BioEYES Newsletter September, 2011 Hello BioEYES Supporter,
WHAT'S NEW Thank you to the UMBC Department of Biology for donating more than 30 microscopes to BioEYES Baltimore! These will be offered to exceptional teachers who become BioEYES Master Teachers. Master Teachers are capable of delivering BioEYES independently, with fish and materials loaned to them by the Carnegie Institution. For more information, please contact Valerie Butler at butler@ciwemb.edu. Baltimore (Valerie Butler, Susan Artes, and Rob Vary) The Baltimore office is excited to announce that we are forming a partnership with the Johns Hopkins University School of Education. This will offer us further support and expertise that translates to more students receiving BioEYES! We are also collaborating with Baltimore City Public Schools (City Schools) to develop a weeklong professional development course for teachers that will be offered for the first time in spring 2012. This course will expand upon our existing BioEYES training and have teachers completing a real-world, scientific experiment. Students from the UMBC Meyerhoff Scholars program
As the academic year begins again we’d like to wish a warm ‘welcome back’ to all of our teachers and students! We hope you have a great year ahead. We’d also like to welcome two new outreach educators to the BioEYES family, Karena “Kari” Curtis and Tracy Nelson. Karena has filled Frank “Bo” Dunlap’s shoes in the Baltimore County Public Schools, while Tracy is replacing Jackie Anzaldo at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. You can read about them by viewing their bios on the staff page of our website.
Tracy Nelson
Kari Curtis
Refining Our Message We’ve recently made the message of what we do clearer by adding a tagline to our logo. The tagline reads “A Partnership to Advance K–12 Science Education.” This message reflects the collaborative effort we have established between the scientific and education communities, and our shared goal of creating long-lasting science experiences for our students and their dedicated teachers.
Wish list As we embark on another school year, the demands for our unique and exciting programs continue to grow. Even during the current fiscal climate, we provide all of our programs and teacher trainings at no cost to our partnering public schools. We value the financial and material contributions that our university, foundation, and private supporters have provided us and hope that your generosity continues. Currently, you can help us make a difference by donating any of the following or by supporting your local BioEYES program here. Baltimore Contact Valerie Butler, 410-246-3041 (o) Water quality tests and supplies: plastic 10 mL test tubes + caps, fecal coliform test kits, phosphate/nitrate/dissolved oxygen tablets (we use LaMotte tablets) Classroom space during summer months Volunteers
have been invited to volunteer in City Schools’ classrooms. We hope these (largely) life science majors will excite our students about science and higher education! Our environmental unit, Your Watershed, Your Backyard, will be offered to four new schools this fall chosen by City Schools. Eight schools in all will receive the unit during the 2011-2012 school year, and—new to the program—all will take part in a Trout in the Classroom project in the spring. Lastly, we are also presently forming a board of advisors for the program to guide us and increase our sustainability. Baltimore County (Kari Curtis) As the BioEYES facilitator for Baltimore County Public Schools, I am proud to announce that the program has been continued for Title I elementary schools. Starting September 26, I will be bringing BioEYES to nearly 40 elementary schools during the 2011-2012 school year. In September and January, we will be providing four different professional development opportunities for teachers who are new to 5th grade so that they will be familiar with BioEYES. I am very excited to have the opportunity to continue this wonderful program for the students of BCPS. Philadelphia (Jamie Shuda and Tracy Nelson) Philadelphia BioEYES has received a 5-year NIH grant to expand their curriculum to include the topics of reproductive health and epigenetics. Together with UPenn scientists from the Center for Women's Reproductive Health and
Baltimore Program Coordinator Valerie Butler and volunteer James Walters show students how to test water samples in their environmental program, "Your Watershed, Your Backyard."
Philadelphia Contact Jamie Shuda, 215-746-3421 (o) 55C water bath (4 L preferred) Small gel electrophoresis machines with power supply 200 mL pipetman Lab coats
Thank you for your support of BioEYES. Sincerely,
Dr. Steven Farber BioEYES co-founder and staff scientist Carnegie Institution for Science
Dr. Jamie Shuda BioEYES co-founder and Director of Life Science Outreach University of Pennsylvania
BioEYES currently operates out of the Carnegie Institution for Science in Baltimore, MD; the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, PA; Notre Dame University in South Bend, IN; and Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. We have been able to deliver our programs to tens of thousands of children at no cost to their schools because of the generosity of individuals, foundations and corporations. For more information or to make a donation, please visit www.bioeyes.org. We thank you for your support!
BioEYES master teachers, the team spent a full day piloting hands-on labs and developing lesson plans. Five teachers will help create classroom units and teacher resources during the school year and help train an additional 20 teachers over the next 3 years. We are excited to build new topics into the BioEYES program and look forward to replicating the new lessons at all of our sites! Notre Dame (Anita Beebe) We successfully completed another BioEYES Summer Institute where teachers from the area gathered for the week. The Institute prepares teachers to use Project BioEYES in their classrooms and fosters a collaborative relationship between Project BioEYES staff, research scientists here at the University, and participating teachers. One of my favorite parts of the week is when teachers who have participated in two or more different BioEYES years come in and share their experiences and some wonderful pedagogy information with the new teachers. They share what worked and what didn't work in their classrooms. They also share supplemental activities that they have created, thus expanding the learning opportunities even more. The week is full of great food too, something that seems to cultivate a relaxed atmosphere where teachers are able to leisurely visit and share those things they have been trying in their classroom or school (something that is not easily accomplished when teachers are "isolated" in their classrooms during the busy
school year).
Did You Know? BioEYES is GuideStar approved! To see our listing, go here and look under the “Programs and Help” tab.