Eye on Education

Fill in the Blank: "Without this technology, my students simply cannot _________."

My first thought about the National Educational Computing Conference (NECC) was that I needed a personal trainer to schedule the sessions best suited to my needs. A record 18,500-plus educators and exhibitors attended the 30th annual NECC event in Washington, DC, in June. Conference chair Leslie Conery called it an "odds-defying" accomplishment in difficult economic times and lauded educators for their energy and commitment. She might have added kudos to anyone getting through the four-day event with energy to spare.

The NECC is held annually by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). It draws teachers, administrators, library media specialists, technology coordinators, and teacher educators from all over the globe, as well as decisionmakers from industry and government. Among this year's events were the following:

Hundreds of concurrent sessions, plus showcases, galleries, and poster sessions
Advocacy and policy events at the Library of Congress, US Senate and House offices, and the National Press Club
Hands-on workshops with more than 2300 ticketed participants
An exhibit hall with 1253 booths and 439 companies, from giants such as Google to midsized Open Text to upstarts such as Infinite Campus, displaying tools and services designed to improve education and school administration
Social media channels tracking, tweeting, blogging, and live-streaming conference activities to thousands of off-site participants from dozens of countries

In his opening keynote address, noted author and journalist Malcolm Gladwell centered on creating meaningful learning environments. "When it comes to learning," Gladwell said, "what you get is a simple function of what you put in. Sometimes the struggle to learn something is where the actual learning lies." He also contrasted two teaching strategies: capitalization, or focusing on student strengths, and compensation, or aiming efforts at weaknesses. Gladwell contends that too much time is spent on capitalizing when compensation offers more success. "We should embrace failure because that's how we learn," he said. Following his talk was an audience debate on the topic "Bricks and mortar schools are detrimental to the future of education." Attendees concluded that bricks and mortar schools should not be allowed to fail, that they have value if these schools embrace 21st-century technology and pedagogy.

So how do you go about bringing everyone up to speed on educational technology? Duquesne University has come up with an interesting model. Its Instructional Technology department has teamed up with the School of Education to reshape the course work for preservice educators. The Student Internship Program for Instructional Technology has these educators share technology skills and strategies with classroom teachers at local schools. It's a win-win situation for all the partners in the university's model. Teachers get training and support where they most need it—in the classroom. The preservice educators of Duquesne University get real-world experience by providing classroom teacher and student training. In one experience, university interns taught second graders to use netTrekker for their animal research project, helping them download pictures and gather online information. If the elementary students had reading problems with any online resources, they took advantage of netTrekker's audio-reader feature. The students then submitted their research reports as PowerPoint presentations.

Science teachers and preservice educators looking for more ideas had other technology choices. In one workshop, Harvard professors and researchers illustrated their design for EcoMUVE—a multiuser virtual environment—to support student learning about the complex causal relationships in ecosystems. EcoMUVE adds dimension to learning by illustrating the geospatial relationships in an ecosystem and providing interactive, immersive depictions of plant and animal behavior. In another session, University of North Texas educators presented results from SimMentoring, a content–based tutorial for mentoring preservice science teachers; SimMentoring uses activities based on SimSchool, an online classroom simulator.

The ISTE's Emerging Technologies Task Force is building an online, interactive database of best practices that have produced positive effects on learning through the use of emerging technologies. To make the database useful for everyone and to allow users to search for tools that work in circumstances similar to their own, the task force is correlating successful uses of emerging technologies with demographics such as grade level, size of district, and infrastructure.

"Here's the bottom line," wrote high school Webmaster Art Lader in the online journal Education World (www.education-world.com/a_tech/tech009.shtml): "'Without the appropriate technology, my students simply cannot _________.' If teachers cannot fill in this blank with something truly important to their students and themselves, they will not make the use of technology in the classroom a priority. If teachers can fill in this blank with something truly important to their students and themselves, they will find ways to get training, to obtain software and hardware, to mobilize colleagues, to motivate students." It would help to fill in the blank when planning a personalized NECC schedule, too.

Oksana Hlodan (ohlodan@aibs.org) is the editor in chief of ActionBioscience.org, an education resource of the American Institute of Biological Sciences.

BioScience 59: 743
doi:10.1525/bio.2009.59.9.4

You're Teaching, But How Do You Know They're Learning?

Although most instructors would like to believe that their students fully understand every biological concept explained in class, this is often not the case. Gary Wisehart, chair and professor of biology at San Diego City College, knows this from firsthand experience. "Students get very good at telling you what you want to hear," he says, "so it is important to assess the real impact you are having on students' understanding." To do that, Wisehart has been using concept inventories, diagnostic tools designed specifically to uncover lingering misconceptions.

Wisehart first learned of concept inventories in the late 1990s when colleagues at City College and San Diego State University were field-testing the concept inventory in natural selection (CINS). He used the CINS with students in his biology course for nonmajors and learned a great deal in the process. "It really makes you aware of how students have embedded perceptions that are difficult to change," he says, "and this is probably most significant regarding their understanding of natural selection and descent with modification." Once he got over the shock of how strongly his students held to their preconceptions, he sought ways to challenge the alternative conceptions revealed by his students' CINS responses.

Concept inventories can be used at the beginning of a unit or course to gain insight into what students understand before instruction, or afterward to determine whether students have made conceptual gains (or at both times). Each question has multiple-choice options for the students to select, but the incorrect choices are not simply distracters. "There is one scientifically accurate answer, and the other answers were developed from extensive research on known student alternative conceptions," says CINS coauthor Dianne Anderson, a biology professor at Point Loma Nazarene University. Originally published in the Journal of Research in Science Teaching in 2002, the CINS has undergone modifications and is now available online (www.pointloma.edu/Biology/Biology_Graduate_Program.htm).

The first step to correcting students' alternative conceptions is to recognize that current teaching methods are not working. The next steps, however, can be daunting. "The CINS is very easy to administer in the classroom," Anderson explains. "The challenge is how to adjust your teaching based upon the results." Anderson has used the CINS in different formats and ways with her students, and over time she has significantly restructured her general biology class for nonmajors. Though her syllabus reflects the traditional topics, she discusses examples of natural selection throughout the course to reinforce the concept. "The key to changing students' preconceptions, or alternative conceptions," Anderson says, "is to provide different examples and give them a chance to practice using the concept in novel situations."

April Maskiewicz, an assistant professor of biology at Point Loma Nazarene University, knows how easy it is to be overly optimistic about student learning. Surprised to learn how little her students understood after their exposure to traditional teaching methods in the 1990s, she became a biology education researcher. "Students have very robust conceptions about topics such as natural selection, but their conceptions are not scientific ones," she says. The CINS, she adds, is one of many tools that instructors can use to identify those naive conceptions and modify instruction.

Maskiewicz suggests that instructors provide multiple opportunities for students to engage in discussions in which they share their conceptions and seek coherence with data and evidence. Instead of assuming that students who hold on to their alternative conceptions are simply not "biology majors material," instructors can transform the way they are teaching by finding resources that have been developed specifically to challenge students' intuitive ways of thinking. "No one would do bench research without exploring what other research has been done," says Maskiewicz, but instructors do that all of the time with their teaching methods.

Using a concept inventory and then adapting teaching approaches requires a significant commitment of time, Anderson cautions, but layering more sophisticated ideas on top of naive conceptions is simply not productive. As additional concept inventories and sets of diagnostic questions are developed for other areas of biology (http://bioliteracy.colorado.edu/CABS.html) and in related disciplines (https://engineering.purdue.edu/SCI/links.htm), instructors will be better equipped to determine how best to use their time. Focusing on key biological concepts and assessing whether students retain naive conceptions, instructors may have less time to cover detailed content. Yet knowing that students thoroughly understand what they have learned in class, and that they are prepared to understand more—even beyond an academic setting—is well worth the investment.

Susan Musante (e-mail: smusante@aibs.org) is the education programs manager at AIBS.

BioScience 59: 557
doi:10.1525/bio.2009.59.7.5

The Professional Science Master's: The MBA for Science

When Jay Duffner decided to go to graduate school to advance his career in biotechnology, he chose Northeastern University's Professional Science Master's (PSM) program rather than a traditional master's or PhD track. He recognized the benefits of earning an advanced degree from a well-known institution, which would provide him with real-world practical experiences that he could immediately apply in the workplace. The PSM program's internship requirement opened the door to a unique opportunity at his current job. "It gave me an excuse to ask for a project that was outside of my area of expertise and that of the company's, too," says Duffner. After securing the support of his company to purchase the necessary equipment, he took the lead on a new research project, one that he continues to direct even after his graduation from Northeastern's program.

Duffner is one of a growing number of graduate students embracing the PSM as an alternative, not a stepping-stone, to a PhD. These highly specialized programs require credit hours in a specific scientific discipline as well as in business courses such as intellectual property rights, ethics, or business management, and an internship or other significant hands-on experience. The biotechnology, bioinformatics, and marine biology PSMs at Northeastern grew from real-world needs and were developed in cooperation with industry, explains Graham Jones, who oversees Northeastern's PSM programs. Communication between industry representatives and academia does not end once a PSM is established. Northeastern is continuously working with its advisory council and looking for ways to improve its existing programs and develop new ones as gaps in the marketplace are identified. "For example," illustrates Jones, "I'm right now looking at developing a PSM in regulatory science which will involve the cooperation of the FDA [US Food and Drug Administration], academia, and industry."

Oregon State University (OSU) PSM programs are similarly agile and responsive, says Ursula Bechert, director of OSU's off-campus programs. She says that OSU recently hosted a workshop with representatives from different industries and government agencies, such as the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, to talk about new PSM program development opportunities. OSU currently has PSM programs in environmental sciences, applied physics, biotechnology, and applied systematics in botany, and it is considering adding programs in alternative energies, fisheries and wildlife, chemistry, and bioinformatics. A PSM program is a wonderful way to package interdisciplinary coursework in emerging fields, like alternative energies, she says; "OSU faculty, students, and industry leaders in the area are very excited about the possibility of a PSM in that field."

