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Contact: Stacy Brooks
American Physiological Society
(301) 634-5739
sbrooks@the-aps.org

  APS Offers Free Online Access to Its “Archive of Teaching Resources”

Demonstration of New Online Teaching Library to be held at Experimental Biology 2002

The American Physiological Society’s Archive of Teaching Resources is now available free online.  A veritable “one-stop shop” for K-12, undergraduate, graduate and medical physiology education, the searchable database is designed to house case histories, test questions, figures, lectures, animations and links to physiology teaching resources on the web.  The Archive will be demonstrated at the Experimental Biology meeting from April 21 - 24 in New Orleans, La.  The Archive and most materials contained within are free and accessible to the public. 

APS has based its Archive on successful models from other societies and has added a few extras designed to make this collection even more beneficial for users. 

The APS Archive:

• facilitates an interactive dialogue by utilizing user feedback to improve the teaching materials.  Each entry is accompanied by an online bulletin board where users can discuss the materials and supply a “usefulness rating.” 

• links all materials to the Medical Physiology Learning Objectives, a set of national standards developed by the APS in conjunction with the Association of Chairs of Departments of Physiology and to the K-12 National Science Education Standards.  Relating materials in the Archive to these objectives provides a tie-in to current benchmarks for teaching physiology. 

• links selected Archive materials to recent research articles to further expand the content knowledge of both teacher and student.   

• provides both recommendations and resources for best practices in science teaching, making materials more effective and successful in classroom use. 

Through a partnership with the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the APS Archive will also be available through the BioSciEd Net (BEN) Collaborative, a larger digital library collection of biology teaching education materials.  The BEN portal, spearheaded by AAAS, is composed of 11 professional societies and coalitions for biology education.  This collection is one of the leading National Digital Library projects supported by the National Science Foundation.

The APS Archives of Teaching Resources is a useful resource for teachers at all levels (K-12, undergraduate, graduate and medical school).  For more information, please contact Stacy Brooks at sbrooks@the-aps.org or 301-634-7253.

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The American Physiological Society is a professional scientific membership organization devoted to fostering scientific research, education, and the dissemination of scientific information.  The APS supports a variety of educational activities including programs and fellowships to encourage the development of young scientists at the undergraduate and graduate levels, with a particular focus on women and underrepresented minorities.  APS also supports refresher courses and teaching awards promoting continued excellence in education at the professional level. Founded in 1887, the Society’s membership includes more than 10,000 professionals in science and medicine.