2008 Woodie Awards
College receives award for science education.
Tajreen Hedayet
Issue date: 4/30/08 Section: News
The Howard Hughes Medical Institute recently chose some of the nation's top undergraduate institutions to be awarded a total of $60 million in grants to help improve undergraduate science education. The grants were determined through the selection of the best responses to the following challenge, issued a year ago by HHMI to 224 undergraduate colleges nationwide: identify creative new ways to engage students in the biological sciences. The College was among the 48 colleges selected by the institute, and will be receiving $1 million to improve undergraduate science education through bolstering support to students and promoting outreach to local schools.
"The undergraduate years are vital to attracting and retaining students who will be the future of science," HHMI President Thomas R. Cech said in April. "We want students to experience science as the creative, challenging, and rewarding endeavor that it is."
The initiative seeks to advance undergraduate science education both on and off campus in a variety of ways. These methods range from strengthening the College's relationship with local public schools by connecting to fourth- and fifth-grade classes in Waterville's Hall School, to expediting faculty retraining and overhauling curriculum at the College in order to bring statistical concepts into virtually every biology class from neuroscience to genetics. The grant will help broaden faculty expertise with the addition of two postdoctoral fellows, implement programs that will hone the leadership skills of women science faculty, and underwrite the mentoring of future chairs of the science department. The HHMI grant will also fund a six-week summer program for students between high school and college from traditionally underrepresented groups. The program will mix an intense research experience with close faculty mentorship, and a review of basic math and chemistry skills.
One of the primary goals of the College's new program is to increase and maintain interest in the sciences, especially with first-year students and first-generation college students. "We want to help create successful models for teaching science that can spread throughout the higher education community," Peter J. Bruns, HHMI's Vice President for Grants and Special Programs, said in a press release. HHMI is the nation's largest private supporter of science education. It has invested more than $1.2 billion in grants to reinvigorate life science education at both research universities and liberal arts colleges.
"The undergraduate years are vital to attracting and retaining students who will be the future of science," HHMI President Thomas R. Cech said in April. "We want students to experience science as the creative, challenging, and rewarding endeavor that it is."
The initiative seeks to advance undergraduate science education both on and off campus in a variety of ways. These methods range from strengthening the College's relationship with local public schools by connecting to fourth- and fifth-grade classes in Waterville's Hall School, to expediting faculty retraining and overhauling curriculum at the College in order to bring statistical concepts into virtually every biology class from neuroscience to genetics. The grant will help broaden faculty expertise with the addition of two postdoctoral fellows, implement programs that will hone the leadership skills of women science faculty, and underwrite the mentoring of future chairs of the science department. The HHMI grant will also fund a six-week summer program for students between high school and college from traditionally underrepresented groups. The program will mix an intense research experience with close faculty mentorship, and a review of basic math and chemistry skills.
One of the primary goals of the College's new program is to increase and maintain interest in the sciences, especially with first-year students and first-generation college students. "We want to help create successful models for teaching science that can spread throughout the higher education community," Peter J. Bruns, HHMI's Vice President for Grants and Special Programs, said in a press release. HHMI is the nation's largest private supporter of science education. It has invested more than $1.2 billion in grants to reinvigorate life science education at both research universities and liberal arts colleges.
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