Education Outreach:
Taking the “Fire” Beyond the Lecture Hall and Lab
2003 Arthur C. Guyton Teacher of the Year Award
George Ordway,
University of Texas, Southwestern
I
am extremely pleased to have this opportunity to share some of my thoughts about
the roles of APS members as educators. Let me begin by first saying how honored
I am for being selected as the 2003 Arthur C. Guyton Physiology Educator of the
Year. This was truly a bittersweet honor, given the untimely deaths of Dr.
Guyton and his wife, Ruth, so close in time to the presentation of the award at
EB 2003 in San Diego. I am privileged to have my name associated with Arthur
Guyton and with all the previous recipients of this unique award. I thank my
friend and colleague, Dr. Jere Mitchell, for nominating me for the award, the
Teaching Section of the APS for selecting me as this year’s recipient, and the
W.B. Saunders/Elsevier Publishing Company for their long-standing support of the
award.
On the occasion of his selection for this award in 2000, Dr.
Aviad Haramati wrote an article (1) for The Physiologist entitled,
“Teaching Physiology: Filling a Bucket or Lighting a Fire?” In his article,
Aviad very cogently presented the case that, rather than simply serving as
dispensers of facts and content knowledge, our primary task as educators should
be as motivators and role models, facilitating learning on the part of our
students. Extending Aviad’s analogy, we’ve all seen examples where “bucket
fillers” have actually extinguished “fires” that had been effectively lit by
others. In continuing this theme and in the spirit of the upcoming Olympic
Games, I’ve chosen to present some thoughts about what I consider an important
additional task as physiologists and educators, taking the “fire” beyond the
lecture hall or laboratory in ways outside what we normally consider
“education.” Specifically, I’m referring to science education outreach
opportunities that can have a dramatic impact on teachers and students at all
educational levels. Examples of programs that provide these opportunities
already exist within the APS and in numerous local settings, serving as models
for establishing similar programs elsewhere.
Two APS-sponsored programs in which members can light fires
beyond the classroom include Frontiers in Physiology and the related
Explorations in Biomedicine. These provide middle and high school teachers with
opportunities to spend a summer working fulltime in the lab of an APS mentor, as
well as to attend a special weeklong teaching workshop and the EB meeting in the
year following their summer experience. These research experiences can have
profound effects on a teacher and his or her students. They are educational,
giving teachers a chance to learn about and conduct science as it’s done in the
“real world.” They are revealing, often exposing teachers to a myriad of
science- and healthcare-related careers about which they were unaware. And
perhaps above all they are rejuvenating, reminding teachers about the excitement
of science that attracted them in the first place, an excitement that gets
reflected in their teaching and passed on to their students.
Other opportunities for APS members include Local Outreach
Teams, which provide middle and high school teachers with workshops focusing on
hands-on, inquiry-based classroom lessons and activities. In addition, members
can participate in “Physiology for Life Science Teachers and Students,” a
full-day workshop at EB for local high school students and teachers. This unique
opportunity to interact with scientists and tour the posters and exhibits at a
national meeting like EB lets students and teachers see how research is carried
out by ordinary people who happen to be excited about their profession. Other
opportunities include serving as a mentor for the recipient of a NIDDK/NIGMS
Minority Travel Fellowship Award at EB or an APS Conference, or as a local judge
to select the winners of APS Special Awards at the International Science and
Engineering Fair. While the time investment for these is minimal, the
fire-lighting potential that they have is incredible.
STARS (Science Teacher Access to Resources at Southwestern), a science education
outreach program at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, is an example of
how APS members can take the “fire” beyond the classroom in a local setting.
STARS began in 1991 as an effort to improve science education in North Texas.
Since then, it has developed into a multi-faceted program of 15 separate
activities, some of which closely resemble those offered through APS. There are
eight-week summer re-search experiences for middle and high school teachers, and
workshops or in-service training on selected topics, including all those offered
through the APS Local Outreach Teams Program.
Basic Science Symposia were the initial activity offered by
STARS and continue as a hallmark of the program. Symposia are presented six
times a year with talks by UT Southwestern faculty on a featured topic that
provides teachers with continuing education and professional development credit.
