Claire Hemingway - US grants

The Botanical Society of America, Texas A&M University, and BioQuest are collaborating to enhance student interest in information technology-related plant science careers and understanding of information technologies used in the study of plant science. The goals of the Plant IT Careers, Cases, and Collaborations project are to (1) increase high school and middle school student awareness of IT-intensive plant careers and practicing scientists, (2) create new and adapt existing instructional materials that enhance student interest in and understanding of plant biology and technologies scientists use in conducting plant research, (3) help secondary school teachers infuse technology and scientific inquiry into their teaching of plant biology, and (4) engage students and teachers in forming collaborative learning communities. The project is exposing students to diverse plant science career pathways and providing them with opportunities to conduct, design, and discuss plant science investigations. The STEM content focus is IT-rich topics in plant biology such as bioinformatics, biotechnology, GIS mapping, and image analysis. The IT emphasis is on video, modeling, spreadsheets, digital libraries, and online communication.

The project is providing approximately 60 teachers recruited from across the nation with 120 hours of professional development during two-week long summer institutes and quarterly online reflection meetings during the school year. Approximately 70 students from rural and urban areas of Texas are attending one-week long summer camps. Indirectly, the project will impact at least 7,000 students nationwide. About 50 scientists are participating in project activities. The evaluation plan is assessing changes in participants' IT skills, science understanding, career awareness, attitudes, and practices.

Plant Science Research in Education is a five-year, full-scale project to implement a program of professional development for teachers and web interface that links scientists with urban classrooms currently targeted for Chicago and St. Louis. Scientist mentors will work with students and teachers through the web to carry out an original "authentic" inquiry project in plant science. The project is collaboration between the Botanical Society of America and Texas A&M University. The classroom intervention involves high school biology students working in assigned teams to generate their own research questions in plant science centered on core biology concepts from the National Science Education Standards. Project will provide for intensive summer workshops for 76 teachers and instructional materials for these classrooms that are anticipated to impact at least 9120 students during the life of the project. The project targets several important demographic groups including rural communities and urban public schools in Chicago and St. Louis.

This project includes the Botanical Society of America, The American Society of Plant Biologists in partnership with Texas A&M University and K-12 teachers. It intends to use plants as the paradigm for teaching biology to K-12 students. Furthermore, the plan is to establish a network of mentors and K-12 teachers who will be a part of a learning community. There will be online support for K-12 teachers for this project. Inquiry-based instruction where the students actually pose the research questions is proposed.
Anticipated products include (a) web-based platform for collaborative workspace and online discourse; (b) access on line to a nationwide network of scientist mentors and peers; and (c) starter materials for thousands of students to conduct plant experiments.