Alliance between Vanderbilt, Meharry and Metro schools to bring science education to students

NASHVILLE, Tenn.—Metro students will be introduced to Internet-based learning and hands-on science activities, thanks to a grant awarded to Vanderbilt University and Meharry Medical College researchers. The three-year grant from the National Science Foundation will partner the two universities with Davidson County Metropolitan schools with the objective of teaching students to love science.

The project is a collaborative effort to enhance science and technology education in seventh-12th grade, by placing graduate teaching fellows from Vanderbilt and Meharry in Metro classrooms. Metro teachers will use the fellows, who are knowledgeable about the content and applications of science, engineering and technology, as classroom resources.

The approximately $500,000-per-year grant, titled "Alliance for Enhancement of Science Education and Technology," will cover a three-year period beginning Jan. 1, 2000.

"Vanderbilt and Meharry are in an excellent position to partner with the Nashville public schools to ensure that students and teachers have the best possible resources available to them for enhancing science and technology literacy in our schools and our community," said Ettore Infante, dean of Vanderbilt's College of Arts and Science.

Twelve graduate and two advanced undergraduate teaching fellows from Vanderbilt and Meharry will participate in the project each year. The teaching fellows will assist the Metro teachers in the implementation of an integrated seventh-12th-grade science curriculum, as well as help teachers match the local core curriculum with national and state science standards.

The main objectives for Metro students are to enhance science literacy, develop positive attitudes about science, provide individual attention to students through tutoring and mentoring, and to provide role models for students.

But students aren't the only ones who will benefit from the educational outreach. Metro teachers will benefit from the enhancement of their computer technology knowledge and the communication links between teachers and the learning community. And the Vanderbilt and Meharry teaching fellows will learn how to transform their science knowledge into an understandable, teachable platform for students.

Each teaching fellow will be assigned to a specific middle- or high school teacher for one or two semesters and will spend a minimum of 10 hours per week at the specific school and five hours per week in preparation time. After-school hours will be spent tutoring and directing student research projects. In the summer, the fellows will spend at least 10 hours a week for 10 weeks involved in activities with the teachers and students.

During the first year, the majority of teaching fellows will be placed in the Pearl Cohn High School "cluster," which includes Bass, Head and West End middle schools, Pearl Cohn High School and Martin Luther King Science and Health magnet school. These schools were chosen mainly due to the higher percentage of underrepresented minorities in these schools. The remaining teaching fellows will be placed in other schools.

Among the innovations the teaching fellows will use in the classrooms will be teaching technology developed at Vanderbilt. "ImmunoTV," a CD-ROM developed by the Science Education Outreach Program at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, focuses on immunology and microbiology and makes learning truly interactive for the students.

The principal investigators for the grant are Virginia Shepherd, professor of medicine and associate professor of biochemistry at Vanderbilt, Melvin Joesten, professor emeritus of chemistry at Vanderbilt, and Maria Lima, associate professor or microbiology and dean of graduate studies at Meharry. Other senior personnel on the project are Angelo Collins, associate professor of science education, Fred Hamilton, assistant dean for recruitment and special programs at Meharry and Patricia Tellinghuisen, coordinator of the Vanderbilt Student Volunteers for Science.

The project will complement the Vanderbilt-Meharry partnership, Infante said. On July 1, 1998, Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Meharry Medical College announced the establishment of a formal alliance to "enhance the educational, scientific and clinical programs at both institutions."

Vanderbilt University already partners with Metro schools in several educational projects. These include:

Started in 1997, the Teacher in Residence program brings a group of K-12 Metro teachers to Vanderbilt to participate in University research, teacher education and program development.

Day on Campus gives every sixth-grader in Metro the opportunity to visit the Vanderbilt campus for a day and learn about science from the Vanderbilt Student Volunteers for Science (VSVS).

Classroom Partnership takes VSVS' science lessons to fifth- and sixth-grade classrooms. As a Medical School elective course, medical students visit fourth-grade classrooms once a week to engage the students in interactive science activities.

The Summer Science Collaborative for Young Scholars in Physics, hosted by Vanderbilt's Departments of Physics and Astronomy, allows high school students to study with research scientists.

The Microscale Chemistry Workshop for High School Chemistry Teachers is a one-week summer seminar that teaches high school chemistry teachers how to use microscale experiments, which are safer and more time efficient than normal chemistry lab experiments.

Contact: Beth Fox (615) 322-NEWS
beth.fox@vanderbilt.edu