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