"Students are drawn to OSU's PSM programs for two reasons," Bechert says: "because they like the emerging fields and interdisciplinary nature of the programs, and because they understand the value of the professional curriculum." Students enter an OSU program knowing exactly what they want out of it. Working professionals know that earning a PSM and gaining critical new skills can advance their careers, Bechert says. The connections that students make during their internships are very valuable, and roughly one-third of all PSM internships at OSU translate into full-time jobs.

PSMs are gaining momentum across the nation. But Bechert, a founding member and current president-elect of the National Professional Science Master's Association (NPSMA, http://npsma.org), cautions the community to be watchful of "PSM-like" programs. Students can easily identify PSM programs that are recognized by the Council of Graduate Schools by visiting the Professional Science Master's Web site (www.sciencemasters.com), which was initially developed with support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Another founding member of NPSMA is Jung Choi, director of the bioinformatics PSM program at Georgia Tech. Choi was a member of the National Research Council's Committee on Enhancing the Master's Degree in the Natural Sciences, which produced the report Science Professionals: Master's Education for a Competitive World, published in May 2008. It states: "The master's-trained segment of the science workforce is pivotal: strengthened master's education in the natural sciences will prepare professionals who bring scientific knowledge and also the ability to anticipate, adapt, learn, and lead where and when needed in industry, government, and nonprofits." The report, available online (www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12064), recommends that more institutions develop PSMs and that existing programs continue to grow to meet growing demands from the marketplace.

Choi admits there is a lingering perception that a master's degree is the "drop-out" option, but he is hopeful that "the report can help people in the natural sciences really rethink the value of the master's degree and think of the PSM as an alternative terminal degree." Choi emphasizes that the goal of PSMs in general is not to replace the more traditional degrees but is instead an option for those interested in nonacademic careers in the biological sciences. "There are a large number of students looking for science careers, and there is a strong need for them in industry," adds Choi. "The PSM program allows us to enlarge the pipeline."

Susan Musante (e-mail: smusante@aibs.org) is the education programs manager at AIBS.

BioScience 59: 285
doi:10.1525/bio.2009.59.4.5

A Dynamic Alternative to the Scientific Method

Open a biology textbook to the table of contents and you will undoubtedly see a chapter devoted to the scientific process. Typically, this is presented as a four- or five-step "scientific method," a recipe that all must follow if scientific experimentation is to generate irrefutable results. These steps may be adequate for a science report, but, explains Judy Scotchmoor at the University of California's Museum of Paleontology, it is not really how scientists do their work.

Scotchmoor and a team of natural scientists, social scientists, philosophers, and educators developed a Web site called Understanding Science (www.understandingscience.org) to explain to teachers, students, and the general public "how science really works." The site, launched in January 2009 and funded by the National Science Foundation, presents an alternative to the scientific method: the science flow chart.

The flow chart illustrates how scientific investigations may be inspired by a wide range of inputs, from serendipitous occurrences to practical problems in need of a solution. Next is the gathering and interpretation of data through "testing ideas," which is at the center of the flow chart and at the core of science. From here, the next step may be interactions with the scientific community, further testing, investigation of new questions, or applying scientific knowledge. The chart emphasizes that science is an iterative, dynamic process involving a community of scientists engaged in many different activities.

The flow chart itself was developed through an iterative process. Scotchmoor initially asked the advisory board to think about what they wanted to tell people about science. This result, she says, was "masses of arrows going all over the place." Although other projects and Web sites exist that focus on the nature and process of science, the science flow chart and the broad range of additional materials on the Understanding Science Web site are unique. "I haven't found any other site of this breadth or depth that illustrates the dynamic, nonlinear, creative scientific process and that is appropriate for teachers and the general public," Scotchmoor says.

The traditional scientific method was formalized in the middle of the 20th century, explains Michael Weisberg, assistant professor of philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania and an advisory board member of Understanding Science. Part of the attractiveness of the method was its focus on testing and confirmation. But justification, or outcome-based science, is quite different from discovery, states Weisberg. The discovery aspect of science needs equal time. "We, the scientific community, have an opportunity to be proactive and excite people about science," says Weisberg, who is confident that this new way of looking at science will generate interest and enthusiasm.

The teacher resources on the Understanding Science Web site explain the need for this paradigm shift. They also include examples of how to introduce the science flow chart to students using case studies and stories about scientists that explicitly describe the variety of paths their research has taken. The goal, says Scotchmoor, is to show that "science really is an adventure. There are certain rules that you need to follow, but really you can't predict where questions will take you."

Jennifer Collins, a middle-school science teacher, was part of the development team and an early adopter of the science flow chart: "I had my students look at the chart before I ever told them anything about it and then tell me what they think it shows about how science is done. They were able to recognize that science can happen in many ways, that there are different parts to science investigations. Many were interested in the ways scientists begin their research, that is, what inspires them." Collins provides opportunities for her students to do different things on the flow chart.

Natalie Kuldell, advisory board member and instructor of biological engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has used the science flow chart in her undergraduate orientation lecture. "I use it to stress that science cannot be oversimplified to make a good story," says Kuldell. Data that do not help students reach neat conclusions cannot simply be wiped away. The flow chart helps her explain this, as does the site's growing collection of research pathways, which are real examples of the iterative, dynamic process of science.

Kuldell recognizes that educators face time constraints but strongly encourages everyone who teaches science to find time to include the process of science in their curricula. It can be as simple as replacing a fact or two with a process of science moment. "I think by demonstrating that science requires creativity and imagination," adds Kuldell, "more students will be attracted to a career that is truly a fun and exciting endeavor."

Susan Musante (e-mail: smusante@aibs.org) is senior education program associate at AIBS.

BioScience 59: 15
doi:10.1525/bio.2009.59.1.4

Digital Games: Learning through Play

The Horizon Report, the go-to guide for emerging educational technology published by the New Media Consortium (www.nmc.org/horizon), projected in 2005 that educational gaming would become a significant learning tool within two or three years. The 2008 report identifies game play as one of the seven metatrends that continue to affect pedagogy, evolving to include virtual worlds, augmented reality, and massive multiplayer modes. Yet there are still those who consider electronic games mindless entertainment that fails to confer academic benefits.

Eric Klopfer, winner of the 2008 AIBS Education Award, directs the Scheller Teacher Education Program (STEP) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (http://education.mit.edu/drupal) and explores the educational potential of games at Education Arcade (http://educationarcade.org). Klopfer’s research on the development and use of computer and simulation games provides a convincing argument for engaging students in learning science and complex systems through play.

STEP’s project MyWorld has added “wireless ubiquitous play” to gaming, so that students can play in the “interstitial” spaces in and out of school. The first MyWorld game, Palmagotchi, takes players to the Galápagos Islands to simulate the evolution of Darwin’s finches. All the birds and flowers that players must sustain have genetically determined traits, and the game requires players to make decisions to ensure that the organisms stay alive and well. Augmented reality simulation games, also found on the STEP Web site, take this idea a step further. Participants explore a real-world location, such as a museum or zoo, with handheld computers that allow them to collect location-specific data and engage in hypothetical scenarios.

The reluctance of some educators to integrate digital games into educational programs may be a symptom of a generational shift. Marc Prensky, a leading figure in game philosophy and design for education, describes those who grew up without digital technology and adopted it later as “digital immigrants”; a “digital native” is someone who has grown up with it. He points out that digital natives are wired for gaming: by the time they leave college, students will have spent more than 10,000 hours playing video-games, as opposed to about 5000 hours reading books. Digital natives, he stresses, are “accustomed to the twitch-speed, multitasking, random-access, graphics-first, active, connected, fun, fantasy, quick-payoff world of their video games.” Some say these traits promote a short attention span. Prensky, however, believes that pedagogies stressing linear thought processes are at odds with the way today’s students think, and so are counterproductive to learning.

Not all games, of course, lend themselves to the curriculum, and the issue of regulating content is now a serious academic endeavor. Educators, researchers, and developers are collaborating at all levels of the education system to ensure games are an effective learning tool. Games must have clear rules and goals and a strategy that allows for competition and winning, and most important, they must be fun to play. To qualify as an “edugame,” they must also adhere to pedagogical criteria.

Immune Attack (http://fas.org/immuneattack) meets all of these requirements. Cocreated by the Federation of American Scientists, the University of Southern California, Brown University, and Escape Hatch Entertainment, with funding from the National Science Foundation, the current game version (released in May) is designed to teach immunology to high-school students; a version for undergraduates is in the works. In this game, a teenager discovers she has a unique immunodeficiency in which her immune system is “present, yet nonfunctional,” as if all her immune cells have forgotten what to do. With the help of her teacher, she creates a nanobot with the ability to teach cells how to fight infections. During the game, participants learn about the different cells and environments in the human body to help the teen figure out how to train her immune system.

Commercial electronic games should not be ignored. Two examples that may expand students’ concepts in the biosciences are EcoQuest and Spore. EcoQuest is a pair of adventure games designed to teach the importance of environmental ethics. The young protagonist seeks help from creatures found in various ecosystems of the world to combat pollution in the first game and cure a disease afflicting rainforest residents in the second. With Spore, players create a unique creature and guide it on an epic journey through five stages of evolution. The player’s creature begins in the primordial ooze and adapts to its environment as it goes from the microscopic to the macrocosmic with the aid of the player.

It is a fact that electronic games are a significant factor in students’ lives. More studies may be needed to confirm their value as learning tools and dispel any qualms about their use in the classroom. It is already clear, however, that research into the learning needs of digital natives can be a fun exercise for everyone.

