2007 Education Committee Report
Web-Based Professional Skills Courses
With support from the NIGMS Minority Opportunities in
Research (MORE) division, the APS is developing live, web, and CD-ROM short
courses that focus on critical professional skills areas. Each course will
include a strong focus on the interaction of racial/ethnic background and
culture with the development of these skills. Students who complete the
course(s) will:
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improve their performance in specific professional skills areas;
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increase their understanding of how these skills can impact career
opportunities and advancement in biomedicine;
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increase their understanding of how diversity issues, especially
cultural influences and background experiences, can interact with the
development of professional skills targeted by the course; and
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increase their knowledge of resources and materials that can further
assist in their development of these key professional skills.
Although direct oversight of the project resides with
the Education Committee, the Careers in Physiology, Porter Physiology
Development, Trainee Advisory, and Women in Physiology Committees are
actively involved in the project, particularly through the project’s
Advisory Board.
Live Short Course Development – Basic Presentation
Skills
In 2007, the Education Office developed materials for a
live short course focused on basic presentation skills and poster
development. Two live short courses were held in 2007 to field test the
materials. Numerous APS members volunteered to be speakers and small group
leaders and to provide feedback on the draft materials. Several of the small
group leaders asked to serve at the second course and in future courses. The
short courses also included participants and group leaders from other
biomedical research societies (American Society for Microbiology and Society
for Developmental Biology). Initial feedback from participants and group
leaders at both live short courses indicate that they were highly
successful.
Online Course Development
In 2007-2008 this project will develop the live short
course materials into an interactive, online course, as well as prepare the
live short course materials for easy download and course replication.
Continuation of Live Courses
Although the current NIGMS grant does not provide
support to implement additional live short courses, the feedback from the
participants and instructors was overwhelmingly positive, emphasizing the
usefulness of the live interactions during the course, As a result, at its
spring 2007 meeting, the APS Council voted to partially support two live
short courses each year for the next three years. Students will pay a fee to
attend the course. The fee will include the course, materials, housing, and
meals. The 2008 courses will be in January and will include both the writing
and reviewing for journals course and the basic presentation skills course.
Future Courses
The APS Education Office plans to submit a grant
proposal to NIGMS to develop additional courses in 2009-2011.
EB Refresher Course
The APS Refresher Courses are designed to provide both
an intensive overview of content in one of the areas of physiology and
opportunities to review new teaching methods and materials for physiology
instruction. They are targeted especially for non-specialists who have
teaching responsibilities in the refresher course's content area in medical
education. The 2007 Refresher Course focused on gastrointestinal physiology
and was organized by Education Committee members P.K. Rangachari and L.
Britt Wilson. The session was well attended with about 150 participants.
Judging from the submitted comments, attendees matched the targeted
audience: 64% teach medical physiology and only 35% listed gastrointestinal
physiology as their primary field. Participant ratings of the usefulness of
the presentations were very positive.
In 2008, the EB Refresher Course will focus on
respiratory physiology.
Meeting of the Medical Physiology Course Directors
As a joint project of the APS and ACDP, the APS has
created an online resource site for medical physiology course directors
(http://www.the-aps.org/education/course_director1/). Resources include
information on faculty evaluation, course evaluation, curriculum issues, and
instructional options. For the past three years at EB, interested course
directors have met to receive updates on the resources already available at
the website and to share materials to further populate the site.
Sharing Resources at IAMSE
The Education Committee and Education Office
coordinated an exhibit at the International Association of Medical Science
Educators meeting in Cleveland in July 2007. The exhibit shared information
on the Medical Physiology Course Directors Website (an APS member benefit),
APS membership information, and information on the APS Archive of Teaching
Resources.
APS Archive of Teaching Resources
The APS Archive is a free digital library of teaching
resources. The Archive has partnerships with a number of professional
societies: Human Anatomy and Physiology Society (HAPS), Society for
Developmental Biology (SDB), IUPS Education Group (IUPS), and National
Association for Health and Science Education Programs (NAHSEP). These
partners add their own materials to the Archive, making it a collaborative
effort. It includes both materials published by APS and continues to grow in
both size and diversity of resources.
The Archive is also a partner in the National Science
Digital Library (NSDL) Pathways to the Biological Sciences online portal.
This portal, BioSciEd Net or “BEN,” is housed at the AAAS and the APS is a
founding partner in the BEN collaborative. At BEN, users can freely search
the peer-reviewed resources of more than 20 professional societies.
K-12 Materials Review
As part of a recent National Science Foundation (NSF)
grant, the APS developed new review criteria that will allow K-12 materials
developed by Frontiers in Physiology Summer Research Teachers to be reviewed
and added to the Archive. These criteria include not only scientific
accuracy and appropriate use of animals and humans in laboratory activities
(the standard Archive review criteria), but also appropriate grade level,
safety issues, and experimental focus.
BEN Scholars
The APS is collaborating with other BEN societies on
the development of a new undergraduate faculty development program, called
BEN Scholars. BEN scholars are undergraduate faculty members in life
sciences, who develop specific expertise in the uses of digital libraries to
enhance teaching and learning, how to contribute to a digital library, and
how to conduct professional development activities for colleagues at their
home campuses.
Archive Upgrade
The NSF grant also is providing partial support for a
complete upgrade of the Archive programming. This will include a new front
look for the Archive but, more importantly, important backend upgrades of
the Archive database and interactive online review system. It will also
allow Education Office staff to more easily add new partners to the Archive,
including the addition of new variables and separate review systems for each
partner. This work is being supported by the NSF grant, NSF funding From the
Society for Developmental Biology, and the APS.
Medical Physiology Learning Objectives Project
The Medical Physiology Learning Objectives were
published in 2000 with a planned periodic review by each APS section to
update the objectives on a regular basis. The ACDP will continue to
periodically revise sections to insure that they remain current.
Summit Meeting on Undergraduate Physiology
The APS seeks to increase the pool of applicants
interested in pursuing graduate training in physiology. The Society has
already established a summer research program in physiology, a highly
successful EB undergraduate poster session, and an undergraduate research
award (the David Bruce awards). In order to identify effective additional
strategies to increase exposure of undergraduate students to physiology, the
APS Council authorized funds to support a meeting of institutional
representatives to explore and develop a set of models for undergraduate
programs in physiology. In September 2006, the APS Education Committee
convened the brainstorming summit in Bethesda, MD and invited physiologists
from a wide variety of undergraduate-serving institutions. The specific
objective of this summit was to gather information for development of a
report that includes models for establishing undergraduate physiology majors
and minors, partnerships between medical schools and undergraduate
departments to promote excellence in physiology education, and other
initiatives to promote physiology at the undergraduate level. The report
will provide the basis for future APS activities at the undergraduate level.
David Bruce Awards
The Education Committee has completed its fourth round
of David S. Bruce Awards for Excellence in Undergraduate Research. A total
of 59 applications were received for the 2007 awards, double that of the
previous year. The Committee selected 17 finalists based on the abstract and
a one-page letter submitted by the undergraduate students. The 17 finalists
each made oral presentations with their posters to the judging team
comprised of Education Committee members and additional APS reviewers. From
that group, six awardees were selected.
EB 2007 Undergraduate Poster Session
All undergraduate students who were first authors on
abstracts submitted to APS sessions at EB 2007 were contacted and invited to
present their posters at a special APS Undergraduate Poster Session held on
Monday afternoon. Of the 109 undergraduates invited to present at this
special session, 93 (85%) responded positively and put their posters up at
the session. Approximately 200 APS members came to see the posters and talk
with the students. Again this year, physiology departments were invited to
pay a fee for table space to promote their graduate programs to the
undergraduate students at the session. Fifteen institutions from 13 states
and Canada participated, paying $250 each. These funds help offset the cost
of poster boards and refreshments. This was 500% increase in the number of
participating institutions over the previous year.
HAPS Collaboration
Human Anatomy and Physiology Society (HAPS) is an
association of physiology educators, primarily from community and four-year
colleges. The APS collaborates with HAPS in a number of ways, including
exhibiting and conducting workshops at HAPS meetings. HAPS also is a partner
in the APS Archive of Teaching Resources, cataloguing past issues of their
journal, HAPS Educator, for free access in the digital library. In
addition, the APS sponsors a keynote research update speaker each year. In
2007, L. Gabriel Navar was the APS-sponsored speaker, presenting an update
talk on renal physiology.
Navar’s talk was part of a new initiative by HAPS to
provide structured professional development for undergraduate faculty
members. The HAPS Institute combines pre- and post-meeting assignments with
keynote talks and workshops at the HAPS meeting to create a one-credit
continuing education course through the University of Washington. Navar’s
talk was the keynote talk around which a course on advanced renal physiology
was built.
Frontiers in Physiology
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. In
2007, the program is supporting 16 teachers from 14 states in an intensive,
year-long professional development program.
As always, APS members show strong support for the
program. Members not only volunteer to host teachers in their laboratories,
but also provide the needed lab materials and supplies for each teacher’s
research and, often, provide part of the stipend and travel costs for the
teacher.
Local Site Team Development
The APS continued its support for outreach via Local
Site Teams (LSTs) in 2006-07. LSTs combine the expertise and enthusiasm of
physiologists and science teachers to provide effective training workshops
for middle and high school science educators in their region.
EB Workshop for Teachers and Students
Education Committee member Joseph Benoit of the
University of North Dakota coordinated the 2007 APS Workshop for High School
Teachers and Students. More than 100 Washington, DC-area teachers and their
students attended the workshop, along with APS members and 2006 Frontiers
Research Teachers (RTs). The keynote talk, “Why Fat is Good: The
Physiological Consequences of Obesity in Mammalian Hibernators,” was given
by APS member and Porter Committee chair, Gregory L. Florant of Colorado
State University. His talk was followed by a Careers Panel that included
Florant and APS members Patricia Molina of Louisiana State University Health
Sciences Center, and Mesia Steed of the University of Louisville. Steed was
also the 2006 APS Minority Outreach K-12 Fellow. The panel was moderated by
science teacher Margaret Shain (Indiana). Thirty two APS members served as
tour guides during lunch. They took teachers and students through the
exhibits and posters and shared a box lunch while discussing physiology
careers.
The afternoon student session was led by Robin Looft-Wilson
of the College of William & Mary, with assistance from Barb Goodman of the
Univ. of South Dakota, Jeffrey Osborn of the Univ. of Kentucky, Rayna
Gonzales of the Univ. of California, Irvine, Jennifer Uno of the Univ. of
North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and the two 2007 APS Minority Outreach K-12
Fellows, Jessica Clark of Washington Univ. in St. Louis, and Clintoria
Richards of the Univ. of Alabama, Birmingham. Students used the “Elvis
Experiments” from the APS “Physiology of Fitness” unit to learn about
factors affecting flow of liquids through tubing (radius, length,
viscosity). While students were conducting their experiments, their teachers
(as well as the 2006 Research Teachers) participated in workshop activities
on the anatomy and physiology of the heart, and an inquiry approach to
identifying and classifying slide images of tissue samples, with
presentations led by science teachers Cynthia Pfirrmann (New Jersey) and
Stephen Biscotte (South Carolina). Benoit and Thomas Pressley coordinated
the teacher workshop.
International Science And Engineering Fair (ISEF)
Awards
The 58th Annual International Science and Engineering
Fair (ISEF) was held in Albuquerque, NM May 13-19, 2007. Nearly 1,500
students from 47 countries, regions, and territories competed in the world's
largest pre-college science competition awards. During the two evenings of
award ceremonies, over $1 million in scholarships, cash prizes, and awards
were distributed in categories ranging from behavioral science to
engineering and medicine. Prizes included scholarships, cash awards,
scientific field trips to foreign countries, and the grand prizes: three
$50,000 scholarships from Intel. Grand Awards in each of the14 categories
ranging from $500 to $5000 were presented by the Intel Foundation. Special
Awards were presented by over 70 scientific, professional, and educational
organizations and included scholarships, summer internships, book and
equipment grants, and scientific field trips.
For the 12th year, the APS presented four awards in the
form of cash prizes, certificates, and Physiology subscriptions for
the best projects in the physiological sciences. This year’s APS judging
team was lead by Britt Wilson from the Univ. of South Carolina. He was
accompanied by Nancy Kanagy, Laura Gonzalez Bosc, Brad Broughton, and Karen
Sweazea, all from the Univ. of New Mexico. Matthew Campen from Lovelace
Respiratory Research Institute also served as part of the APS judging team.
Physiology Understanding Week
The primary objective of Physiology Understanding Week
is to increase student interest in and understanding of physiology in their
lives and to introduce them to physiology as a possible career.
2006 PhUn Week Activities
The theme of PhUn Week 2006 was exercise and health. A
website (http:///www.PhUnWeek.org) and dedicated email address (phunweek@the-aps.org)
were established for providing basic program information and downloadable
resources. Briefly, in 2006, eight APS members with a total of 16 other team
presenters, in collaboration with 15 teachers, coordinated nine outreach
events in schools or classrooms. One 2005 APS Teacher Fellow, Jessica Tiatia,
Daly City, CA, also held an event in her classroom. More than 1,000 students
participated, from grades 1-12. An overview article was written for the
April 2007 issue of The Physiologist.
Science + Society Meeting
In January 2007, APS’ Physiology Understanding Week was
highlighted at the “Science + Society: Closing the Gap Conference” in
Boston, MA, as one of 14 organizations having an innovative project for
communicating science to local communities. “PhUn Week: Promoting the
Understanding of Physiology” was presented, describing the APS education
programs and the member-based PhUn Week outreach initiative. The conference
was convened as the first science-related event among scientists, educators,
media professionals, policy makers, and the public to discuss effective and
practical ways to improve science communication and enhance science
literacy.
EB PhUn Week Training Session
The objectives of the first annual Physiology
Understanding Week Training Session at EB 2007 were to increase awareness of
PhUn Week among members, to recruit members in participating in PhUn Week
2007, to instruct PhUn Week leaders in the methods and materials for the
program, and to brainstorm plans and themes for 2008. Participants in PhUn
Week 2006 events briefly presented their collaborations and visits to
classrooms.
Funding and Partnerships
A potential partnership for developing a PhUn Week 2007
event to coincide with an exhibit at the Boston Children’s Museum was
established at the “Science + Society Conference.” Currently, the Science
Program Manager of the museum is in communication with the APS Education
Office and APS member Andrea Gwosdow of Gwosdow Associates Science
Consultants in the greater Boston area. Preliminary plans are underway for
enhancing the museum’s “Kid Power” exhibit on exercise and health for the
family during PhUn Week (November 5-9, 2007).
Interest for a prospective corporate sponsorship with
AD Instruments was generated from the PhUn Week training session at EB 2007.
The APS Education Office is in preliminary discussions and planning with the
AD Instruments Marketing Manager to incorporate the use of the company’s
technology and equipment for a targeted PhUn Week event with an experienced
APS member. Representatives from AD Instruments were invited to attend and
demonstrate their equipment and software with science teachers during the
2007 Science Teaching Forum of the Frontiers in Physiology Professional
Development Program (July 23-29).
IUPS Collaborations
21ST Century Physiology Project
This project, headed by APS Council member, Dee
Silverthorn, is revising a set of older IUPS and APS laboratory activities
to incorporate more effective student-centered teaching methods and to
update content in the activities. IUPS members are collaborating in the
development process. In 2006-07, the current and past Education Committee
chairs worked with APS staff to review and revise several activities. These
are currently being field tested and should be ready for Archive submission
soon.
Enhancing Teaching among US and International
Members
The Education Committee, Education Office, and APS
Teaching Section played an active role in the 2005 IUPS Teaching Satellite
Meeting following the IUPS/EB meeting. Currently, APS members and the APS
Education Office are working to submit a number of proposals for the 2009
IUPS meeting and the planned IUPS Teaching Satellite meeting in Kyoto.
Thomas A. Pressely, Chair
Education Committee
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