a good opportunity to get exposed to research and explore career opportunities."

Zhong is one of 74 college students from across the country who are getting a taste of life in the lab through the University's Summer Undergraduate Research Experience at Emory (SURE). For 10 weeks, rising juniors and seniors run experiments, document data and take advantage of the rare opportunity to work directly with leading researchers. From testing new antidepressant medication to studying the neuroscience of bird song, students are engrossed in labs across campus.

Nearly 400 students applied for 74 slots in the annual program, which was established in 1990 through the support of Emory and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) grant.
In addition to students from Emory and other major research universities, SURE actively recruits women and minorities and seeks to bring in students from smaller schools where research opportunities are not as comprehensive.
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Emory Report - Beverly Cox Clark
June 09, 2006

EMORY RECEIVES $1.9 MILLION HHMI GRANT FOR SCIENCE EDUCATION
Emory University is one of 50 research universities in the nation to receive a share of $86.4 million for undergraduate science education from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). Emory's four-year, $1.9 million grant marks the fifth consecutive time since 1989 the university has received the HHMI education grant, one of only a few universities to do so.

Emory will use the grant to support ongoing student research, mentoring and education initiatives as well as new program development and community outreach.

"HHMI's continued investment in Emory's science education initiatives over the past 15 years has been a catalyst for progressive and lasting change in undergraduate science education and outreach at Emory," says Pat Marsteller, director of Emory's Center for Science Education, which oversees and develops all of the HHMI-funded programs. "The grants are critical to our continued success, and have supported wide-ranging initiatives that have attracted more students to science careers and enhanced the knowledge of all students during a time when science literacy is vital."
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Emory Report - Beverly Cox Clark
February 06, 2006

'$2M grant will let PRISM program shine through 2011'
Emory has been awarded nearly $2 million from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to continue an innovative science education program that pairs graduate students in the sciences with K-12 teachers. Known as PRISM (Problems and Research to Integrate Science and Mathematics), the program engages K-12 students in science studies and provides opportunities for graduate students to develop as teachers and communicators.

PRISM was initially funded by the NSF in 2003, and the new grant will support the program through 2011. Since its inception, PRISM has partnered with 39 teachers in 13 middle and high schools around the metro Atlanta area. More than 100 new curriculum units, using real-world applications to teach science basics, have been developed and taught to more than 2000 K-12 students.

"We're working to create a 'compelling need to know' within students by actively bringing the excitement of science to them through hands-on experiments and instruction," said Jordan Rose, PRISM program coordinator for Emory University's Center for Science Education (CSE).
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Emory Report - Katherine Baust
August 01, 2005

'PRISM SHINES LIGHT ON LEARNING METHODS'
Showcasing nontraditional learning methods was the highlight of the third annual PRISM (Problems and Research to Integrate Science and Mathematics program) demo day, held July 26 in the Math & Science Center Planetarium.

PRISM is a National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded program that pairs graduate students in the sciences with middle and high school teachers to develop innovative pre-college science curricula using problem-based and investigative case-based learning pedagogy.

Collaborative teams of graduate students and teachers presented the original problems and cases they wrote this summer and plan to implement over the upcoming year. Presentations covered a range of topics, from lessons about infection control and outbreak, to swabing surfaces at the schools to find and identify different types of bacteria, to the importance of hand-washing and proper infection-control techniques at hospitals, to learning about engineering by building model planes.

PRISM's goal is to turn potentially dull or confusing topics into practical and accessible problems students can relate to and understand, and to encourage their active participation in the learning process.

"While student data are still under analysis, teachers report their students are more motivated to learn and they attend class more often and retain concepts longer than with traditional teaching methods," said Jordan Rose, program associate for the Center for Science Education (CSE), which helps administer the program.
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Atlanta Journal-Constitution
February 13, 2005

'MAKE IT EASIER FOR TEACHERS TO IMPROVE'
About a dozen teachers in the metro area have worked with the Center for Science Education at Emory University to improve their skills. The center received a grant from the National Science Foundation to offer the program to small groups of teachers.