Oksana Hlodan (e-mail: ohlodan@aibs.org) is editor in chief of ActionBioscience.org, an AIBS education resource.

BioScience 58: 791
doi:10.1641/B580905

Creating a New Breed of Biology Education Researchers

Introductory undergraduate biology courses often fail to truly engage students in the subject matter, a problem that sometimes causes students to switch out of biology majors. The traditional, lecture-only curriculum has already been shunned in middle-school and high-school science classrooms, but this lesson structure persists in the postsecondary domain. Although some professors are using innovative teaching methods in college biology classrooms, they may lack the knowledge, skills, and support to research other promising learning methods, write up their findings, and create a culture on their campuses that emphasizes evidence-based learning in the classroom. The inability of biology faculty to share successful teaching methods inhibits the spread of effective practices and impedes the change in campus culture that undergraduate biology education requires if students in the field are to be retained.

Many biology faculty members are committed to the use of effective and proven teaching methods, but they lack a strong background in education research. These educators have little extra time because of their professional obligations, yet they still want to create a successful learning environment for students in their classrooms. In an effort to improve teaching in the microbiology classroom, the American Society of Microbiology (ASM) created the Scholars-in-Residence program in 2005 to introduce biology faculty to the scholarship of teaching and learning. The scholarship of teaching and learning is a broad term describing the professional responsibility of faculty to conduct rigorous evaluations of their own teaching practices and to publicly share their findings to develop a community of practice. The ASM program, which employs both online and in-person components, uses unique approaches for connecting and educating biology faculty in this field.

The Scholars-in-Residence program trains microbiologists to use educational research to improve their teaching. The year-long program seeks to develop faculty members’ ability to devise a research question about their classroom practices, collect meaningful data, and share their findings through publication in scholarly journals. The goal of this residency is to help faculty members who are already committed to innovative teaching practices to better understand the outcomes of their efforts, and then to share their successes with the larger biology education community. The ASM program has served as a successful test pilot, demonstrating that this type of professional development can improve the educational research skills of biology faculty. Three cohorts have completed the program, with promising results: scholars used the skills they gained during the residency to write and publish their biology education research in peer-reviewed education journals.

Building on the success of the Scholars-in-Residence program, the ASM created the Biology Scholars Program, which is open to the larger community of biology educators. The Biology Scholars Program offers three independent “virtual” residencies that allow faculty to explore biology education in greater depth and to obtain a better understanding of the scholarship of teaching and learning.

The research residency focuses on helping faculty develop research questions, use existing educational research, and analyze data collected from classrooms. These skills enable faculty to determine whether experimental practices are actually having an impact on student learning, and to ensure that educational research has validity and can be used by the larger education community.

The writing residency is designed to assist faculty in writing manuscripts for peer-reviewed education journals and in communicating effectively in the language of educators. Because writing for scientific journals is different from writing for education journals, it is critical that faculty be trained to convey their findings in the education sphere of research.

The third component of the Biology Scholars Program is the leadership residency, which is concerned with developing the scholars’ capacity to be advocates for biology education reform. Building leaders in biology education is crucial to effecting change at the institutional level. By strengthening their leadership skills, the faculty scholars will be able not only to mentor colleagues who want to improve their teaching practices but also to help change the way biology is taught in their departments. Such changes in the practices and the priorities of biology departments are integral to education reform that seeks to foster a more collaborative environment for the improvement of undergraduate instruction.

The Biology Scholars Program is a novel approach for addressing the issues that face undergraduate education. By providing in-depth and focused professional development for biology faculty in research, writing, and leadership, the program will train the next generation of undergraduate educators and add to knowledge about biology education. Faculty who graduate from the program will be catalysts for future change in biology teaching and in the research of biology education. For more information about the Biology Scholars Program, visit www.biologyscholars.org/.

Brian Stagg (e-mail: bstagg@aibs.org) is AIBS education and diversity programs associate.

BioScience 58: 389
doi:10.1641/B580505

A Second CHANCE

How do you change the way science is taught? You might start by giving teachers a second chance—or CHANCE, in this instance. Jacqueline McLaughlin, assistant professor of biology at Penn State University, is doing just that through an innovative professional development program called CHANCE, or Connecting Humans and Nature through Conservation Experiences. CHANCE exposes participants—in-service and preservice high school teachers—to the way scientists think and work by involving them in research projects in the field. The program’s two weeks of fieldwork, carried out in Costa Rica, coupled with the creation of interactive, online learning modules, provide teachers with a better understanding of how research is conducted and supply them with the tools to teach students what science is, how scientists work, and what scientists do.

The program is conducted in three stages. Before traveling to Costa Rica to begin the fieldwork, participants learn about the country—its ecosystems, history, culture, and government—and about the impacts that humans have had on Costa Rican biodiversity. Then, for two weeks, the CHANCE teachers explore selected Costa Rican habitats, taking part in conservation and hands-on research efforts conducted by biologists with the Caribbean Conservation Corporation. After the fieldwork, participants submit their research reports, journal entries, and species assignments; they also have the opportunity to create online modules.

It was the sea turtle research that appealed to Paula Wang. Wang, a biology and environmental science teacher at a Washington, DC, high school, had been teaching for 25 years when she first heard about CHANCE through the National Association of Biology Teachers. The program intrigued her: sea turtle biology, behavior, and conservation were topics she could teach in her advanced-placement environmental science class, and she had always wanted to visit Costa Rica. She attended the summer program, earning continuing education credits through Penn State; the high school where she taught paid for the course.

“I expected to expand my knowledge of conservation biology. What I didn’t expect was how the course made me reevaluate my teaching and rethink the way high school biology is taught,” Wang said. Every aspect of the CHANCE program can be applied directly to classroom teaching, whether through teachers’ accounts of hands-on experiences or through the Web-based modules that can be used to integrate research into classroom discussions. The course is well organized, and it is taught at an appropriate level—many professional development courses fail to be challenging.

Developed from the research of scientists from around the world, the online interactive modules translate fieldwork in a way that allows students to explore, observe, question, hypothesize, and manipulate and analyze data. The modules feature a “progressive notebook” in which students record their experimental research findings as they progress through the module, much as a researcher would progress to the next step of an experiment. The modules can be used even without the course, Wang said. “I use the modules in place of the textbook for the topic areas I can,” she stated. The modules prompt students to use the scientific method to figure out how something works—they challenge the students to think. Six modules have been developed so far, covering species extinction, global warming, amphibian decline, loss of deciduous forest biodiversity, raptor migration, and invasive species.

Professional development courses that blend teaching, basic research, and technology, as CHANCE does, are better than traditional classes at promoting knowledge retention and transfer. “CHANCE is an exemplar program that combines computer-based, problem-based learning exercises with actual field research,” said Emory University’s Robert DeHaan, founding director of the Elementary Science Education Partners program, a science education outreach effort supported by the National Science Foundation. “There are not too many professional development courses for high school teachers that do this,” he added. CHANCE, DeHaan said, is an imaginative program that exemplifies what he has been working toward for many years: it helps teachers move away from textbooks, using problem-based learning strategies and teaching by incorporating real scientific data into the classroom, all the while keeping the central focus on the student. “Textbooks teach the history of science [and] science is an intellectual activity that students need to engage in; they don’t get this the current way we teach science as a series of facts,” DeHaan said.

Many scientists have come to recognize how important it is to improve the teaching of science at all levels. “More scientists are realizing that you need to apply the same experimental thinking in both the classroom and laboratory,” DeHaan said. Preservice and in-service programs like CHANCE that espouse “scientific teaching” are not only timely—they are necessary. Since 2004, more than 50 Pennsylvania high school teachers have undertaken field training in Costa Rica, and hundreds of other teachers have been trained in the development and use of the modules. To learn more about CHANCE, visit its Web site at https://teamworks.campuses.psu.edu/psu/lv/CHANCE.

Samantha J. Katz was AIBS director of education and outreach when this article was written.

BioScience 58: 189
doi:10.1641/B580305

WEBS: Practicing Faculty Mentorship

More than half of the doctoral degrees in biology are earned by women. The proportion of women in postdoctoral, tenure-track, and tenured faculty positions, however, is not as large. The question is, why? WEBS—Women Evolving the Biological Sciences—is an attempt to answer that question and to change the conditions that have led to inadequate numbers of women in high-level positions.

WEBS is an annual three-day symposium aimed at helping women in the biological sciences through the critical period of transition from early career stages to tenure-track and faculty positions in academic and research settings. It is the work of three women: Claire Horner-Devine, assistant professor at the University of Washington (UW); Samantha Forde, assistant research biologist at University of California–Santa Cruz (UCSC); and Joyce Yen, program and research manager at UW's ADVANCE Center for Institutional Change (a National Science Foundation program that strives to improve the academic climate and advance women faculty in science and engineering). This joint project of UW and UCSC grew out of the personal and professional connections, needs, and experiences of Horner-Devine, Forde, and Yen.

The first WEBS symposium was held 14–17 October 2007 at the Pack Forest Conference Center near Mount Rainier, Washington. Thirty women from 27 institutions participated. A series of panel discussions and workshops with three trained facilitators and 16 women advisers from a variety of institutions helped participants learn concrete skills. The women also got tips for dealing with issues ranging from getting on the tenure track, designing a research program, and managing time to establishing a mentoring program and balancing career progression and family responsibilities. They had opportunities to build a peer network and establish mentoring relationships with senior scientists, which could prove useful for advancement in their academic careers.

According to Forde, the symposium's goal was to provide participants with the right combination of personal experience, pragmatic skills, and reflective time. The organizers hoped this would lead participants to think about themselves holistically as scientists and women, and to connect to the type of mentor (professionally and personally) that will enable them to be the type of scientist they want to be. WEBS provided an opportunity to build a national network and provided tips and tools to help individuals build networks and relationships back at their own institutions.

