Professional Skills Courses
With support from the NIGMS Minority Opportunities in Research (MORE) division, the APS has developed live, web, and CD-ROM short courses that focus on critical professional skills areas. Each course includes a strong focus on the interaction of racial/ethnic background and culture with the development of these skills. Although general oversight of the project resides with the Education Committee, the project has an Advisory Board that includes members from the Careers in Physiology, Porter Physiology Development, Trainee Advisory, and Women in Physiology Committees, as well as additional minority physiologists.
In January 2011, APS offered a live Professional Skills Training Course on Writing and Reviewing for Scientific Journals. This course is targeted toward upper-level graduate students and lower-level postdoctoralfellows who are working towards completing their first first-author manuscript. In the course, students learn the essentials of manuscript writing and reviewing while gaining valuable opportunities for networking and collaboration. The course includes an online component (pre-workshop readings, exercises, and reflections) and a weekend live workshop that includes nine plenary sessions that combine lecture, group activities, and instructor panels. The course also utilizes small group discussions led by an experienced, well-published researcher in the students’ field. The 27 course participants rated all components of the course positively and provided complimentary comments on all aspects of the course, especially on the small group work.
Materials developed for the live Professional Skills Training courses are also utilized in online courses, leveraging the Society’s efforts. For example, a recent addition to the online courses is “Interviewing for an Academic Position.” This was offered for the first time May 12-19, 2011. The curriculum provided the resources needed to start a job search, prepare a cover letter and research statement, have a successful interview, and present an engaging job talk. For this initial effort, five students were enrolled, and APS Education members Tom Pressley and Jodie Krontiris-Litowitz served as faculty. Overall, course participants preferred “Interviewing for an Academic Position” as an online course and foundthat this format fit their preferred learning style. However, the general consensus was that more time was needed for the course to reflect upon materials and to rewrite the curriculum vitae and sample cover letter. In response to these comments, course organizers are planning a longer, less-condensed experience with more opportunities for interaction.
Physiology Graduate Program Directors
Towards developing a forum for physiology graduate directors, the APS partnered with the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics to organize a joint meeting of Physiology and Pharmacology program directors. This meeting was July 7-9, 2011, and it was hosted by the Dept. of Pharmacology & Toxicology at Michigan State University in East Lansing. The Society sponsored several invited speakers, including Joey Granger, Michael Joyner, Maggie Alonso-Galicia, Erik Henriksen, Lori Isom, President-elect Sue Barman, Cindy Anderson, and Barbara Horwitz.
Medical Physiology Learning Objectives (MPLO) Project
The MPLOs are an ongoing joint project of the APS and the Association of Chairs of Departments of Physiology 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. They were initially published in 2000. The Renal, Fluid Balance, and Acid-Base section was revised in December, 2010. Cardiovascular, Cell, Endocrinology and Metabolism, Gastrointestinal, Integration and Exercise, and Muscle sections were revised in February, 2011.
ADInstrumentsMacknight Progressive Educator Award
A new initiative this year was the ADInstrumentsMacknight Progressive Educator Award. This award is presented to an APS member (early career or established investigator or equivalent position) who demonstrates the greatest potential for incorporating innovative teaching techniques and effectively utilizing technology resources in engaging undergraduate students in physiology education. The support of ADInstruments is gratefully acknowledged. The 2011 awardee was GregorBelusic, Biotechnical Faculty, Ljubljana, Slovenia as. His application included a description of a “singing greeting card beeper as a finger pulse sensor and acceleration transducer” that he has developed for use with undergraduate and high school students.
APS Refresher Courses at EB
The APS Refresher Courses are designed to provide both an intensive overview of content in one of the areas of physiology and an opportunity 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 2011 Refresher Course focused on cell physiology with an emphasis on signal transduction.
Undergraduate Research at EB
The David S. Bruce Awards were established in 2004 to recognize excellence in undergraduate research. They are made annually at EB to undergraduate students. Finalists were selected based on their submitted abstracts and award application materials, and these finalists went on to be interviewed and judged on their poster presentations at EB. Given its continued recognition and success, the program was split in 2011 into two levels of award. All finalists received the David S. Bruce Outstanding Undergraduate Abstract Award, which includes a two-year student membership in the APS. Those selected on the basis of the interviews and poster presentations received the David S. Bruce Excellence in Undergraduate Research Award, as well as $500. In addition to support from the APS, the David Bruce Award program has received generous contributions from Dr. Isis, her ScienceBlogs readers, SEED Magazine, the APS Central Nervous System Section, and individual APS members Marlowe W. Eldridge, Ida J. Llewellyn-Smith, and Linda C. Samuelson.
