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IU BLOOMINGTON REVAMPS/EXPANDS SCIENCE OUTREACH PROGRAM
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Indiana University is reorganizing and expanding its science outreach programs to pre-college students and teachers in south central Indiana.
Two new, innovative commuter programs will underscore IU's community leadership in science education and will, IU officials hope, increase the number and quality of students enrolling in undergraduate science programs on the Bloomington campus. The programs will be a collaborative effort by science faculty members from IU's College of Arts and Sciences, the School of Public and Environmental Affairs (SPEA) and the School of Education.
"These new summer programs will bring students and teachers into closer contact with the most valuable resource we have to offer - our faculty members," said Kenneth R.R. Gros Louis, vice president for academic affairs and Bloomington chancellor. "Moreover, the involvement and cooperation of the three schools concerned with science - the College, Education, and SPEA - assures that we can offer our state's science educators and outstanding high school students the best possible experiences."
Lisa Pratt, associate dean for science in the College of Arts and Sciences at IU Bloomington, will coordinate the science outreach efforts.
The new pilot programs for high school students and their teachers are scheduled to begin in the summer of 1999.
The first of the programs, "Science Outreach for High School Students," is designed to match the interests of eight to 10 outstanding students with research groups on the Bloomington campus. IU will solicit nominations for the program from high school science teachers within commuting distance of Bloomington.
Each student will take part in a six-week laboratory or field experience, working with a faculty member or senior graduate student in a research setting. The student will write a brief thesis and orally present the report to a review committee composed of IU faculty and the nominating high school teachers.
The review committee will select two students to receive $1,500 scholarships for each of four years of undergraduate study on the Bloomington campus.
In the second new program, "Science Outreach for High School Teachers," a student teacher and an active teacher will work together in a campus laboratory for four weeks, conducting and observing experiments. Participating teachers will meet biweekly with a faculty member in the School of Education to discuss the ethics and methodology of modern scientific research.
Each participating teacher will prepare a comprehensive plan for teaching a high school unit on the scientific method and ethical dilemmas in scientific research.
Jeffrey White of SPEA and Dennis Peters from the Department of Chemistry are co-directors of the Research Experience for High School Students. Dorothy Gabel and Thomas Keating, both from the School of Education, are co-directors of the Research Experience for High School Science Teachers.
Many other outreach activities will continue to be supported by individual academic units at IU, including the Physics and Astronomy Open House, the Physics/Biology/Geology Brownie Math and Science Weekend, the Chemistry Open House, the Saturday Science Quest in the School of Education, and SPEA's Environment Summer High School Institute.
These programs are sustained by a high level of volunteerism among Bloomington faculty and graduate students and, in some cases, a small fee paid by participants.
In addition to the outreach effort, for the next two years the regional Science Olympiad competition will be held on the IU Bloomington campus, and the state Science Olympiad will be held at the IUPUI campus in Indianapolis.
The Naval Weapon Support Center at Crane (Ind.) will assist IU in coordinating the directors and judges for the engineering events at this year's regional Science Olympiad competition. Anyone interested in volunteering to help judge and staff the regional Science Olympiad should contact Ruth Droppo at 812-855-0154.
Shortly after the first of the year, a Web site for science outreach at IU will be activated. For more information about this and other outreach activities, call 812-855-0154.
(DeAnna J. Hines, 812-855-0850, djhines@indiana.edu)