Martha Groom, one of six WEBS Advisory Board members, with dual appointments at UW Bothell and UW Seattle, participated in the meeting as a speaker and mentor. As a mother of twins in a dual-career household, Groom remembers her needs for mentorship and networking at the beginning of her career, as well as later when she changed jobs to an institution that was more teaching focused than research focused. "There are a variety of potential career options for faculty in biology, whether it be at smaller teaching institutions, in journalism, at nonprofits, [or] at research institutions," she said. "Good scientists are needed in all places and positions, and these are not lesser choices. I wanted to provide a different lens."

Jeanine Pfeiffer is one of those women looking for a different lens. Pfeiffer, an ethnoecologist who studies how people are interconnected with their environment, sought a community as she tried to make the decision to stay in academia or go outside the box. "As someone who doesn't fit into the narrow [disciplinary] box slots of academia, the symposium was helpful," Pfeiffer said. "I took home clear, relevant examples of how to create one's own unique role in academia. Doing so may be hard to achieve, but rewarding. I think boxes are boring, anyway."

A different lens to view your career is exactly what Horner-Devine hopes to give participants. "There is a range of ways to be a woman and a scientist and be happy," she said. "By broadening your network, you can connect to the right people at your own institution as well as in the larger scientific community."

WEBS is a mechanism that can help women create their own path, whether it is a tenure-track position at a research university, a faculty position at a small teaching institution, or something nontraditional. For more information about WEBS, including upcoming events, go to www.engr.washington.edu/advance/webs.

Samantha J. Katz (e-mail: skatz@aibs.org) is AIBS director of education and outreach.

BioScience 58: 15
doi:10.1641/B580105

Teach for America, Hope for the Future

Joslyn Woodard is doing something she never thought she would—teaching environmental science and biology to high school students in Chicago’s south side. As an undergraduate student in molecular biology and neuroscience at Yale, Woodard was sure she wanted to go to medical school. She never considered teaching at all. However, after graduating last year, Woodard deferred attending medical school and made a two-year commitment to teaching. She explains, “I joined Teach For America because I wanted to help people now, not wait until after medical school.”

Wendy Kopp founded Teach For America (TFA) in 1990. Originally proposed in her undergraduate thesis at Princeton as an educational version of the Peace Corps, the program places some of the nation’s top recent college graduates (those with a grade point average of at least 3.5) in 26 of the nation’s poorest urban and rural public school systems for two years. In its first year, TFA started with 500 young men and women teaching in six low-income communities across the country. Today, 4400 teachers reach approximately 375,000 students.

The TFA corps members are a diverse and talented group. They come from all disciplines of study, and no teaching experience, training, or formal education degree is necessary—but demonstrated leadership qualities are. TFA teachers have the ability to influence and motivate others, to be authoritative yet approachable, and to persevere through unanticipated classroom challenges. Before stepping into the classroom, corps members attend a rigorous five-week training program at one of five TFA summer preparation institutes across the country. TFA also has a regional support network that helps with professional development throughout the two-year commitment.

Although teachers are needed in all disciplines, TFA recently launched an initiative to boost the number of math and science teachers in the nation’s lowest-income communities. At present, 880 corps members are teaching math and science to more than 130,000 secondary school students. The initiative aims to increase these numbers to 2000 corps members serving 300,000 students by the year 2010. A key component of this initiative is the Amgen Fellowship, which provides 50 math, science, and engineering majors with a $2000 signing bonus and an all-expense-paid trip to the annual TFA symposium, held each spring in Washington, DC.

Woodard, an Amgen fellow, believes this experience will have a positive effect on her future career. “I think this will help me become a better doctor and...relate better to my patients.” She said that her tenure with TFA has helped her to break down scientific topics in a way that her students can understand, and relate science to her students’ everyday life.

To date, 17,000 graduates have participated in TFA. Approximately two-thirds of those are still full-time teachers or are involved in education. For some, TFA is the entry point into a teaching career; for others, it helps them decide what other career paths to follow.

Joseph Spagna is one TFA alumnus whose experience helped him find his career focus. Spagna completed his two-year teaching commitment in 1997 and then attended graduate school. He received a PhD from the University of California–Berkeley in environmental science, policy, and management, and is now a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Illinois's Beckman Institute. Spagna feels that TFA made him a better candidate for doctoral study. One advantage of the program, he says, is that "it gets you focused on why you are going to graduate school."

Spagna remembers that after his senior year of college, his choices were to either attend graduate school or participate in TFA. “There were other opportunities,” he said, “but these two seemed the most viable.” Spagna ended up teaching ninth-grade biology in northeast Baltimore. “The training I received in college was very analytical. As a teacher, I had to become very creative. I spent a lot of time planning and thinking about how to present these ideas and concepts [and about] what materials I needed to present [them].”

Spagna, who plans to teach at the university level, says he will advise his future students to consider the rewards of taking part in TFA. Each year more graduate schools and businesses partner with TFA to offer TFA alumni special benefits such as two-year deferrals, fellowships, course credits, and waived application fees.

Moreover, TFA benefits students. According to TFA’s Web site (www.teachforamerica.org), nine-year-olds growing up in low-income communities are, on average, three grade levels behind their higher-income peers. Half do not graduate from high school, and those who do have reading and math skills at only the eighth-grade level. The TFA program gives these students an edge. A 2004 study by Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., found that “Teach For America corps members make more progress in [teaching] both reading and math than would typically be expected in a year and attain significantly greater gains in math than the other teachers in the study.”

As Woodward and Spagna demonstrate, TFA is enriching the lives not only of the students but also of the teachers who participate, empowering them to make a difference in the communities where they teach.

Samantha Katz (e-mail: skatz@aibs.org) is AIBS director of education and outreach.

BioScience 57: 735
doi:10.1641/B570905

Mentoring Women in the Biological Sciences: Is Informatics Leading the Pack?

Across the landscape of informatics, particularly biological and ecological informatics, are quite a few women in leadership positions at important organizations, such as the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center, and the National Ecological Observatory Network. It would appear that career opportunities for women are burgeoning in the field of informatics.

Yet mathematics, science, and high technology—the building blocks of informatics—are not typically considered to be women-dominated fields. Why, then, are a growing number of women found in these decisionmaking positions, which require not only superior scientific skills but also highly analytic modeling and computer science skills? The answer is twofold: mentoring and education.

On the education side of the equation, the number of women pursuing baccalaureates in mathematics, engineering, and science is rising steadily, but education alone is not translating into a greater number of women researchers in informatics. To achieve that result, says Marcie McClure, associate professor in the Department of Microbiology at Montana State University–Bozeman, mentoring women who are studying biological informatics is critical.

According to McClure, “the reason why there are women leading the centers is that these positions are not strictly research. By and large, basic research positions attract more men.” “The problem,” she adds, “is women don’t know it [bioinformatics research] is an option.” If more women knew that their research interests were part of the field called bioinformatics, more women would pursue bioinformatics research as a career.

McClure, a bioinformatics researcher herself, believes that both bioinformatics and computational biology suffer from the dearth of women scientists and engineers. To address this problem, McClure has started the “Women in Bioinformatics” seminar series at Montana State University. The series highlights exceptional works of established and up-and-coming bioinformatics researchers and their experiences as women in a predominantly male field. The goal is to inspire the younger generations of women scientists by providing role models and mentors for women in science and engineering. The idea, McClure says, is to “set up women for success.” She wants to create a place where women in bioinformatics can discuss their research and provide mentoring and support.

McClure hopes to spur the interest of women and other groups that are underrepresented in the sciences. The women who give presentations at the seminars are chosen for their excellence in research and for the variety of educational backgrounds and career paths they represent. To reach the widest audience possible, the seminars are Webcast. A documentary film on women in bioinformatics has also been produced.

Deana Pennington, a research assistant professor at the University of New Mexico Long Term Ecological Research Network Office, is leading another weekly seminar, one that provides the rigorous training necessary for informaticians. The seminars are part of a National Science Foundation project called “Advancing Cyberinfrastructure-based Science through Education, Training, and Mentoring of Science Communities.” Pennington, the primary investigator for this project, is an ecoinformatics researcher who studies the application of information technology for integrated and synthetic analysis of environmental and ecologic data. Through these seminars, which are taught online at five institutions, students learn the skills for scaling up ecological studies from the local level to regional and global levels. As studies move from the local to the global scale, the research itself becomes increasingly interdisciplinary.

“Interdisciplinarity occurs in two aspects,” Pennington says, “the cross-sciences aspect and the cross between science and technology required to conduct the science. In this arena, which absolutely requires abilities in ‘conceptual multitasking’ to understand different perspectives, communicate effectively, and cooperate rather than compete, women seem to have some skills and attitudes that are very relevant. Opportunities to conduct basic research on interdisciplinary systems are growing, and women should take advantage of these.”

The idea is to mentor these scientists as they transition from disciplinary basic research into cross-disciplinary, technology-enhanced research so that they can develop the requisite skills for working on interdisciplinary teams and learn to integrate scientific inquiry with state-of-the-art computer software and hardware. “It is too soon to say how the women in the group are responding relative to the men,” Pennington says. “But I will be analyzing the responses to surveys based on gender, and it will be interesting to see if there are patterns that emerge.” The role for women in bioinformatics may soon become clearer.

Samantha Katz (e-mail: skatz@aibs.org) is AIBS director of education and outreach.

BioScience 57: 559
doi:10.1641/B570705

Creating a “Green” Campus

The world is getting warmer, but that’s just the beginning. Glaciers will melt, sea levels will rise and flood coastal cities, hurricanes will increase in intensity, entire ecosystems will be lost—and humans carry most of blame. If we act now, however, and start living in a more sustainable fashion, there is still time to stem the tide.

