Schools of Science and Medicine Launch $2.9M GK-12 Science Education Program

Graduate students to begin science education outreach in Indianapolis Public Schools and other central Indiana schools

Take a $2.9 million National Science Foundation grant, mix with research graduate students at IUPUI and pour into Indianapolis Public Schools classrooms and outdoor learning laboratories. This recipe, like combining baking soda and vinegar to simulate an erupting volcano, is expected to ignite interest in science that will improve science education and may lead some youngsters to pursue careers in math, science and medicine.

The Graduate Teaching Fellows in K-12 Education (GK-12) grant allows the School of Science and the Indiana University School of Medicine to send 55 research graduate students in math, science or medicine into IPS and central Indiana middle or high school classrooms and outdoor labs over the next five years. The fellows will work with teachers and students in grades six through 12 for 10 hours per week, while also conducting research towards master's or Ph.D. degrees.

The first group of GK-12 fellows will be matched with IPS teachers beginning this fall for the 2008-09 academic year. The graduate fellows will apply their university laboratory research projects to classrooms and outdoor learning labs, offering teachers and students access to current and relevant science concepts. Two major themes will emphasized: medicine and human health, as well as "discovering the science of the environment," a program of the IUPUI Center for Earth and Environmental Science that is funded by a community consortium led by Veolia Water Indianapolis and the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust.

According to Kathleen Marrs, Ph.D., associate professor of biology in the School of Science and assistant director of the IUPUI Urban Center for the Advancement of STEM Education (UCASE), the GK-12 program offers numerous benefits for central Indiana students at all levels.

"The GK-12 program is creating a lot of excitement because it allows IPS middle school and high school students to interact with a working scientist in their classrooms or outdoor learning labs," said Marrs, who is principal investigator of the GK-12 program. "By engaging them in research, the fellows provide students a unique opportunity to ask questions, collect data and think scientifically about every day, real-world issues in health sciences and the environment."

IPS Superintendent Eugene White believes that the GK-12 program is another positive step in bridging the gap between high school and college for IPS students.

"This program is the type of effort that is helping us to shape the 'new' IPS," said White. "Our middle and high school students will participate in hands-on, university-quality research projects. They will learn from role models who are experts in the fields of math, science and medicine."

"IPS is grateful for the GK-12 program and the support of our partners at IUPUI for creating opportunities that aren't available to all students in Marion County."

Marrs also noted that the grant enables IUPUI to expand the number of research graduate students in math, science and medicine and to attract highly qualified minority students and women into graduate research.

"The GK-12 program will allow us to encourage some of our most motivated graduate students to partner with local science teachers to find ways to improve the quality of STEM education in central Indiana schools," said D. Craig Brater, M.D., dean of the IU School of Medicine.

"The GK-12 fellows will share their expertise with teachers and students at a critical time in their educations when they are preparing for college and careers. Our graduate fellows will benefit greatly by improving their own leadership, teamwork and communication skills, thus increasing their success in teaching and research when they become faculty members."

The GK-12 award is the most recent in a number of National Science Foundation grants IUPUI and UCASE have received in recent months to strengthen science education in central Indiana.

In October 2007, Marrs and other science educators in the School of Science and the IU School of Education at IUPUI received a $749,933 grant to establish the Robert Noyce Scholarship Program, which encourages talented science students to become science teachers. IUPUI, under the leadership of the School of Education and UCASE, was selected in December 2007 as one of the first campuses at which the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation will launch an unprecedented teaching fellowship program to help overhaul teacher education and encourage some of the nation's most talented college graduates to seek long-term teaching careers.

UCASE is a collaborative partnership between the schools of Science and Education that is contributing to the state's efforts to stimulate interest in math, science and medicine.