Through the program, graduate students in specific science areas helped middle and high school science teachers in Atlanta, Decatur, DeKalb County and Fulton County schools develop new classroom lessons. The graduate students shared their knowledge about science with the classroom teachers. Gerda Louizi, a biology teacher at North Springs High School in Fulton County, who participates in the program, said the graduate students helped teachers better understand science concepts.

"I think we would see an improvement in science if we could make it easier for teachers to improve," she said. "So many teachers are embarrassed to ask for help. It takes a lot of courage to admit that you don't understand something, especially when it is the topic you are already supposed to be an expert in."
View Article [registration required]

 

CSE - Amanda McAlister
February 11, 2005

BOOSTING K-12 SCIENCE AND MATH ACHIEVEMENT AS A COMMUNITY OF TEACHERS
Uri Treisman lectures on how college faculty can help minority students achieve excellence.
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Essays on Science and Education

Serendipity and Choice in the Evolution of a Vocation - by Pat Marsteller, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia

Hindsight is always 20/20. Nonetheless, I think that even in my first year at the University of Maryland, I already was preparing to become the hybrid faculty/administrator that I am today.

My current appointment is as director of the Emory College Center for Science Education (ECCSE) and senior lecturer in biology. Our center's vision is to become nationally recognized for leadership in positive transformation of science education from kindergarten through postdoctoral education. The heart of the ECCSE mission is to improve science education at all levels. We are particularly interested in attracting and retaining underrepresented students, women and minorities for careers in science. Our work in these areas includes special programs for undergraduates and outreach efforts with Atlanta Public School teachers and students. We work with faculty, grad students, and postdocs at Emory and at other institutions to improve undergraduate and graduate education.

So how does a person who started out to be a neonatal cardiologist, then studied alligator behavior and evolution and the quantitative genetics of life history end up as an agent of change for science education . . .

Download the complete text here (pdf)

Pat Marsteller is director of the Emory College Center for Science Education

This essay was excerpted from "A Community of Excellence - Reflections and directions from the Year of the Faculty" Emory University, 2007

 

From Pipelines to Pathways: Partnerships for Excellence and Equity in Research Science
- by Pat Marsteller, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia

Unfortunately, when it comes to minorities in science, the leaky pipeline model still applies. Although there is a significant national consensus on what changes are required to achieve a diverse scientific workforce, changing filters and sieves into pumps that attract and assist under-represented students to attend college, enter and succeed in STEM majors, successfully complete doctoral programs, and join the faculty and scientific workforce is still a work in progress.

Here I describe a few of the programs led by the Emory College Center for Science Education (ECCSE) that attempt to replace the leaks and sieves in the pipeline with pumps to increase diversity in STEM disciplines. The heart of the ECCSE mission is to improve science education at all levels. I call it a "K through gray initiative." We are particularly interested in attracting and retaining under-represented students, women and minorities, for careers in science.

In the early 1990's, we instituted an intensive residential summer bridge program . . .

Read the full text here (found on pages 18 and 19)

Pat Marsteller is director of the Emory College Center for Science Education

This essay originally appeared in the January 2008 issue of ASBMB Today, news magazine of the American Society for Biochemistry and Microbiology

 

Science Plays Come of Age - by Lauren Gunderson, Atlanta, Georgia

Gunderson - a playwright, screenwriter, short story author and actor based in Atlanta, GA - discusses the art of scientific storytelling

My career as a science playwright started when I asked my undergraduate physics professor to let me write a play instead of a term paper. Luckily he agreed, and the result was a time-twisting play called Background, based on cosmologist Ralph Alpher. Unexpectedly, the play not only satisfied my physics professor, it went on to receive awards and inspire productions across the country.