These are the underlying themes of An Inconvenient Truth, former Vice President Al Gore’s documentary and its accompanying lecture series. Gore’s work of the past few years has brought human-influenced climate change and environmental sustainability into the spotlight, but it is by no means the only outreach effort taking place. The United Nations has designated 2005–2014 as the “Decade of Education for Sustainable Development,” with its overall goal “to integrate the principles, values, and practices of sustainable development into all aspects of education and learning...[and to] encourage changes in economic behaviour that will create a more sustainable future in terms of environmental integrity, economic vitality, and a just society for present and future generations.”

Educational institutions across the United States, particularly colleges and universities, have recognized that they are in a unique position to address these issues. Not only are they the educators of future generations of professionals, they also possess the intellectual capacity and resources to effectively integrate educational initiatives into their mission and programs. To this end, students and faculty at several colleges and universities have undertaken efforts to make their institutions more sustainable, as well as to educate others on the importance of resource use and sustainable development.

One such program is taking place at Yale University, which in 2004 hired its first sustainability director, Julie Newman, and in 2005 established an Office of Sustainability. “A growing number of students, faculty, and staff were interested in understanding the university’s ecological footprint, and soon the discussion became ‘How can Yale become a sustainable institution?’” explains Newman, describing the origins of her office and position. While the office is charged with developing and implementing a sustainability plan for the university as a whole, focusing on energy use, transportation, and waste management, a major aspect of its mission is education and outreach geared toward students and faculty. In fact, according to Newman, all of the office’s programs and initiatives are education related: “All that is reflected in our operational decisions has an educational impact on the Yale community.”

These efforts are having a marked impact on the Yale campus. The university has embarked on an aggressive greenhouse gas policy that will reduce emissions to 10 percent below 1990 levels, and has implemented several forward-thinking guidelines for building design, construction, waste management, and transportation. On the educational side, the university’s Environmental Studies Department now offers an undergraduate course, “Sustainable Development and Institutional Change,” taught by Newman. The Office of Sustainability also works closely with the Student Taskforce for Environmental Partnership, a student organization dedicated to educating the Yale community about environmental stewardship and sustainable behavior. Together they sponsor several programs in the undergraduate residential colleges, including informational sessions on “green” resource use, recycling competitions, energy conservation workshops, and orientation sessions for freshmen and new students. This student-centered involvement has been a key element in Yale’s sustainability strategy: Each residential college now has two student sustainability coordinators, and student-run educational programs on green living and sustainability are an integral part of the residential college structure.

Sustainability offices and programs such as this have become a standard fixture on many college and university campuses. Over 300 institutions of higher education worldwide have signed on to the Talloires Declaration, a commitment made by university presidents toward sustainability, which states, “Stabilization of human population, adoption of environmentally sound industrial and agricultural technologies, reforestation, and ecological restoration are crucial elements in creating an equitable and sustainable future for all humankind in harmony with nature. Universities have a major role in the education, research, policy formation, and information exchange necessary to make these goals possible.”

Commitments and efforts such as these at local and global levels will, one hopes, create more globally minded citizens and future decisionmakers who will help mitigate the effects of global warming and move us toward a more sustainable world.

Abraham Parker (e-mail: aparker@aibs.org) is AIBS’s education and outreach program associate.

Researching Teaching Scientifically

While many educators recognize the importance of “scientific teaching,” they are less certain about how to engage in this process. One approach taken by the developers of Teaching Issues and Experiments in Ecology (TIEE; http://tiee.ecoed.net), a peer-reviewed, Web-based collection of ecological educational materials, was to assemble a team of faculty research practitioners who were interested in using TIEE to study their own teaching. “We tested the hypothesis that the research practitioners will develop a deeper understanding of why inquiry promotes improved student learning and will be more committed to its use,” says Charlene D’Avanzo from Hampshire College in Massachusetts, co–principal investigator of the TIEE project along with Bruce Grant at Widener University, Pennsylvania.

TIEE, which is supported by the Ecological Society of America (ESA) and the National Science Foundation, offers college-level experiments and issue-based lecture materials that employ a “student-active,” inquiry approach—that is, students discuss, write, ask, and answer questions, or otherwise engage in their own learning. The materials incorporate scientific teaching strategies, outlining ways for faculty to apply scientific research methods in their classrooms to measure student learning and the effectiveness of their own teaching.

During a workshop at the 2005 annual ESA meeting, 15 TIEE research practitioners formed groups with common questions and experimental designs. “We had to figure out how to design our study, which was very challenging because we were at different institutions with different student bodies and taught different classes,” says Elizabeth Hane, a biology professor at Rochester Institute of Technology in New York. She decided to use pre- and posttests to measure improvements in students’ experimental design skills. To help her students build these skills, Hane gave them progressively more responsibility for the design of each new lab that they conducted in class, culminating with an independent project. “I used to be frustrated that my students didn’t have these skills,” says Hane, who found that her “scaffolded” approach was successful in helping students develop these skills.

Chris Picone, from Fitchburg State College in Massachusetts, was part of a group that measured students’ graphing and analytical skills over a semester. “We were surprised by how much our students struggled with graph design and interpretation,” says Picone, adding, “As scientists, we are so immersed in data that we can forget how nonscientists may view graphs and tables with a very different set of ‘glasses.’” His group discovered that students’ skills improved when they used the “step one, step two” approach to describe and interpret graphs throughout the semester. Picone has benefited from taking a closer look at what the education community has to share. “I now pay attention to the education literature and attend education sessions at the ESA annual meeting, which I never did before being involved in TIEE.”

Robert Humston, from the Virginia Military Institute, worked with a group that investigated the impact of TIEE activities on students’ environmental attitudes and values. The student survey results revealed that the effectiveness of something as seemingly simple as an in-class discussion could depend on the way an instructor facilitates it. “We realized that if you are using a case study to illustrate an ecological pattern or concept, you can’t let students run away with the discussion,” says Humston. There needs to be the right balance of structure for in-class discussions to be meaningful learning experiences.

Although the ESA workshop gave the team members the opportunity to outline their research projects face-to-face, it was critical that they communicate with one another throughout the academic year. “My team acted as a sounding board and a clarifier. It provided a time and a place to think carefully about what you’re doing,” says Alan Griffith from the University of Mary Washington in Virginia. The groups exchanged thoughts and strategies periodically by e-mail and spoke together weekly in teleconferences organized by the TIEE evaluator, Deborah Morris, from Florida Community College. Morris encouraged all of the groups to be introspective and suggested ways for them to analyze their data.

Members of the TIEE research team presented their results during the poster session at the 2006 ESA meeting in Memphis. Their conclusions support the idea that faculty who approach their teaching as they do their scientific research, using carefully constructed experimental designs, become more invested in and more successful at changing their practice for the better. Team members will publish their research in the next volume of TIEE, scheduled for late spring 2007.

Susan Musante (e-mail: smusante@aibs.org) was the manager of the AIBS education and outreach program when this column was prepared.

TIEE Resources

Student-active teaching literature: http://tiee.ecoed.net/teach/teach_links.html#student
Step one, step two graph interpretation: http://tiee.ecoed.net/teach/essays/figs_tables.html
Guided class discussion: www.tiee.ecoed.net/teach/essays/guided_discussion.html
Action research: www.tiee.ecoed.net/teach/teach_glossary.html#action

Cultivating Plant Scientists

At the 2003 annual meeting of the Botanical Society of America (BSA), keynote speaker Bruce Alberts offered members an educational challenge: Bridge the connections between scientists and science classrooms, and develop inquiry-based programs that encourage hands-on student participation in science. BSA scientists responded to the challenge. Together with middle and high school teachers, and with guidance from Barbara Schulz of the National Research Council, they developed and tested an interactive Web-based mentoring program to support student research projects.

Three years later, the pilot testing is complete and the new program, now called Planting Science (http://plantingscience.org), is open to any interested middle school, high school, or college class with a connection to the Internet and a teacher committed to facilitating student-led inquiry investigations on plants.

Once a class is registered for the program, the students form teams, are assigned a science mentor, and are given access to the Planting Science online learning community. The mentors communicate with the teams through an online forum, asking questions and offering feedback to help the team refine its research question and hypothesis and develop an experimental design. Team members are required to keep a research journal, recording observations and posting their entries online. Throughout the process, they continue to communicate with their mentor, and they can also interact with teams from other schools, offering suggestions and feedback to their peers.

One of the scientist mentors is Marshall Sundberg, a BSA officer and plant anatomist and morphologist at Emporia State University in Kansas. He enjoys mentoring students who have not yet declared a major in science because, he says, “They don’t have preconceptions about what is expected and are very inventive.” Sundberg observes that these students can be very good peer reviewers, once they overcome their initial reservations. “The hard part is encouraging them to open up and share their observations,” he adds.

Valdine McLean, a science teacher at Pershing County High School in Lovelock, Nevada, has had over 20 student teams participate in the program. The teams based their research projects on “The Wonder of Seeds,” one of the inquiry topics available through the program. “My students are excited to be in class, willing to participate, more cooperative, and having fun,” says McLean. She attributes their enthusiasm to the hands-on inquiry project and the interactions with the science mentors. “They get to see that scientists are real people, and some have started to think about science as a career, too,” she adds.

McLean says one of her biggest challenges was how best to incorporate the program into an already busy school year. “Implementation of the program,” she notes, “does take a good bit of time, but BSA is very flexible in its requirements.” To assist teachers, BSA provides resources to prepare students for their involvement in the project. These include suggestions for sequencing, primary activities to generate ideas, background information about inquiry, and tips on how to prepare a research journal.

BSA does not demand that teachers follow a particular course of action. “As long as they are encouraging their students to perform experiments on the general research topic,” says Claire Hemingway, BSA’s education director, “anything goes, because we want students to generate their own research questions.” This open-ended inquiry is the key to facilitating authentic student research.

