Release date: July 26, 2004
Contact: Deb Hammacher, Associate Director, University Media Relations,
at 404-727-0644 or dhammac@emory.edu

Learning-by-Doing Leads Science Education Trends

Imagine: A Nigerian student goes into sickle cell crisis and his classmates try to figure out what is wrong. Three students stranded on a tropical island must figure out how to build a shelter and create a calendar using the sun. A monstrous meteor is headed straight for earth and students must calculate how to destroy it with a carefully aimed rocket.

These aren't the plot lines for the latest reality show, but scenarios Atlanta-area middle and high school students are experiencing in their science classes. To help teachers develop such lesson plans, a program at Emory University called PRISM (Problems and Research to Integrate Science and Mathematics) pairs graduate students in science with Atlanta-area educators to jointly develop innovative lessons focused on "big ideas" in science and math. The goal is to bring the excitement of science to students by using hands-on, problem-based teaching techniques, a growing trend in science education.

"Problem- and investigation-based learning makes science come alive for students by demonstrating that science is real and integrated into our lives," says Pat Marsteller, director of Emory's Center for Science Education. The PRISM program is funded by a three-year, $1.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation. For more on PRISM, go to: www.cse.emory.edu/prism/index.html.

PRISM is one of many programs at Emory directed at enhancing K-12 science education. "The primary goal of all our K-12 programs is to help teachers create a compelling need to know for their students," Marsteller says. "By increasing teacher knowledge and helping them create curricular materials to interest students, we work to increase science literacy and prepare students for college."

Emory science education programs for K-12 students include:

• Emory Preparatory Research Education Program -- PREP:
Each year Emory's PREP, which began in 1988, provides SAT test preparation and summer science enrichment activities for sophomores and juniors in the Atlanta Public Schools.

During spring and summer the students participate in four weekend college preparatory sessions, which include SAT prep, critical thinking and academic counseling, followed by a 6-week summer residential program. The summer component includes course work in biology, chemistry, math and critical thinking. Students also participate in small evening seminars designed to foster discussion.

• The Scholastic Testing and Enrichment Program -- STEP:
STEP was created in 2000 to increase the number of Booker T. Washington High School students who pass the science portion of the Georgia Graduation Test by 10 percent, a goal achieved in the 2002-03 school year. The program's more specific objectives are to: increase students' science capacity by using hands-on activities within the high school's laboratories; increase science enrichment opportunities for students; and improve test-taking skills. For the 2003-04 school year, STEP was implemented as a Saturday enrichment program for about 35 students, and coordinators are awaiting test scores to see if the program matched last year's success.

• Health Career Lecture Series:
The Health Career Lecture Series, a speaker's bureau at Booker T. Washington High School's Health and Human Service Academy, allows students the opportunity to meet with professionals involved in a vast array of health professions. (The academy is a "school-within-a-school" that provides approximately 150 selected students with a focused curriculum on health and human services.) Speakers explain to students the educational aspects of their possible career goals, as well as salary, time commitments, and short and long term goals needed to succeed in their respective fields. Information received during the lecture series is then expanded upon by additional student research.

• The Georgia Internship for Teachers -- GIFT:
GIFT is a professional development program aimed at exposing Georgia middle and high school teachers to the latest business, scientific and technological tools used for teaching and research. The educators are employed for eights weeks each summer in research facilities -- such as Yerkes National Primate Research Center -- or curriculum development laboratories. Once the fellowship is completed, teachers must create an experience-specific action plan to implement in their classrooms, and a strategy for sharing their experience with other teachers.

• The Health Professions Partnership Initiative Summer Internship Program, now in its fourth year, places more than 30 high school and undergraduate students in internships and jobs each June. In conjunction with the Grady Health Care Systems, students are selected for placement after completing an application and 3-4-page essay on their career choices in the health professions. After attending a professional development workshop and career assessment seminar, the students are then assigned to their areas of work interest, including neonatal nursing, radiology, health administration, psychiatry and sports medicine.

• Workshops:
The Center for Science Education conducts workshops throughout the year for Georgia teachers, covering topics that include grant writing, content (such as evolution, epidemiology and chemistry), problem-based learning and the use technology in the classroom.

For more information on these and other programs, go to the Center for Science Education Web site at: www.cse.emory.edu/sciencenet/newfrontmac.html.

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