Several years later, it now seems that stages across the world have fallen in love with science. It's an age-old flirtation, for sure. From the Greeks to Marlowe to now, scientists (and alchemists) have held a fascination for playwrights and audiences. More recently, in our tech-savvy, genetically altered, atomic-powered climate, plays containing science of any description can head straight for the spotlight, and hits like Tom Stoppard's time-bending chaos theory play Arcadia and Michael Frayn's Heisenberg-Bohr intellectual smash Copenhagen have delighted audiences for the past two decades.

Recently, strong support for new science plays has come from regional theatres like The Magic in San Francisco and New York's Manhattan Theater Club. In parallel, science/theatre partnerships, prizes, and conferences have sprung up across the world, such as the Sloan Foundation's New Plays Initiative, which commissions, develops, and produces plays exploring the worlds of science and technology. And as an educational tool, science theatre has opened up a new avenue to grab students' interest. For example, Emory University's Center for Science Education is sponsoring the upcoming Actor's Express Theatre's tour of my theatrical adaptation of Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything, aiming to excite middle- and high-school students about both science and theatre.

But what does it take to write a good science play? As a playwright, I believe in communicating science effectively, but not taking out what makes science hard. So it is absolutely essential to learn the relevant science well enough to represent it accurately -- otherwise the whole play fails. I always do a lot of research from online magazines, scientists' Web sites, and books on history and theory -- everything from Brian Greene's books on string theory to Newton's Principia itself has passed across my desk. And many playwrights, myself included, consult scientists in person for critique, advice, and content.

In a science play, you want to make your scientists sound like real scientists. I'm not afraid to use a lot of jargon -- I sometimes use what I call the "verbal wall of science" effect, in which I allow a character to speak freely like a scientist, without any further explanation. This isn't to confuse a general audience, but to allow an appreciation of the character's expertise. Yet I also try to combine effective science with effective poetry to create something that is true both in the concrete and the abstract. Science metaphors work best this way. For example, the particle physicist in my play Baby M explains her work this way:

We move in secrets. Fundamentals locked, related in code. What is obvious is not always what is. And what is isn't always what is known. Essentially, we deal in thought made manifest, and this work represents the world.

The best scientific characters do all the things that make us human, not just the things that make us brilliant. So it is not enough for me to show you scientists doing science; I need to show you why they do it. Why do they venture into the essence of nature? Why do they subject t hemselves to deadlines and peer reviews and failure?

The second level of the human spirit is the how. How do these scientists handle science, or rejection, or success? How do people negotiate all the tribulations of a highly competitive field on top of those of normal life? What amazes them? What depresses them? These are all essential in creating the right atmosphere.

I think that most of today's playwrights are tackling science with a successful, steady hand -- writers respect science, or else they wouldn't write about it. I do get weary, however, of plays that mention science without any depth or obvious research. Writers may add scientists or mathematicians because it's sexy, but a lot of these plays are one-dimensional, referencing science instead of exploring it or challenging the audience to deepen their knowledge. Paul Mullin's Louis Slotin Sonata, on the other hand, exemplifies the genre at its best, giving us a brilliant story about a man dealing with atomic physics as well as his own imminent death. The historical and scientific research is realistic and engrossing, but so is the humanity of the characters.

In my work, I try to reveal a person's inner desires with a combination of the spoken word and onstage action. People show their fear and love in different ways but they all usually involve a reaction or action that gives the audience its clues. For example, in my play Leap, Isaac Newton explains to one of his students that his work isn't just a hobby:

Men have died chasing what I'm after! Sacrificed life and loyalty. It is not funny. This consciousness is as serious as you can possibly come close to knowing. You should treat it as such.

