School for Science and Math at Vanderbilt
High-school students receive an interdisciplinary education in how to think like scientists.

Beginning this fall, a first-of-its-kind partnership between Vanderbilt University and Nashville's Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools will offer advanced high-school students the opportunity to explore science and math in an intensive, research-based environment. The School for Science and Math at Vanderbilt aims to help students develop the higher-level critical thinking and research skills they need to excel in both college and the real world.

Collaboration between school district and university is essential to this unusual program, where students attend classes and laboratories at dedicated facilities on the Vanderbilt campus - 9th through 11th graders one day each week, seniors two half-days - and at their regular schools the rest of the week. "It's not being done anywhere like this," says director Glenn McCombs. "There are many research internships and early admission college attendance programs, but ours is probably the only one in the country with that formal commitment [from the school district]. We have the students from 9th through 12th grade, there is an academic year and summer component, and courses are high-school honors accredited."

In addition to putting Vanderbilt research into practice, McCombs says, the partnership provides the local school district with "a huge pool of resources in terms of personnel and laboratory facilities." A full-time core faculty of PhD scientists is augmented by VU and VUMC researchers, postdoctoral fellows, graduate students, and retired scientists as they teach content, lead discussions, provide laboratory tours, and help with team projects during summer sessions.

The four-year curriculum begins with an interdisciplinary introduction to critical thinking that "connects the sciences and math through real-world problems and solutions," says McCombs. "They will learn by asking questions. What questions do you ask in research? And then how do you try to figure out the answer?"

While students will eventually focus on a specific area such as physics, chemistry, engineering, or the biological sciences, they begin with the interdisciplinary examination of a topic or problem. "We can have a single subject - such as brain power - " explains McCombs, "and then connect several disciplines through the idea of energy. We talk about the biological and physiological basis for energy in our own bodies. We can also talk about the chemical basis - what does it really mean when we say ATP is broken to release energy which then powers us? And then we can compare that to other energy systems - artificial, such as combustion engines (engineering) - or in other organisms such as plants (botany). There's a vast array of pieces that can be captured and integrated with a concept as broad as energy."

By the summer between 11th and 12th grade, students are ready to conduct their own research under the mentorship of Vanderbilt research faculty. They spend the following academic year working to disseminate the results via participation in national science competitions such as Intel and Westinghouse, producing journal-quality publications or manuscripts, and creating community outreach programs.

The community outreach aspect in particular ties in with the school's umbrella organization, Vanderbilt's Center for Science Outreach (CSO). Directed by Virginia Shepherd (professor of pathology and associate director of the LSI), the CSO connects scientists with K-12 classrooms through a variety of educational initiatives. "There's a lot of potential to fold students back into the CSO's other K-12 and community programs," McCombs says.

The relationship with the CSO will also help expand the positive effect the program has on participating students, spreading it to the school district and, eventually, to the nation. "The CSO offers distance learning, summer research internships, and teacher workshops," McCombs says. "So we've got some background and experience in how to take things that we do here to the learning community. We also see this as a potential national model for other universities."

To learn more about the School for Science and Math at Vanderbilt, visit www.scienceoutreach.org.