Release date: Aug. 9, 2005
Contact: Beverly Cox Clark at 404-712-8780 or beverly.clark@emory.edu

Emory Science Grad Students Partner With Area Teachers

A program at Emory University is pairing graduate students in science with Atlanta-area middle and high school teachers to develop innovative lessons focused on big ideas in science and math. The program is an effort to help reverse lagging science achievement by using a new set of hands-on, problem-based teaching techniques, part of a growing movement in science education.

Called PRISM (Problems and Research to Integrate Science and Mathematics), the program's goal is to "create a compelling need to know" within students, according to Jordan Rose, PRISM coordinator at Emory's Center for Science Education.

"Problem- and investigative case-based learning make science come alive for students by demonstrating that science is real and integrated into our lives. Such methods engage students in the process of scientific inquiry by asking them to collaboratively address real-world problems. Students become self-directed learners, critical-thinkers and problem-solvers," says Rose.     

The program uses real-world applications to teach the basics of science. Instead of focusing on minutia and dry lectures on science theory, the students learn detail through concepts; for example, principles of chemistry can be communicated through looking at water quality issues. Lessons developed among this year's group include one on infection control and outbreak that involves swabbing surfaces at the school to find and identify different types of bacteria. Other students will learn about math and physics by building model planes using basic principles of engineering.

"Problem-based learning makes you own your knowledge—you have to seek out and discover the answers for yourself instead of having it handed to you," says Yolanda McKee, a health occupations teacher at Carver High School in Atlanta and a 2005 PRISM participant.

Since 2003, the National Science Foundation-funded program has partnered with 39 teachers in 13 middle and high schools around the metro Atlanta area. Eighteen teachers are participating this year with Emory graduate and undergraduate partners in the classroom.

The Center for Science Education is in the midst of doing a comparison study of recent science test scores, but in the meantime many teachers have reported that students who were previously flunking science, or struggling to pass are now making Bs and Cs.

Rose says the program also has the added benefit of helping students from Emory's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences become better scientists and teachers themselves.

"Our graduate fellows overwhelmingly report that they are more confident teachers, improved communicators, better team-players, and more committed partners with K-12 educators," Rose says. "Some even have told us that they are asking better questions about their own research, and feel better prepared to enter the professorate or wherever their career paths might lead them. As one fellow told me, 'If you can handle 30 seventh-graders for a year, a class of undergraduates doesn't seem so daunting.'"

For more information on PRISM, go to: www.cse.emory.edu/prism/index.htm.

Emory University is known for its demanding academics, outstanding undergraduate college of arts and sciences, highly ranked professional schools and state-of-the-art research facilities. For nearly two decades Emory has been named one of the country's top 25 national universities by U.S. News & World Report. In addition to its nine schools, the university encompasses The Carter Center, Yerkes National Primate Research Center and Emory Healthcare, the state's largest and most comprehensive health care system.

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