Lauren Gunderson is a playwright, screenwriter, short story author and actor based in Atlanta, GA. Her debut collection of plays, Deepen The Mystery, was published in 2005

Gunderson's essay originally appeared on The Scientist Daily website on July 28, 2006

 

Learning from Dandelions - by Karen E. Eifler, University of Portland, Oregon

"We sow with all the art we know and not a plant appears; A single seed from any weed a thousand children rears." - anonymous

I pulled the first of many dandelions from my front yard today. For once I took a closer look at this pernicious weed that consumes so much of my scant gardening time and was struck by a number of lessons I could apply to my work as a teaching professor:

1) Observed closely, the delicate fuzz on a dandelion is actually a cloud of minute barbs. When that cloud of spikes take flight, whether launched by a child's blowing, a gentle breeze or even an accidental kick, they allow the fuzz containing the promise of more dandelions to anchor just about anywhere. Wouldn't it be great if I could develop just as many "hooks" in my work with students so that memories of the content we explore would fly beyond their latest exam or paper and anchor some place where they could take root? It's hard to predict where dandelion fuzz will land. This means I must create multiple entry points into more of the lessons I teach. I could also work harder to get students to stop and create their own hooks-- inviting them to craft quickwrites, single sentence summaries of class sessions, metaphors and sensory images to elaborate on challenging course material.

2) Over several seasons of pulling dandelions I have learned that they are opportunistic and will grow wherever there is the smallest opening. They don't seem to care about soil composition, the aesthetics of where they happened to have landed, or whether the suns shines on them from the south or the north. They look for any tiny fissure and seize the space, be it a crack in cement, a dry patch of lawn or my already full window boxes. I can even imagine them laughing at these deterrents. What kind of learning would my students experience if I seized on openings in their minds and hearts with something like a dandelion's tenacity? Maybe I need to spend more time talking with my students in those minutes before and after class, or invite email dialogues through which I might discover what captures their imagination and fuels their passion. Even if I can't work those interests into teaching the material, perhaps my students will catch a glimpse how invested I am in their mastery of the material and development as professionals. Someone once said, "students will not care how much you know until they know how much you care." Seeking those receptive openings, while laughing at the deterrents, is one way to exercise the care I wish to communicate.

3) Truth be told, I love the vibrant yellow of dandelions. When it feels impossible to conquer the waves of saffron invaders, I can persuade myself that they are flowers, not weeds. Maybe some of the students who drive me craziest with their unwillingness to acquiesce to my particular vision of how learning should transpire need to be looked at with changed eyes. There have been moments in my teaching when I have worked hard to present the Revealed Truth from my discipline only to have a student respond with a pithier, more straightforward rendering--one that captured the thought in a way that made it more accessible and memorable for everyone in the room. I should re-frame the way I respond to those students and celebrate what philosopher Maxine Greene has called "the disruptions of the taken-for-granted" rather than grinding my teeth. And here's an even more radical notion: perhaps I should work on seeing some of my colleagues from a more positive perspective.

4) Despite being subjected to tough environmental conditions and outright hostility from me, the foliage on the dandelions maintains its robust green hue even as the grass around it withers to the color and texture of straw. That capacity hints at deep, efficient reserves of energy and mechanisms of resiliency that I could do well to emulate myself and nurture in my students.

5) I get a fresh chance every spring to start over in my lawn and garden, and each spring I pledge "this year will be different. I will treat the yard earlier, tend it more carefully and surely face fewer weeds." It occurs to me that I say approximately the same thing each semester: "I will seek more resources, organize better, find out more about the students, give them more and earlier feedback and be less frazzled at term's end. . ." the list goes on. One wonderful thing worth celebrating about teaching: unlike many other professions, I do truly get a fresh start every fourteen weeks.

 

Careers in Science - Selected Emory Faculty Interviews

Ever wondered what it's really like to be a scientist? Or what it takes to succeed in this increasingly competitive market? The Emory College Center for Science Education collected 22 first-hand accounts from prominent Emory scientists to offer you a sneak peek into their professional lives. Find out what professional research is like, how much schooling is required to become a scientist and what makes these scientists tick. All interviews conducted by Christopher Mimms and edited by P.J. Gallagher.

Click on a faculty member's name to read more: