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2009 Education Committee Report
2009 Live Short Courses: In January 2009, the APS conducted live
professional skills training courses for graduate and postdoctoral students.
This was the second time both courses; “Writing and Reviewing for Scientific
Journals,” and “Making Scientific Presentations: Critical First Skills,”
were run concurrently. NIGMS grant funding provided travel fellowships for
all 77 students to participate in the courses. The writing and reviewing
course focused on upper level graduate students and postdocs and the skills
needed for writing and reviewing their first author manuscript for
scientific journals in biomedicine. The presentation skills course was
geared toward lower level graduate students and the skills needed to create
and present their first author posters at meetings. Following the workshop,
students in both courses completed a final “test” of multiple choice
questions and a standard abstract critique to assess student skills in
applying what they learned at the course. The results of these quantitative
assessments are serving as a pilot test for the instruments. The 2010 course
is set for January 14-17 at Disney’s Contemporary Resort in Lake Buena
Vista, FL. The Presentation Skills course is open to any student in
physiology. For the Writing and Reviewing course, we encourage students to
submit samples of their own manuscripts for discussion and revision.
Online Course Development: The staff have developed a draft “Writing
and Reviewing for Journals,” course at the APS Blackboard website. Each
course includes readings, professionally narrated PowerPoint presentations,
written exercises, quizzes, and a pre and post-test. Courses will be
instructor-moderated and students will be able to chat with the instructor
via email or a “virtual classroom.” The second online course, “Basic
Presentation Skills” is under development for fall testing.
Physiology Graduate Program Directors: In response to the success of
the Medical Physiology Course Directors website and group, as well as recent
input from the APS Pipeline Taskforce, the Education Office has begun
soliciting contact information on physiology program directors. It is hoped
that these data will facilitate the organization of a similar support group
for graduate education.
Experimental Biology Activities
EB Refresher Course: The 2009 Refresher Course focused on renal
physiology and was organized by Robert Brock and Robert Hester. The session
presentations are being prepared for the web and Advances publication.
Posters Presented by the Education Office: For the first time,
members of the APS Education Office and Committee submitted abstracts for
presentation as posters at EB 2009. The following were presented at the
session on “Teaching, Learning and Testing in the Biological and Biomedical
Sciences,”: Marsha Lakes Matyas, Melinda E. Lowy, Amy Feuerstein, and Thomas
A. Pressley. “APS Archive of Teaching Resources Expands to Create a
Multi-society, Collaborative Digital Library,”; FASEB J. 2009 23:633.10; C.
Brooke Bruthers, Martin Frank, and Marsha Lakes Matyas. “K-12 Minority
Outreach Fellowship: Bridging Generations Among Minority Scientists,”; FASEB
J. 2009 23:633.11; Mel Limson and Marsha Lakes Matyas. “Physiology
Understanding Week: Developing a national outreach program,”; FASEB J. 2009
23:633.12; Melinda E. Lowy, Nansie A. McHugh, William R. Galey, and Marsha
Lakes Matyas. “APS Undergraduate Summer Research Fellowship Program:
Exposing Undergraduates to Physiology Research Leads to a Research-Focused
Career,”; FASEB J. 2009, 23:633.9.
Meeting of the Medical Physiology Course Directors: At EB 2009, 25
medical physiology course directors attended the meeting. Participants
talked about both renal physiology content and how best to teach it. Several
asked for refresher course speakers to discuss how many hours in their
courses were dedicated to the specific refresher course topic. The Education
Committee is exploring the AAMC CurrMIT website to gather information on the
number of hours spent on each physiology topic in the medical curriculum.
Sharing Resources at IAMSE: The Committee, with support from staff,
exhibits at the International Association of Medical Science Educators (IAMSE).
IAMSE’s mission is “to advance medical education through faculty development
and to ensure that the teaching and learning of medicine continues to be
firmly grounded in science.” The APS Education Committee has coordinated
staffing an exhibit at the IAMSE meeting for several years. Budget includes
an exhibit table and materials but no travel support for staff or APS
members.
APS Archive of Teaching Resources: The Archive of Teaching Resources
upgrade was completed in December 2008 and the new Archive launched in
January 2009. The new Archive interface provides extensive tools for both
browsing and searching, highlights APS research and announcements on the
front page along with a “This Month in History” feature that highlights
important dates in physiology and biomedical research. “My Archive” features
allow users to save and share search results. The submission process has
also been simplified and now includes the ability to “clone” a submission.
This allows a contributor to easily add similar items without going through
each submission step again. The new Archive also has the ability to create
“collections.” For example, the Archive can associate a podcast with the
associated journal article, press release, and discussion questions to be
used in the classroom. The Archive layout is being used as a model by other
scientific societies (AAAS, ASM) as they update their libraries. As of June
10, 2009, the Archive includes more than 2,300 items with an additional 300
items under review and has more than 5,800 registered users. In the first 5
months of 2009, users have viewed the information on more than 56,000
teaching resources and have accessed more than 27,000 resources. The Archive
was promoted via poster/abstracts at the 2008 National Science Digital
Library Annual Meeting and EB 2009, and by presentations at the National
Association of Biology Teachers (NABT) and Human Anatomy & Physiology
Society (HAPS) 2008 and 2009 meetings and the 2009 Science Education
Partnership Awards PI annual meeting.
Promoting APS Podcast Use: The Education Committee is conducting a
pilot project to develop teaching resources to enhance and promote the use
of the APS Life Lines podcasts in undergraduate courses and K-12 classrooms.
A Subcommittee is developing question and answer sheets for each podcast and
a group of past Summer Research APS Education Committee 2009 and teachers
are reviewing them for grade appropriateness. Links will be provided to the
podcast, Q&A sheets, related research articles/press releases, and related
websites.
APS Summer Research Program for Teachers: In 2008, the program supported 11
teachers from 10 states, fully supported by the APS Council and
contributions for stipends and/or travel from their Research Hosts while new
proposals for external funding were under review. These teachers completed
their fellowship year by participating in EB 2009. Six teachers presented
research posters and two of those teachers gave oral presentations. In 2009,
18 teachers from 13 states are working in the laboratories of APS members.
These teachers have completed three online professional development units
and attended the APS Science Teaching Forum in July.
2008 EB Plenary Session and 2009 APS/NSTA/NSDL Webinar: The Education
Office is working to utilize EB sessions to reach far more participants than
those who can attend the meeting. For example, the 2008 EB Workshop for
Teachers and Students plenary session, “Human Physiological Limits to
Exploring Mars” by James Pawelczyk, Associate Professor of Kinesiology &
Physiology, Penn State Univ. and former NASA payload specialist astronaut,
was recorded and edited and will be available at the APS website and through
the APS Archive of Teaching Resources. In 2009, Pawelczyk was invited by APS,
the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA), and the National Science
Digital Library (NSDL) to speak at a collaborative webinar, “APS: Studying
the Human Limits of Exploring Mars.” The webinar was attended live by more
than 65 teachers, a very large “crowd” for an online teacher webinar.
International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) Awards: The 60th
Annual International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) was held in Reno,
NV May 11-16, 2009. More than 1,600 students from 51 countries, regions, and
territories competed in the world’s largest pre-college science competition.
During the two evenings of awards ceremonies, more than $4 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 the17 categories ranging from $500 to $3,000 were presented by the
Intel Foundation. Special Awards were presented by more than 70 scientific,
professional, and educational organizations and included scholarships,
summer internships, book and equipment grants, and scientific field trips.
This year’s APS judging team leader was Education Committee member Robert
Hester, Univ. of Mississippi Medical Center. He was accompanied by Education
Committee member Mark Knuepfer, St. Louis Univ. Receiving $1,500 for first
place was Zinan Zhang, 16, a junior at Chamblee Charter High School in
Chamblee, GA for his project entitled, “Adenosine 2b Receptor: A Novel
Therapeutic Target for Irritable Bowel Syndrome.” The APS Second Place
winner ($1,000) was Jasmine Samaiya Roberts, 15, of Paul Wharton High
School, Tampa, FL for her project entitled, “Does Chronic Hyperglycemia have
an Effect on Alzheimer’s Amyloid-Beta Pathology in the Brain?” The APS
judging team selected the project of Melissa Severn McDowell, 16, from Saint
Joseph’s Academy, Baton Rouge, LA for one of two APS Third Place awards
($500) for her project entitled “Differentiation of Bovine Adipose Derived
Adult Stem Cells.” The second third place APS award ($500) was presented to
Stephanie Mian Wang, 17, of Roslyn High School in Roslyn Heights, NY.
Stephanie’s work was titled, “The Novel Property of the Circulating Hormone
AM and Its Binding Protein: Neuroprotection in Hypoxia.”
Biology Olympiad: In the spring of 2009, the APS was invited to join
the USA Biology Olympiad (USABO) 2010 National Finals, sponsored by the
Center for Excellence in Education. The APS was requested to provide an
instructor who could offer training in animal physiology and a laboratory
experience to 20 high school students in preparation for the competition in
June 2010. Training is likely to take place at either Purdue Univ. (Indiana)
or George Mason Univ. (Virginia). The objectives of the USABO Finals are as
follows: 1) select the team of four student finalists that will represent
the USA in the International Biology Olympiad; 2) help the students to
expand their understanding of biology and their ability to use that
understanding in integrative and significant ways; and 3) help as best the
instructors can in the limited time available to help the students develop
their laboratory skills and their understanding of laboratory processes. The
Committee will identify an APS member who can serve as an instructor at the
Committee’s fall meeting.
APS Position Statement on K-12 Outreach: Explicit statements of the
importance of specific scientific disciplines, teaching approaches, and
advocacy in K-12 education have been released by several universities and
professional societies. For many years, the APS has pursued multiple
initiatives in K-12 outreach. As the various programs of the Society have
become more ambitious, they frequently require the input from multiple APS
Committees, including Education, Career Opportunities, Trainee Advisory,
Porter Physiology Development, and Women in Physiology. Beyond the Strategic
Plans, however, the Society has never developed an explicit statement of its
recommendations to K-12 educators or its goals in pursuing these efforts.
The Education Committee requested and received Council approval to develop
such a position statement, in cooperation with other relevant Society
committees.
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