An integral part of the overall goal of Planting Science is to spread the word that anyone can do science. For those teachers who never had the opportunity to conduct independent research, participation in the program allows them to learn with their students. “There was so much that I realized that I wasn’t doing and could do to help students learn the nature of science,” says McLean.

While the experiments the students choose to conduct are not always novel, it is the synergy of the inquiry-based science, student research, and online mentoring that makes Planting Science so powerful. “Being able to talk with a scientist or another student across the country, and get to explain what happened, that is where much of the higher-level learning takes place,” says Hemingway.

The program’s success is linked to the fact that BSA continuously makes improvements in response to feedback from participants. “BSA is very receptive to suggestions,” says Sundberg, who serves on the Planting Science advisory committee. Among the innovations planned for this fall are a new research module, “The Power of Sunlight”; mentor workshops on communication and encouraging scientific habits of mind; and collaboration with other plant organizations, including the American Society of Plant Biologists, American Society of Plant Taxonomists, American Fern Society, and American Bryological and Lichenological Society.

The Botanical Society of America wants to share the model it has developed, as well as the software to support it, with other disciplinary societies. “Planting Science is not a program designed to improve the profile of BSA,” says Hemingway. “The goal is to improve science literacy and help others committed to reaching this goal.”

Susan Musante (e-mail: )) is AIBS's education and outreach program manager.

Summer Research Experiences

Though others might be concerned about adding to their already long list of responsibilities, David Carr says that spending a summer mentoring a local high school teacher through a research project was completely worthwhile. Carr, acting director of the University of Virginia's Blandy Experimental Farm in Boyce, was looking for an innovative way to interact with local teachers. He applied for a supplement to his National Science Foundation (NSF) research grant through the Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) program, and as a result Carla Gorman, from nearby Sherando High School in Stephens City, joined Carr's research team during the summer of 2003.

Anyone with an NSF grant in the biological sciences can apply for a supplement (www.nsf.gov/bio/supp.jsp) and invite students or teachers to be involved in his or her research project. The RET supplements provide a unique professional development opportunity for a K–12 educator to participate in what NSF describes as a "research experience at the emerging frontiers of science in order to bring new knowledge into the classroom." Most of the supplemental funds go directly to the teacher as a stipend, and the rest can help offset expenses for materials and supplies.

"You can get a real payback from teachers' involvement," says Carr, who also regularly mentors undergraduates during the summer. He found Gorman highly capable and motivated. Her
research results were excellent and will be included in Carr's next NSF proposal. Carr encourages his colleagues to apply for an RET supplement to their NSF research, and suggests using existing connections to local school districts to find the right teacher. "Working with an adult can definitely lead to something creative and significant," he adds.

For Gorman, the summer started off as quite a challenge. She finished up the school year and immediately plunged into Carr's world of plants: mating mechanisms, inbreeding, and interactions with natural enemies. "It was almost overwhelming," she recalls, "but doing new research was an incredible learning experience." Although she received some guidance from Carr and often worked alongside one of his undergraduate students, Gorman had to find many answers on her own. Figuring out the protocol for the lab work required much trial and error, and the experiments took a significant amount of time and effort. She drew on skills developed years ago during her college independent research project, and was reminded of how much she really enjoys field biology.

The experience also clearly reinforced the importance of giving biology students actual problems to solve. "Far too often teachers use prepared labs that go straight to the solution," says Gorman, and "then we wonder why students don't enjoy the thrill of science. If there wasn't a problem to solve in the first place, where is the thrill of discovery?"

The excitement of doing science is exactly what inspired Lisa Weise to accept Richard Triemer's RET-sponsored invitation to work in his Michigan State University (MSU) lab for the summer. "Discovering new organisms, learning about all of the types of euglenoids, and sequencing DNA while sitting side by side with a busy research scientist who took the time to work with me was terrific," says Weise, a biology teacher at Holt High School in Holt, Michigan.

Triemer, chair of the plant biology department at MSU, sees the RET work as an investment in the future. He believes that students who are given the opportunity to participate in scientific research before college will be better prepared for college-level biology courses and more likely to pursue science degrees. But teachers need to have the skills and tools to facilitate scientific research. "Although they are asked to teach biology," says Triemer, "many high school teachers are not trained or offered the opportunity to do scientific research."

The teachers who join Triemer's lab become part of a supportive research community, discussing challenges, solving problems collaboratively, and gaining essential scientific skills and knowledge. Triemer and his colleagues also benefit from the interactions, learning teaching tips and techniques from the high school teachers. "We can sit down and talk about why something might be boring," he says, "and ask how we might be able to make things more exciting."

Weise has incorporated the research experience into her biology curriculum. She now supplements her cell biology and evolution units with organism-collecting field trips to local ponds. Her students identify the organisms and match them with genetic sequences in GenBank, the National Institutes of Health's genetic sequence database. They use software to visualize phylogenetic trees showing the relationships between the organisms. Weise is currently writing up the lessons she developed and posting them on the Internet for the benefit of other teachers.

Sharing the research experience with her students was an essential outcome of RET for Weise, who says that her students now see her as a scientist as well as a teacher. Gorman agrees that this is a huge benefit to participating in the RET program. "It's really important for teachers to gain credibility with students," she says, "so that they see their teacher as a biologist who can bring real examples into the classroom."

Susan Musante (e-mail: smusante@aibs.org) is AIBS's education and outreach program manager.

Strategies for Teaching Modeling to Students

Models are powerful tools for understanding systems and solving ecological problems, but they overwhelm many students when they are first presented in life science courses. Models are often perceived as irrelevant, mathematically complex, or too abstract. Yet students need to be engaged in creating and using models—models are an integral part of the biological sciences. How can faculty help students understand models, recognize their relevance to biology, and develop an interest in using them?

Holly Ewing, in the Environmental Studies Program at Bates College, is committed to finding ways to convey the power and excitement of models. Her undergraduate students first create simple, conceptual box-and-arrow diagrams of familiar systems. "We start with the food system at the college," she says, "because it is familiar to the students and relevant to the course objective of understanding material and energy flow in the environment." She also challenges her class to think critically about the scientific models they encounter every day, such as the weather forecast, as well as those used to make policy decisions. "I want my students to understand that many decisions are made based on models, and all of those models have assumptions and data underlying them." Exploring the assumptions found in these models produces numerous questions from curious students.

Although many of his students are not comfortable with mathematics, Charles Welden, in the Department of Biology at Southern Oregon University, has them dive right into building mathematical models themselves. He has had limited success with prewritten computer programs, and he wants to avoid confusing his students with complex differential equations, so he has students use discrete-time difference equations in an Excel spreadsheet. They initially plug data into the basic formulas Welden provides, and they build from there. "They learn not only how the particular models work, and the assumptions that went into them," says Welden, who has coauthored books (with Therese Donovan) on using these spreadsheet exercises, "but also something about the process of modeling in general and its values and limitations."

Actively involving students in using models to solve real-world problems is another approach for generating student interest. Roelof Boumans, associate research scientist at the University of Vermont's Gund Institute for Ecological Economics, and Lisa Chase, director of the Vermont Tourism Data Center and natural resources specialist with University of Vermont Extension, team-teach a graduate-level service-learning course on tourism in northern forests. Chase facilitates rural community focus groups, and Boumans captures data and generates initial models using the STELLA model-building and simulation software. Their students work in teams to further build the models, present them to the community groups, and evaluate the process of model creation and use.

"Building models and working with community groups was completely new to many of us," says Stephanie Morse, one of the students in the course. She and her teammates mapped out relationships and added data to build their STELLA models. The students shared the resulting models with the community, allowing participants to visualize options in an interactive way and explore possible scenarios. The open-endedness of the real-world problem was a huge challenge for the students. "We realized that the process is quite risky," says Morse. "You can change one aspect of the data and get a completely different result." While Morse became more and more interested as the layers of the complex relationships grew deeper, some of her fellow students had the opposite reaction. "They grew more skeptical," says Chase. "It opened the students' eyes to the limitations of data and models."

Welden's students also quickly recognize the limitations of the basic population models he has them build at the beginning of the semester. The students know that simply adding new individuals (births) and subtracting others (deaths) is not a realistic representation of a population. As the students add carrying capacity, predators, competitors, and other factors, their models become more realistic and sophisticated. "The resulting models," says Welden, "are often more complex than those presented in standard ecology textbooks."

Once they are comfortable with models, students can be asked throughout the course to build models to demonstrate their understanding of ecological concepts. "Asking students to build a model of a system is a great way to assess whether [they] understand relationships between processes or the magnitude of different potential inputs to a system," says Ewing, who encourages faculty to incorporate models into courses. She and her colleagues coauthored "The Role of Modeling in Undergraduate Education," a chapter in Models in Ecosystem Science that discusses assessment and provides teaching recommendations.

Although there are many approaches to teaching modeling, the successful ones give students opportunities to create models before using them. "You cannot hand students the finished product; instead, guide them through the process," says Welden. Morse agrees that the students need to create models themselves. "We frequently got stumped and had to go to the instructor with questions," says Morse, but believes it was a valuable learning experience because she and her fellow students had to think through the entire process.

Teaching students to use models takes time, but the results are worth the effort. "Everyone has a model in his or her head," says Boumans, "but they rarely take the time to define the model." Students challenged to define models will hone their critical thinking and quantitative reasoning skills while learning to think of systems as a whole and of science as a process.

Susan Musante (e-mail: smusante@aibs.org) is AIBS's education and outreach program manager.

Resources for scientific modeling and undergraduate education.

