Web-Based Professional Skills Courses
With support from the NIGMS Minority Opportunities in Research 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: Improve their performance in specific professional skills areas; Increase their understanding of how these skills can impact career opportunities and advancement in biomedicine; 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 Increase their knowledge of resources and materials that can further assist in their development of these key professional skills.
2008 Live Short Courses
In January 2008, the APS conducted its first “fee-based” live professional skills training courses for graduate and postdoctoral students. This was the first time both courses, ‘Writing and Reviewing for Scientific Journals’ and ‘Making Scientific Presentations: Critical First Skills’ were run concurrently. NIGMS provided travel fellowships for 26 minority students to participate in the courses. The writing and reviewing course focused on upper level graduate students and post-docs 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.
For 2009, there will be more active recruitment and advertising within the Society and through other organizations as well. The 2009 course will be January 14-17 at Disney’s Contemporary Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. The focus for the Writing and Reviewing course in 2009 will be cell and molecular physiology, comparative physiology, endocrinology, GI physiology, and respiration.
Project Summary
The proposed project, “Mentoring Skills for Minority Neuroscientists,” will use the proven APS course development model for Professional Skills Training (PST) to develop, field-test, evaluate, and disseminate both live and online interactive courses. The courses will be designed for graduate students, postdoctoral fellows (both basic and clinical), and new investigators and will focus on how to effectively mentor students and be mentored by an advisor. Both the live and online courses will emphasize issues related to minority scientists and to neuroscience but also will be applicable to students in broad areas of biomedicine. The APS has previously developed two highly successful PST courses – one on writing and reviewing for journals and the second on presentation skills and poster development.
EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY ACTIVITIES
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 Refresher Course materials are also widely disseminated via the website and APS journals. The 2008 Refresher Course focused on respiratory physiology. It was organized by Britt Wilson and Robert Brock. The session was well-attended (approximately 100-130 attendees for each speaker) with many attendees staying for the entire session. The session presentations are being prepared for the web and Advances publication.
SUPPORT FOR MEDICAL SCIENCE EDUCATORS
Meeting of the Medical Physiology Course Directors
At EB 2008, 16 medical physiology course directors met to discuss the planned changes in the USMLE and to share resources. The directors agreed this year to bring resources related to the APS Refresher Course topic and a number of directors brought resources on respiratory physiology to share via copies and via the website. The group plans to continue to meet and share resources.
Sharing Resources at IAMSE
In 2007, Committee member Britt Wilson staffed an exhibit at IAMSE and represented the APS. He shared information on APS membership, the Medical Physiology Course Directors Website, and the APS Archive of Teaching Resources. He also served as a liaison to IAMSE concerning the proposed USMLE changes. In 2008, Wilson will again exhibit for the APS and will also promote the Medical Physiology Learning Objectives.
APS ARCHIVE OF TEACHING RESOURCES
As of June 1, 2008, the Archive includes more than 1,800 items and supports nearly 2,000 active users per month. In 2007, the average number of active users per month increased from 1,300 to nearly 2,000. The average number of total hits on the Archive increased by more than 10,000 hits per month over 2006. The usage of the Archive should increase even more in 2008 as the system becomes open to Google searches.
In 2007, the Archive switched to a new review schedule to better recruit and review materials submitted by educators. Review of materials submitted by individuals occurs biannually (June and December) and review of new K-12 materials generated by APS programs (e.g., Frontiers in Physiology) takes place in the fall and spring.
K-12 Materials Review
As part of a recent National Science Foundation (NSF) grant, the APS developed 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 (that is, the standard Archive review criteria) but also appropriate grade level, safety issues, and experimental focus. In 2007, 100 teacher-developed activities were reviewed for content, pedagogy, and safety by the Education Committee.
BEN Scholars
As part of the current NSF grant, the APS is collaborating with other BEN societies on an undergraduate faculty development program, called BEN Scholars. BEN Scholars are undergraduate faculty members in life sciences, who develop specific expertise in the use 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. In 2007, three of the 25 BEN Scholars submitted activities to the APS Archive. Overall, three Archive activities and one Advances article were accepted from 2007 BEN Scholars. In 2008, eight of the 25 BEN Scholars teach physiology.
