Science Lab

Abstract

The USC College of Science and Mathematics SCienceLab will be developed as a hands-on discovery-oriented teaching laboratory where middle and high school science teachers and students can interact with university research groups in an extended experience of cutting edge bioscience. It will be modeled after Boston University School of Medicine’s highly successful CityLab and will use some of the laboratory investigations developed by CityLab. Additional laboratory investigations will be developed by USC research teams based on their research expertise. A unique feature of SCienceLab will be that each laboratory investigation will be the responsibility of a particular laboratory research team. These teams will consist of a faculty member(s) and the postdoctoral fellows graduate students undergraduates and technicians who work together on a particular research project. They will be responsible not only for developing the details of a particular laboratory investigation that is based on their research project but also for conducting that investigation with science teachers and their students. These activities will be tied to the National Science Standards. During the summer a graduate course will be offered to science teachers that will include mentored instruction of students participating in the laboratory investigations at SCienceCamp.