Ewing H, Hogan K, Keesing F, Bugmann H, Berkowitz AR, Gross L, Oris J, Wright J. 2003. The role of modeling in undergraduate education. Pages 413–427 in Canham CD, Cole JJ, Laurenroth WK, eds. Models in Ecosystem Science. Princeton (NJ): Princeton University Press.
Gund Institute for Ecological Economics: www.uvm.edu/giee/
Qualitative modeling: http://cse.pdx.edu/forest/modeling.htm
Welden CW. 1999. Using spreadsheets to teach ecological modeling. ESA Bulletin 80 (1): 64–67. www.esajournals.org/pdfserv/i0012-9623-080-01-0064.pdf

Building a Diverse Biological Community

Is America's scientific community an accurate representation of America? Most scientists say no. There are several underrepresented minority groups in the sciences—notably African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, Pacific Islanders, and Alaska Natives. This lack of diversity has been a particular cause for concern among ecologists and environmental scientists, because they are dedicated to preserving a sustainable world. And without a diverse community of scientists who make valuable contributions to the field and serve as mentors and role models for future generations of scientists, how can science truly address global issues? Therefore, in collaboration with funding agencies, professional societies, and minority-serving institutions, a number of dedicated scientists are actively reaching out to minority students and scholars with the goal of diversifying their community.

Nearly a decade ago, the Ecological Society of America (ESA) decided to tackle the problem head-on after a survey revealed that only 0.3 percent of its members were African American. Thus in 1996, ESA partnered with the Institute of Ecosystem Studies and the United Negro College Fund to create a program called Strategies for Ecology Education, Development, and Sustainability (SEEDS). The original focus of SEEDS was faculty and curriculum development at historically black colleges and universities, but in 2002 the focus shifted to serving the needs of individual students. Although the program has evolved, it still maintains its original goal: to promote opportunities in ecology for underrepresented minority students.

SEEDS's new student-focused approach quickly made it popular among minority undergraduates in ecology. According to program coordinator Melissa Armstrong, "SEEDS works because it exposes students to ecology in meaningful and positive ways." This is accomplished through year-long undergraduate research fellowships, field trips to biological field stations, participation in ESA's annual meeting, and student chapters at colleges and universities, many of which are at minority-serving institutions. In each of these settings, program staff and volunteer mentors work closely with students, providing a highly structured and individualized experience to ensure that students get the most out of their participation.

The American Society for Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO) is another leader in efforts to diversify the scientific community. Benjamin Cuker, a professor of marine biology at Hampton University, manages the ASLO Minorities Program, which he helped launch 16 years ago. "I was working at Shaw University, a historically black college, and had grown up in a diverse neighborhood in Detroit, and made the point that the ASLO community did not look much like the world I lived in," explains Cuker. The program brings outstanding undergraduate and graduate students to the ASLO annual meetings, where they can present research, visit local aquatic habitats and ecosystems, participate in workshops on academic and professional development, and interact with mentors and other professionals in their field.

Such interactions and shared experiences between the students and faculty help foster a supportive sense of community. "When we bring students together that share an interest in ecology, their interests are validated and supported," explains Armstrong. Cuker adds, "They develop peer relationships with other minority (and majority) students who share common interests. They also link with mentors who provide advice and opportunities. This is the foundation for the community of scholarship that encourages success."

These efforts by ESA and ASLO have increased diversity within the scientific community, and their success has motivated other organizations to reach out to underrepresented minorities. Certain key characteristics demonstrated by these programs, which are likely to help similar initiatives succeed, include direct connections to faculty at minority-serving institutions, a focus on students early in their undergraduate careers, attention to professional and academic development, and a commitment from board members and chief executives of scientific societies and institutions. The role that professional societies play does make a difference—they have provided these programs with a home and infrastructure, as well as an avenue for students to connect with mentors, fellowships, and employment opportunities. By reaching out to a diverse body of future scientists and scholars, they have taken the first step toward creating a sustainable scientific community.

Abraham Parker (e-mail: ) is AIBS’s education and outreach program associate.

Links to diversity programs in the sciences.
Visit these sites for more information on these and other diversity programs in the sciences:

AIBS Diversity Programs and Resources: www.aibs.org/diversity

ASLO Minorities in the Aquatic Sciences Program: www.aslo.org/mas.html

Ecological Society of America, Strategies for Ecology Education, Development, and Sustainability: www.esa.org/seeds

Learning the Nature of Science

Media headlines question scientists' concerns about global warming. Magazines advertise weight loss products — results guaranteed. Web-based articles and best-selling books explain the evolution of species as "intelligent design" creationism. Students are bombarded daily with claims backed by "scientific research," but where do they obtain the skills and knowledge necessary to distinguish science from pseudoscience?

Students learn about "science as a human endeavor" and the "nature of scientific knowledge" and gain "historical perspectives" throughout their elementary and secondary school education, according to the National Research Council's National Science Education Standards. The undergraduate introductory biology classroom provides an excellent venue in which to reinforce and extend these concepts. For many students, this may be their last formal science training before they join the ranks of the scientifically literate, lifelong-learning citizenry.

Professors may assume that students gain an understanding of the nature of science and scientific inquiry simply by conducting experiments or fieldwork, but education research shows otherwise. Norman G. Lederman, chair of the Department of Mathematics and Science Education at the Illinois Institute of Technology, has been conducting research for more than 20 years on teaching the nature of science. "Conceptions of nature of science are best learned through explicit, reflective instruction," states Lederman. Professors need to make a conscious, deliberate effort to ensure that students learn about the nature of science and scientific inquiry.

History offers an effective lens through which to view human endeavors. David Rudge, professor at Western Michigan University's Department of Biological Sciences and the Mallinson Institute for Science Education, uses examples from the history of biology to illustrate the nature of science to his students. "We invite students to explore problems which are simplified but similar to those encountered by scientists in the past," says Rudge.

Sickle-cell anemia, for example, provides an excellent mystery for students to unravel through open-ended, problem-based activities. Students investigate the disease through a historical perspective, viewing the data as they became available over time to research scientists. As the instructor adds new information, such as geographical distribution data or the connection of heterozygosity to malaria resistance, the students gather evidence to solve the mystery. Along the way, students identify their own misconceptions, which are often similar to those held by past scientists. "It is our hope," says Rudge, "that by undergoing a similar set of experiences, students may undergo a similar sort of conversion in their thought about the phenomenon."

Rudge's classes actively discuss the limitations of these experiments, the way they are represented in textbooks, and the dead ends and risks that scientists faced. In this way, students see how science changes as new information is discovered, and they also learn what can or cannot be answered through science.

Steve Rissing, professor in the Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology at The Ohio State University, says he no longer tries to "teach his students everything there is to know" about biology in his introductory courses. Rather, he facilitates connections between biology and students' lives and helps them learn how science differs from other ways of knowing. "My program has gone pretty far in the direction of explaining to students in ultralarge lecture [and] lab courses the underlying nature of the science they are doing," says Rissing.

His students explore questions such as "What is global warming and why care?" and "Why do we get sick?" They read articles in current news media on issues such as fetal genetic defect testing. Because these topics are relevant to their lives, students become engaged in the process of learning biological content as they look for answers and investigate the dilemmas. Rissing specifically takes the time to discuss the science methods, history, conflicts, and ethics involved in each story, preparing his students for the types of real-world questions and issues they will encounter throughout their lives.

Lederman suggests that professors examine their courses and identify where the nature of science can be explicitly discussed during the lectures or labs.

Although some professors may feel that discussing the nature of science would give them less time to cover biological content, today's introductory biology students are tomorrow's teachers and parents, decisionmakers, politicians, and world leaders. It is essential that they understand how science is distinct from religious, cultural, philosophical, or other ways in which we address questions about the world. Students need to hone their ability to distinguish science-based information from that which is not grounded in scientific research, so that they can make informed decisions about matters that affect not only their own personal lives but all living things.

Susan Musante () is AIBS education and outreach program manager.

Nature of Science Teaching Resources

Making a Difference: Mentoring High School Biology Students

When Claudia Bonilla enrolled in biology class, she knew very little about plant ecology, and had no idea that it would soon become a significant part of her life.

Claudia’s class was part of the EnvironMentors Project, based in Washington, DC. Each student in the class was assigned a mentor to provide guidance on an individual science project. Soon Claudia, a ninth-grader at Bell Multicultural Senior High School, was designing an experiment looking at the effects of water pollution on plants, and learning how to ask questions, gather data, think critically, and draw conclusions based on her observations.

The key to EnvironMentors’ success, according to program director Susan Carlson, is the bond between mentors and students. "Many students would never undertake a project if it weren’t for the friendship they develop with their mentors," says Carlson. Administered by the National Environmental Education and Training Foundation, EnvironMentors connects scientists in the nation’s capital with high school students who are interested in environmental science. In its 13-year history, more than 800 students have participated in the program. Most go on to achieve academic success: 95 percent of participants go on to college (out of a district-wide average of about 45 percent), the majority pursuing degrees in science or engineering.

Mentors are usually staff scientists at government agencies, nonprofit groups, and private companies who share their time, meeting with their students one-on-one several times during the school year. With their mentors’ support, students design and implement an experiment and write research papers, culminating in a science fair competition. The students also participate in a "teach-in," going into elementary school classrooms to share what they have learned with their young counterparts. There is a strong emphasis on college and career exposure; students accompany mentors into their workplace for a firsthand look at a career in science, in addition to participating in college-preparatory workshops.

Claudia based her project on her interest in plants. Watering her plants at home, she wondered, "What would happen if plants were given different types of water, including polluted water?" With guidance from Kirsten Cappel, a staff scientist at the Environmental Protection Agency, Claudia designed an experiment to determine the effect of water from the polluted Anacostia River on plant growth, compared with the effects of tap and bottled water.