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. In 2011, approximately 200 APS members came to see over 100 undergraduate physiology posters and to talk with the students. For the first time, the American Association of Anatomists (AAA) joined APS in promoting undergraduate research. AAA had 24 anatomy students participating in the poster session. Partial support for the program came from 15 sponsors. These are institutions and departments who reserve recruitment tables and promote their graduate programs to the undergraduate students at the session.
APS-sponsored Speakers
As a partner with several professional societies focused on science education, the APS sponsors keynote speakers at several meetings. The Education Committee identifies and recruits these speakers. The Human Anatomy and Physiology Society (HAPS) is an association of physiology educators, primarily from community and four-year colleges. The 2011 HAPS Conference was held May 28 through June 2 in Vancouver, BC. APS-sponsored speaker Virginia Brooks, Oregon Health and Science University gave a presentation entitled “Brain Insulin: A Sweet Deal for Normal Baroreflex Function.” The National Association of Biology Teachers is a professional organization of biology educators, primarily from K-16. For the Nov. 3-6, 2010 meeting in Minneapolis, MN, James Hicks, Univ. of California, Irvine, gave a presentation entitled “The Power of Comparative andEvolutionary Physiology: Insights fromthe Natural World.”
Frontiers In Physiology Professional Development Program For Teachers
The APS Frontiers in Physiology Summer Research for Teachers 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. Over the years, funding has been provided by the APS, NIH, and NSF. APS members volunteer to host teachers in their laboratories and provide the needed lab materials and supplies for each teacher’s research, as well as part of the travel costs for the teacher.
For 2010-2011, 22 teachers from 18 states completed a pilot Frontiers Online Teacher Program, a year-long online-only modification of the comprehensive Frontiers Research Teacher Fellowship. This was an expanded version of the Frontiers online professional development course using material from the traditional summer research fellowship experience. The teachers met for the first time at EB 2011 in Washington, DC, and participated in various APS Education Office and Committee activities. They were honored at a luncheon with leadership from the APS, along with the NCRR Director (Barbara Alving) and SEPA Program Officers (L. Tony Beck and Krishan Arora). This one-year modification of the traditional APS summer research program served two purposes: 1) It facilitated an explicit evaluation of the absence and presence of a physiology laboratory experience for teacher fellows in the program; and 2) It developed a new model to allow APS to reach out to more teachers via online professional development.
For 2011-2012, the APS will add back to the Professional Development program the comprehensive Frontiers in Physiology Summer Research Teacher Fellowship, including the laboratory experience. The project is sponsored by the APS, the individual Society members who serve as research mentors, an NCRR SEPA grant, and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) at the NIH. The NIDDK funding supports the involvement of underrepresented minority teachers and teachers working primarily with minority students, under-represented in science. From a pool of 40 applications, the Education Committee selected 17 teacher fellows to participate in this program.
In the fall of 2010, the APS received a one-year supplemental grant from the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) at the NIH aspart of the existing 3-year Science Education Partnership Award (SEPA) grant. The award allowsthe APS to replicate the pilotOnline Teacher Course and specifically target teachers affiliated withexisting SEPA projects and IDeA state programs. Thirty such teachers have been enrolled in the program.
Physiology Understanding Week (PhUn Week)
The 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. Each November, APS members are encouraged to visit their local school(s), explain what physiology is and what a physiologist does, and lead students in interactive learning activities. The PhUn Week 2010 theme was exercise and health. 240 physiologists at 63 locations across the US and Canada interacted with approximately 8900 students. One group of students in Weymouth, MA, gave a presentation on their PhUn Week experience to the local school board. Video of the presentation is available on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XO3FUzEZIFg).
USA Science and Engineering Festival (USASEF)
On October 23-24, 2010, the APS participated in the inaugural USA Science & Engineering Festival on the National Mall in Washington, DC. The organizers’ intention was “to be the ultimate multi-cultural, multi-generational and multi-disciplinary celebration of science in the United States.” Hosted by Lockheed Martin, the Festival and two-day Expo was the first national science festival in which science and engineering organizations from across the nation had the opportunity to engage the public in fun, hands-on science activities to inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers. The APS Exhibit Booth/program leveraged the PhUn Weeks materials to promote “Understanding Physiology for PhUn.” Visitors to the booth engaged in two physiology activities―one in comparative physiology and one in cardiovascular physiology―touching on both the biomedical aspects of physiology and the “one physiology” aspect of adaptations. Presenters included APS Education Committee members Tom Pressley and Jodie Krontiris-Litowitz, APS member Rudy Ortiz, andcurrent and former APS K–12 Outreach Fellows, TanYa Gwathmey, Mesia Moore-Steed, and Clintoria Richards-Williams. Additional staff from the APS Education Office included Miranda Byse, Melvin Limson, and Marsha Matyas.