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2003 Education Committee Report
The Education Committee promotes awareness,
understanding, and education in physiology at all levels, and often works
with other APS committees to achieve this goal. This past year has been
particularly productive, with both new activities and a continuation of past
successful projects.
Graduate Education Professional Skills: A
working group representing the Education Committee, Careers Committee, Women
in Physiology Committee, and Association of Chairs of Departments of
Physiology, has drafted a set of skills that should be developed by trainees
at the graduate, postdoctoral, and early career levels. The group is
co-chaired by Robert Carroll (for APS) and William H. Dantzler (for ACDP),
and includes Francis L. Belloni (APS Careers in Physiology Committee),
Vernon S. Bishop (ACDP), Carole M. Liedtke (APS Women in Physiology
Committee), and William S. Spielman (ACDP). In fall 2003, APS members will
be invited to comment on the draft version of this project in the “Members
Only” section of the APS web site.
Student Member Listserv: A listserv was
developed in May 2003 and is being coordinated by the Education Office to
provide information and discussion options for student members of the APS.
The listserv allows student members to receive notices and information of
special interest to them and to carry on discussions outside specific
Section listservs. The listserv provides an added benefit for student
members. For additional information, contact
education@the-aps.org.
APS Archive of Teaching Resources: In its first
full year of operation, the Archive has grown in both size and diversity of
resources. About 60% of the Archives’ 230+ resources are appropriate for use
at the graduate and professional school levels. These resources include not
only fully catalogued and searchable Advances in Physiology Education
articles (N=140) but also graphics, simulations, webs, PowerPoint
presentations, laboratory activities, and other resources contributed by
individual physiology educators. In January 2003, the Education Office began
tracking the Archives usage, as indicated by web statistics and by user
registration. Total number of “hits,” that is, pages accessed at the Archive
website ranged from more than 75,000 in January to nearly 43,000 in March
(Figure 1). Although this is the first year these data have been collected,
other digital libraries (such as the American Society for Microbiology’s
MicrobeLibrary) experience heavier usage at the beginning and end of each
semester, when faculty are preparing materials for the next course. The
Archive usage stats will continue to be monitored by APS staff. It is
encouraging to note, however, that the number of unique users who came to
the Archive remained consistently high throughout the spring (Figure 2),
ranging from 912 to 1,100. Furthermore, by April 2003, 730 individual users
had registered and downloaded at least one resource from the Archive.
Undergraduate Physiology Education
The Human Anatomy and Physiology Society (HAPS). At the
May 2003 HAPS meeting in Philadelphia, Withrow Gil Wier, Professor of
Physiology, University of Maryland, spoke on “Secrets Of Muscle Physiology:
What The Textbooks Don’t Tell You.” APS member and HAPS liaison, Dee
Silverthorn, gave a report at the HAPS business meeting on joint APS-HAPS
activities. Silverthorn also presented a hands-on workshop, along with
Melinda Lowy and Marsha Matyas from the APS Education Office, on “How to
Make a Good Lesson Even Better: Using the APS Archive of Teaching Resources
to Enhance Your Teaching.” The workshop drew a capacity wall-to-wall crowd
of 42 participants.
David Bruce Awards: The Education Committee has
completed the development of guidelines and procedures for the new David S.
Bruce Awards for Excellence in Undergraduate Research. The awards will be
made each year at the Experimental Biology meeting to up to four
undergraduate students who have submitted both abstracts for the meeting and
award application materials. Jeff Osborn will coordinate the judging of the
submitted abstracts for EB 2004
K-12 Science Education
APS Summer Research Program for Teachers. The Summer
Research Program continues to work with teachers from across the nation,
engaging them in biomedical research; building connections at the local
level between teachers, students, and researchers; improving the teaching
methods and curricular materials used by the teachers; and deepening the
understanding of both teachers and students of how biomedical research is
done and how animals are used in research. The program, now in its 13th
year, has funding from three NIH institutes: NCRR, NIGMS; and NIDDK, in
addition to the support provided by the APS. In addition, George Tempel, at
the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) coordinates the
participation of two to four teachers annually in the program. These
teachers are supported by a grant to MUSC from the National Science
Foundation. In 2002, the overall program supported the participation of 20
teachers from 16 states in a very intensive, yearlong professional
development program.
EB Workshop for Teachers and Students: Education
Committee member Walter Ward coordinated the APS workshop for local high
school teachers and students at EB 2003 in San Diego. The teachers and
students attending had an opportunity to hear an APS 2003 Distinguished
Lecturer, John B. West, describe physiology studies at the top of Mount
Everest, interact with a career panel that included both an experienced
physiologist (West) and two postdoctoral fellows (Martin Farias and Ollie
Kelly), have lunch with an APS member and go on a tour of the exhibits and
posters with a physiologist. In the afternoon APS members assisted as
students explored the factors that affect blood flow and blood pressure via
the “Elvis” experiments, while teachers explored two new inquiry-based labs
(build a working model of the digestive system; experiment with
mechanoreceptors for the sense of touch) developed by APS Summer Research
Teachers.