Over a four-week period, Claudia watered different specimens with water from the different sources, and measured their height every three days. "I learned that polluted water is bad for plants," she said, "and that tap water is no different than bottled water." Other EnvironMentors students shared similar insights. "I learned that science is trial and error — that you need to go beneath the surface to find a conclusion," says James Soller, a freshman at School Without Walls Senior High School.

These are precisely the goals that Laura Currier, Claudia’s biology teacher at Bell Multicultural, had when she decided to involve her students in the program, "I wanted them to be able to apply science to the real world, because a lot of times it seems like science is so far from their realities." More important, students gain a positive role model and friend in their mentor, something many urban youth lack. "[Almost] all students gain an increased sense of self- esteem and confidence, having worked closely with a mentor to develop what for most is a difficult project," adds Carlson.

The EnvironMentors program has been a driving force in increasing the participation of underrepresented ethnic groups in the sciences — over 90 percent of participating students are African-American. The participation of students from Bell Multicultural School, where 60 percent of students are of Hispanic descent, is an opportunity to embrace this community as well. Though it involves a commitment of additional time and effort, Currier hopes to continue participating in the program because the benefits for the students far outweigh the extra work. "They wrote incredible lab reports, designed great display boards, interviewed experts, and practiced presentation skills," says Currier. "These accomplishments, along with four students winning some scholarship money, make the extra time and work well worth the effort."

At the EnvironMentors awards ceremony on 11 May 2005, Claudia won a special prize for excellence in aquatic research, which includes a $500 scholarship award. Participating in this program has sparked her interest in a science-related career, and for the first time, Claudia considers a college degree to be an option. Her fellow students feel the same way. Doing research and interacting with such a dedicated group of mentors has opened their eyes to the world of environmental science, and to careers and opportunities they never knew existed.

Abraham Parker (e-mail: ) is AIBS’s education and outreach program associate.

For more information on the EnvironMentors Project and other mentoring opportunities, visit www.environmentors.org, www.mentornet.net, and www.mentoring.org.

Creating a Community of Educators to Improve Undergraduate Biology Student Learning

Biology faculty at research institutions belong to a community of scientists. They communicate regularly with others in their discipline, sharing research problems, methods, and conclusions. But what happens when they have a teaching problem? Where do they turn when a new teaching strategy fails, when they encounter student resistance, or when they want to find a better way to measure student understanding?

Twenty teams of faculty from across the country came together last summer to participate in the week-long National Academies Summer Institute on Undergraduate Education in Biology (www.academiessummerinstitute.org), organized by a committee of the National Research Council, sponsored by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), and hosted by the University of Wisconsin–Madison. The purpose of the Summer Institute was to give faculty, trained as scientists, the opportunity to learn how to approach their teaching scientifically and apply the latest techniques in undergraduate biology education reform efforts.

Throughout the intense week, they shared teaching challenges, discussed learning objectives and explored ways to meet them, and developed strategies for measuring outcomes. In small working groups, they incorporated what they had learned into teaching units designed to address critical concepts in introductory biology, foster critical thinking skills, and assess student comprehension in innovative ways. As the Summer Institute’s Web site puts it, the purpose of the units is to "encourage students to learn—as scientists do—through active problem solving and discussion." At the end of the week, faculty participants agreed to test the units in the ensuing academic year.

In early 2005, the Summer Institute teams reconvened to relate their experiences with the new units. Almost all of the faculty who taught in the fall 2004 term had already changed their teaching as a direct result of their participation in the Summer Institute. "Though we don’t yet have quantitative data to show the impact on student understanding, the behavioral change revealed in the reports is certainly evidence of the Institute’s success," reports Jo Handelsman, codirector of the 2004 institute and HHMI professor in the department of plant pathology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

"The institute completely changed my approach to teaching and assessing student learning," says Ingrid C. ("Indy") Burke, professor in the department of natural resources at Colorado State University in Fort Collins. The experience allowed Burke to see firsthand the value of peer learning and inspired her to try new approaches. As a result, Burke says she now truly designs learning experiences for her students rather than lecturing at them.

The opportunity to interact and work with one another was a key factor in the participants’ willingness and ability to diverge from familiar lecture-based teaching toward a student-centered, active classroom. Diane O’Dowd, biology professor at the University of California at Irvine, admits that she would not have implemented the new techniques had it not been for the face-to-face format. "I had been exposed to many of the teaching practices discussed prior to the Institute," says O’Dowd, "but was only convinced that these could be effectively employed in a large classroom after talking with many different faculty who had experience at this level." Mike Hanna, associate professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, agrees that "nothing replaces sitting, eating, and working with individuals committed to the same goal."

In addition to the successes reported at the follow-up meeting, faculty also revealed that they had faced challenges when they introduced the new learning approach. "Taking a group of sophomores, juniors, and seniors and telling them that there’s a better way to learn and you need to work in groups is just plain risky," states Burke. Teaching students who are resistant to new approaches was not easy, and support from Summer Institute colleagues proved to be invaluable. Burke reports: "I have a whole community of individuals that I can call up or e-mail to ask for help or personal support when students are a bit resistant."

Handelsman was "pleased and awed" by the group power witnessed during the follow-up meeting, she said. "We wanted the faculty to build connections through intellectual engagement so that they could turn to each other for support for the rest of their teaching careers." Indeed, those who attended the Summer Institute are now part of a community of educators, and they are well equipped to continue their scientific teaching experiments, thus transforming the way students learn biology.

Susan Musante () is AIBS education and outreach program manager.

The next National Academies Summer Institute on Undergraduate Education in Biology will be held 31 July through 5 August 2005 at the University of Wisconsin–Madison; see www.academiessummerinstitute.org.

Teaching Students with Disabilities: Applying and Learning Scientific Habits of Mind

Jay Hatch, associate professor of biological sciences at the University of Minnesota (UMN) and associate curator of fishes at the Bell Museum of Natural History in Minneapolis, has been a scientist for over 25 years. During his career, he has applied innovative thinking and persistence in tackling myriad scientific challenges. When Kate Jirik, a student with severe physical disabilities, enrolled in his introductory biology course, Hatch was suddenly faced with a new set of challenges.

The course involved a significant amount of lab work, and since Jirik had severe motor limitations and was legally blind, she would be unable to participate in the same way that other students did. According to Jirik, however, "I didn’t want to be included if that meant sitting on the sidelines watching science go by. I want to be an active participant in what is happening." While pondering this dilemma, Hatch questioned the fundamental purpose of the lab. "I discovered that the basic goal was to have students understand the process of science," says Hatch, not merely accomplish physical tasks.

With this as their guiding principle, Jirik and Hatch worked together to establish course modifications. These included not only changes that accommodated her physical limitations, such as the use of an assistant in the lab and extra time to complete worksheets, but also ones that emphasized Jirik’s intellectual strengths. "Accommodations don’t always need to overcome a weakness or inability," emphasizes Jirik. Hatch created new ways for Jirik to show that she understood the lab concepts, and Jirik proceeded to accomplish her goal of completing the course as an active participant.

A second benefit of this approach was that other students, with or without disabilities, had alternative ways to learn and demonstrate their understanding. "About 6 percent of all undergraduate students have a disability, many of which are unreported, and the most common of these are learning disabilities," says Sheryl Burgstahler, director of the program called DO-IT (Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking, and Technology) at the University of Washington.

DO-IT’s goal is to increase college and career opportunities for students with disabilities through innovative programs and resources. An entire section of the DO-IT Web site is devoted to the needs of postsecondary educators, staff, administrators, and students (www.washington.edu/doit/Resources/postsec.html) and includes a searchable database with frequently asked questions and case studies.

Because disabilities are so widespread and wide-ranging, DO-IT encourages institutions to create learning environments that benefit a broad group of people by following the principles of "universal design." "The goal is not to lower the standards," says Burgstahler, "but to design programs and environments which allow all to participate, to the greatest extent possible." The universal design of instruction (UDI) principles are in a brochure published on the DO-IT Web site (www.washington.edu/doit/Brochures/Academics/instruction.html).

The first principle of UDI is to create an inclusive environment. "Attitude plays a huge part of the disabled student–faculty partnership," says Burgstahler. She encourages faculty to not immediately assume students will fail because they don’t look as if they can succeed. "I think it is important for faculty to not have preconceived negative ideas about the abilities of students with disabilities," agrees Jirik, now a PhD student in the history of science and technology program at UMN. Jirik recognizes that there are things she simply cannot do, but "if the focus is on those things, then the possibility of a positive experience is pretty remote."

The principles of UDI are equally relevant and important in lab and fieldwork settings, where some students with disabilities may face the most challenging environmental obstacles. Determining the intended learning outcomes before figuring out course logistics is a vital first step in the process of accommodating students with disabilities (see "Field Work Resources").

It takes time to modify courses, implement new teaching strategies, and meet individual students’ needs. And the more time spent on courses, the less time there is for research. Therefore, stresses Hatch, "institutional support is essential, especially for untenured faculty at research institutions."

Burgstahler encourages faculty to be open-minded and give students with disabilities a chance to succeed, and to consult the students for guidance on how they can best be included in activities. "It is important for all people to take science courses, since so much of our world revolves around science and technology," adds Jirik. "When you exclude certain groups of people, you exclude them from an important part of the world." And who knows, the next Stephen Hawking or Geerat Vermeij may be in your class right now.

Susan Musante () is AIBS education and outreach program manager.

Resources for working with students with disabilities

DO-IT (resources for college and careers)
Entry Point! (STEM [science, technology, engineering, and mathematics] internships)
Jay T. Hatch, David L. Ghere, and Katrina Jirik. 2003. "Empowering Students with Severe Disabilities: A Case Study." Chapter 13 in Curriculum Transformation and Disability: Implementing Universal Design in Higher Education, ed. Jeanne L. Higbee. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota. (15 December 2004; www.gen.umn.edu/research/crdeul/books.htm)