MEDICAL PHYSIOLOGY LEARNING OBJECTIVES (MPLO) PROJECT
The MPLOs were developed jointly by APS and ACDP to provide guidelines for the breadth and depth of knowledge in the physiological principles and concepts that are considered minimal and essential for further progress in understanding mechanisms of disease and body defenses, particularly in medical training. The Committee will remind Sections to schedule the review/revision of their objectives. In addition, staff members will increase publicity of the learning objectives in 2008 to support the USMLE test development process.
DAVID BRUCE AWARDS
The David S. Bruce Awards were established in 2004 to recognize excellence in undergraduate research. They are made annually at EB to undergraduate students who have submitted both abstracts for the meeting and award application materials. In 2008, 68 applications for the David Bruce Award were received and 20 finalists were selected. From the finalists, the subcommittee selected seven David Bruce Awardees.
EB 2008 UNDERGRADUATE POSTER SESSION
Since 2004, the APS has invited all undergraduate students who are first authors on abstracts submitted to APS EB sessions to present their posters at a special APS Undergraduate Poster Session. This session is typically held on Sunday afternoon and serves as the reception to announce the David Bruce Awardees. In 2008, approximately 200 APS members came to see the 120+ undergraduate posters and to talk with the students. 14 physiology departments paid a fee for table space to promote their graduate programs to the undergraduate students at the session, providing $3,500 to help cover the session costs.
HAPS COLLABORATION
The APS collaborates with HAPS in a number of ways, including exhibiting and conducting workshops at HAPS meetings. From the 2007 HAPS Institute, 31 faculty-developed teaching resources were accepted into the Archive from 21 HAPS members. In 2008, Michael Levitzky of LSUHSC was the APS-sponsored keynote speaker for the HAPS Institute Course on Advanced Respiratory Biology and Dee Silverthorn served as the Instructor/Course Designer for the Institute course. The APS also provided lists of respiratory physiology teaching materials from the APS Archive. The Committee will continue to work with HAPS on future Institute courses for their 2009 meeting in Baltimore.
PS SUMMER RESEARCH PROGRAM FOR TEACHERS
The APS Summer Research program provides year-long fellowships for middle and high school science teachers from across the nation, engaging them in biomedical research, building connections with researchers, improving their teaching methods and curricular materials, 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 supported 16 teachers from 14 states. These teachers completed their fellowship year by participating in EB 2008. Two teachers presented posters on their research.
In 2008, 11 teachers from 10 states worked in the laboratories of APS members. These teachers have already completed three online professional development units and attended the APS Science Teaching Forum in July 2008. Three APS members served as Physiologists-in-Residence at the Science Teaching Forum: Tom Schmidt, University of Iowa; TanYa Gwathmey, Wake Forest University School of Medicine; and Keisa Mathis, LSU Health Sciences Center. Ms. Gwathmey and Ms. Mathis are 2008 NIDDK K-12 Outreach Fellows.
EB Workshop for Teachers and Students
Education Committee Chair Thomas Pressley and APS member Robin Looft-Wilson coordinated the 2008 APS Workshop for High School Teachers and Students. More than 90 San Diego area teachers and their students attended the workshop along with APS members and 2007 Frontiers Research Teachers. The keynote talk, “Human Physiological Limits to Exploring Mars,” was given by APS member, James Pawelczyk, Penn State University. Sixteen APS members served as tour guides during lunch where they took teachers and students through the exhibits and posters and shared a box lunch while discussing physiology careers.
In the afternoon student session 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 participated in a workshop activity on modeling the digestive system with common household items. Frontiers Mentor/Instructor Tonya Smith (South Carolina) led the teacher workshop. The Committee is planning to continue the program in 2009 in New Orleans.
SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING FAIR (ISEF) AWARDS
Since 1992 the APS has presented awards to high school students presenting physiology research projects at the ISEF. Sponsored by Intel, the ISEF is the world’s largest international pre-college science competition. The 59th Annual International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) was held in Atlanta, Georgia May 11-17, 2008. 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.
This year’s APS judging team leader was Robert Hester, University of Mississippi Medical Center. He was accompanied by Britt Wilson, University of South Carolina School of Medicine, and Douglas Eaton, Otto Froehlich, J. Wylie Nichols, and Peter Wenner, all from Emory University. The first place winner ($1,000) was Harrison Phu Nguyen, 17, of Detroit Catholic Central High School, Novi, Michigan for his project titled “Combating Muscle Atrophy: A Novel Study of Myofibril Turnover in Sternopygus.” Mr. Nguyen was also awarded a best of category winner for Cellular & Molecular Biology presented by Intel Foundation receiving a fourth place award and $500, he also received a second place award from the United States Air Force with a $1500 award. The APS Second Place winner ($500) was Diya Dwarakanath, 17, of Westview High School, Portland Organ. His project was entitled “Role of Calcium/Calmodulin-dependent Protein Kinases in BDNF-induced AMPA Receptor Surface Trafficking.”
The APS judging team selected the project of Dallas James Krentzel, 17, from Airline High School, Bossier City, Louisiana for one of the APS Third Place awards. His project was entitled, “Is 4,4’ Methylenedianiline-Induced Vascular Toxicity a Model for Pulmonary Hypertension?” The second third place award was presented to Jourdan Brandt Urbach, 16, of Roslyn High School, Roslyn Heights, New York for his project entitled “The Effect of Extracellular Signaling Molecules on Oligodendrocyte Differentiation, Morphology, Proliferation, and Survival.” Jourdan was also awarded a Tuition Scholarship ranging from $6,000-$9000 from the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia. He also received a third place award of $150 from the Patent and Trademark Office Society.
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.
007 PhUn Week Activities
The first nationwide Physiology Understanding Week was a tremendous success thanks to the many APS members who participated. The PhUn Week 2007 theme was exercise and health. Briefly, in 2007, all target goal numbers of events and participants (APS members, trainees, teachers, and K-12 students) were exceeded.
n November 2007, an online feedback survey was sent to the adult participants, generating a 52% response rate. When asked about potentially participating in PhUn Week 2008, 70% indicated “yes” and 30% indicated “maybe.” No one said “no” to participating in future years. ADInstruments, Inc. (ADI) contributed materials and financial support for both the PhUn Week program and the PhUn Week Training Session at EB 2008.
EB 2008 PhUn Week Training Session
The second annual PhUn Week Training Session at EB 2008 focused on: recruiting APS members or teacher fellows for the PhUn Week 2008 program; demonstrating engaging, hands-on student activities that can be used for PhUn Week; and developing ideas for future PhUn Week themes.
Several participants in PhUn Week 2007 briefly presented their collaborations and visits to classrooms. Presenters on PhUn Week models and/or innovative activities developed from their local event included: David Holtzclaw, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Lisa Harrison-Bernard and Keisa Mathis, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, Catherine Uyehara, Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu, Hawaii, Ana Rodriguez and Nildris Cruz, University of Puerto Rico Medical Sciences Campus, Clintoria Richards-Williams, University of Alabama, Birmingham, Diane Munzenmaier, Medical College of Wisconsin, Frontiers Research Teacher Lorraine O’Shea and Van Doze, University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Jessica Clark, Washington University in Saint Louis School of Medicine, and Barbara Goodman, University of South Dakota Sanford School of Medicine.
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. APS members Tom Pressley and Rob Carroll worked with APS staff to review and revise several activities that are currently being field tested. Their subsequent submission and eventual acceptance to the Archive should facilitate international access, completing the major goals of this project.
Enhancing Teaching among US and International Members
APS is working to submit a number of proposals for the 2009 IUPS meeting and the planned IUPS Teaching Satellite meeting in Kyoto. Currently, Marsha Matyas serves as a member of the IUPS Teaching Group planning committee.