Local Outreach Team Workshops. In January 2003,
the APS K-12 Programs Coordinator Kathleen Kelly, past Summer Research
Teacher Sandi Mahl, and experienced LOT leader, C. Subah Packer from Indiana
University School of Medicine traveled to Lincoln, NE to conduct a training
session for the newest APS Local Outreach Team, led by Janet Steele at the
University of Nebraska at Kearney. Since their training session, the
Nebraska LOT has already led two workshops in June for local middle and high
school teachers.
My Health, My World. In 2003, the APS will
complete its long-term collaboration with Baylor College of Medicine’s
elementary science and health education program. In 2002, the staff and
Maryland teachers, home school educators, and daycare directors field-tested
the final K-2 unit, “My World and Me.” The “My Health” materials have been
so successful that a major science supplier for K-12 schools, Carolina
Biological Supply, is now assembling and selling both the printed materials
and supply kits to allow teachers to more easily implement the hands-on
activities.
International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF)
Awards: The Intel ISEF brings together over 1,200 students from 41
nations to compete for scholarships, tuition grants, internships, scientific
field trips and the grand prize: a trip to attend the Nobel Prize Ceremonies
in Stockholm, Sweden. The 2003 ISEF was held in Cleveland, OH in May.
Special Awards were given by 93 scientific, professional, industrial,
educational, and governmental organizations in the form of scholarships,
tuition grants, summer internships, scientific field trips, and equipment
grants. The APS participates as a Special Awards Sponsor for ISEF,
recognizing outstanding high school research projects in the physiological
sciences, including cellular physiology, animal physiology, and
neurophysiology. Four students receive cash awards ($1,000 First Prize, $500
Honorable Mentions), T-shirts, and a year’s subscription to NIPS and The
Physiologist. APS is one of the only biomedical research organizations that
gives awards to students.
The judging team was led by APS Education Committee
member William Jackson and included APS members Michael Romero and Ulrich
Hopfer from the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at Case Western
Reserve University in Cleveland, OH. The judging team selected the following
awardees: APS First Place Award of $1,000: Irene Yuan Sun, a senior at Ben
Davis High School in Indianapolis, IN. Sun’s project, “Gene expression
analysis of synovial cells in response to impulsive shock,” also won a
Second Place Grand Prize Award in the category of Medicine and Health. APS
Second Place Award of $500: Daniel Jacob Sachs won with his project,
“Simvastatin activation of ryanodine receptor-mediated calcium channels may
promote myolysis.” Sachs is a senior at John Jay High School in Katonah, NY.
There was a tie for the APS Third Place Award of $500 between Anila Madiraju,
a senior at Marianopolis College in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and Truc Thanh
Pham, a senior at Suncoast High School in Riviera Beach, FL. Both students
will receive $500 from the APS. Madiraju also was awarded an Intel Young
Scientist Scholarship, and her project, “Silencing Cancer with RNA,” was
selected as Best of Category in Medicine and Health. Pham’s project, “Effect
of age on B-cell responsiveness to stromal cell-derived factor-1 (SDF-1) and
B-lymphocyte chemoattractant (BLC)” also was awarded a Fourth Place Grand
Prize.
Refresher Course (Morning) at EB meeting: The
Muscle Refresher Course at EB 2003 was organized by George Ordway and Robert
Hester. The morning session was extremely well attended, attracting at least
250 attendees, most staying for the entire session. The majority of those
attending were faculty at medical schools or colleges/universities who are
currently teaching physiology. As has been done for the past three years, an
afternoon workshop was held to expand on the topic of the morning session.
The afternoon workshop was also coordinated by Ordway and Hester. This
year’s topic was human exercise and included hands-on demonstrations by a
number of exhibitors (BIOPAC Systems, Inc, ADI Instruments (Powerlab), and
iWORX). The workshop was highly successful, attracting 50 participants, the
most since its inception. For 2004, the Refresher Course theme will be cell
physiology. It will be organized by Michael Romero and Jeff Freedman. The
afternoon session will again be devoted to laboratory instruction.
The Education Committee activities would be impossible
without the expert leadership of Marsha Matyas and her staff in the APS
Education Office. Many APS members interact with the Higher Education
Coordinator, Melinda Lowy, as she directs programs related to graduate and
medical education. Kathleen Kelly manages the Education Committee outreach
activities in the K-12 environment, which increase the vitality and
perception of physiology. Brooke Bruthers organizes the travel and a myriad
of other essential functions for both the Committee and the Education
Office. I invite you to visit the APS Education Office and its website (http://www.the-aps.org/education/)
to learn more about the activities of the Education Committee.
Rob Carroll, Chair
Council Actions
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Council accepted the
report of the Education Committee.
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Council approved the
requested funding for the continuation of the Summer Research Fellowship
Program.
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Council approved
posting a draft of the Professional Development Skills document on the
“Members Only” section of the APS website for comments and suggestions from
APS members.
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