BSC CityLab Satellite: Biotech for Students and Teachers — Phase I
Project Website(s)
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Abstract
BSC CityLab Satellite: Biotech for Students and Teachers will build on the highly successful partnership among CityLab of the Boston University School of Medicine two local school districts (Bridgewater-Raynham and Brockton) the Partnership Advancing the Learning of Mathematics and Science (PALMS) Southeast Regional Provider and Bridgewater State College. BSC faculty in the Biology Department Chemistry Department and the School of Education and Allied Studies will build upon this base to expand the activities in grades K-4. We will also increase the number of school districts participating in the program and strengthen the participation of students preparing to be teachers. During this project we will attempt to validate the importance of hands-on experience to the formation of knowledge of content and understanding of the process of scientific discovery for students grades K-12 and their teachers and for pre-service teacher preparation students and their college instructors. The activities of this project will have immediate effects on 6000 students in grades K-4 at least 125 students in grades 5-8 another 125 students in grades 9-12 1500 pre-service teacher preparation students at BSC 350 in service teachers and at least 30 faculty involved with teacher preparation at BSC. In addition 1200 students in grades K-8 will use the “lending laboratory” sets. Two new components will also result from this project: a CityLab curriculum for grades K-4 and a highly-sophisticated evaluation model.
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Additional Information
This project expands the BSC CityLab Satellite program and builds on the highly successful partnership among BSC Boston University School of Medicine-s (BUSM) CityLab project two local school districts and the Partnership Advancing the Learning of Mathematics and Science (PALMS) Southeast Regional Provider. The collaborators plan to develop an inquiry-based curriculum designed to develop a conceptual understanding of fundamental topics in molecular biology biochemistry and/or biotechnology using the BUSM CityLab approach as a model. The proposed curriculum will coordinate the development of concepts for students K-4 expand the existing curriculum for grades 5-12 and train both pre- and in-service teachers. The project includes a summer camp for middle school students an after-school (CityLab scholars) program during the school year and workshops/courses for both pre-service and in-service teachers. Trained CityLab teachers will be able to bring their students to the CityLab satellite site at Bridgewater State College for extra- or co-curricular CityLab experiences. A lending library of equipment for use in the schools will also be made available to trained teachers though this program. All of these activities will be modeled on the BUSM CityLab approach which emphasizes a coherent progression of inquiry a laboratory based experimental component and pedagogy designed to foster cognitive skills associated with scientific ways of thinking.