Topics for this year are Muscle Development & Wasting, Gastroenterology, The
Dallas Bedrest & Training Study, Proteomics, Sensory Physiology, and Asthma &
Allergies.
STARS extensively recycles lab equipment, computers, and
scientific journals for use by teachers and students. Equipment that is
“outdated” for use in a research lab is often in excellent condition for use in
a middle or high school science lab. An example are the 100 compound microscopes
used by first-year medical students that UT Southwestern recently replaced and
made available to schools in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. As a result, the return
on the use of these microscopes will be far greater than would have been the
case had they simply been sold as surplus equipment. UT Southwestern’s inventory
warehouse is affectionately known among local public school teachers as “The
Candy Store.”
Although teachers are the primary target audience of STARS,
several activities focus on students. There is a summer research program for
high school and community college students, and two to three tours per week of
UT Southwestern facilities and its affiliated hospitals for middle, high school,
and college science classes and interest groups. Career opportunities in science
and healthcare are a particular interest of those who visit. For classes or
schools unable to come to UT Southwestern, Science Ambas-sadors are recruited to
go to them. One of my personal accomplishments as a Science Ambassador came as a
result of a career day visit to a school in a small town outside of Dallas and
being told that the students liked my presentation even better than the ones by
the professional bass fisherman and the big rig driver. In addition, STARS
provides judges for local and regional science fairs, as well as mentors for
students working on science fair projects.
My purpose in detailing the activities of this particular outreach program is
not to brag about STARS, although I’m happy to do so, but to point out the
variety of ways we can help beyond our own lecture halls, classrooms, and
laboratories. Nor do I wish to imply that an effective outreach effort needs to
include all of these types of activities. Any one of them can be of great
benefit to teachers and students. In addition, while a number of these
activities require financial underwriting, many can be done with little or no
funding. As an example, faculty, staff, and student participation in all STARS
activities is strictly voluntary.
Outreach partnerships are effective at all education levels:
medical, graduate, and allied health science schools; undergraduate
institutions; community colleges; and secondary and elementary schools. A given
program might focus on an individual school, a group of schools, or a school
district. Importantly, establish partnerships with schools or districts that not
only will benefit from your efforts, but also want your help and are willing to
work with you. Although this may seem intuitive, schools or districts rarely
will turn down additional resources even if they don’t see an immediate need for
them or don’t view them as an investment in which they too must contribute.
In establishing any outreach program, capitalize on your
institution’s strengths. For most of us, that usually turns out to be science in
general and biological science in particular. Outreach efforts that combine the
strengths of institutions at multiple levels are especially effective; for
example, a medical school working with an undergraduate institution or community
college to benefit a local school district. In addition, keep in mind that
working with some school districts and administrations may often be frustrating;
however, the reward of seeing a positive impact on teachers and students within
those districts usually more than outweighs any frustration.
Although capitalizing on your institution’s strengths, be
“customer oriented.” Provide the help and resources that the recipient needs and
wants rather than simply what you think is best for them. A workshop on the
latest RNA interference techniques might capitalize on your strengths, but
probably won’t be of much help to a ninth-grade general science or biology
teacher. Topics listed in the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) as
requisite for biology are given high priority when planning STARS symposia and
workshops. Likewise, teachers who participate in the summer research program
must address the TEKS or other science education standards as part of the
classroom or lab activity they are required to develop.
As physiologists and educators, we frequently seem
overwhelmed with responsibilities. Among these is our charge to “light a fire”
in students in our lecture halls, classrooms, and labs. Equally important,
however, is what I consider an obligation we share as scientists, to take the
fire beyond these places and serve as mentors and role models for teachers and
students outside our institutions. We can help teachers become better at their
profession while making them feel like colleagues in the scientific community.
We can inspire students to become active learners and improve science literacy,
and perhaps in the process, excite them to pursue a career in science or
healthcare. Effective education outreach programs often begin on a small scale,
but they do begin. As Dr. Fred Zechman, who was Chairman of the Department of
Physiology and Biophysics at the University of Kentucky when I was a graduate
student used to say, “Just get on with it.”
Reference
1. Haramati, A. Teaching Physiology: Filling a Bucket or Lighting a Fire? The
Physiologist 43(3): 117; 119-121, 2000.
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