A UCSF volunteer and a teacher plan a lesson.
UCSF's
Science & Health Education Partnership (SEP) has recently been awarded a $96,181 grant by the Noyce Foundation and a $60,000 grant from the Peninsula Community Foundation to help expand its work in public schools.
SEP is a partnership between UCSF and the teachers and students of the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD). SEP programs bring together UCSF scientist-volunteers with SFUSD teachers and students to support quality science education for K-12 students.
In the last academic year, SEP programs were active in 80 percent of the 120 schools throughout the city. More than 200 UCSF volunteers and 250 K-12 teachers and their students participated in SEP programs.
SEP programs are currently funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, by a Science Education Partnership Award (SEPA) from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and by the UCSF Chancellor's Office, the UCSF School of Medicine and the California Science Project. With the additional two grants, SEP will be able to do even more.
Offering Resources
The grant from the Noyce Foundation, which is dedicated to improving teaching and learning in math, science and literacy in K-12 schools, will support two initiatives at SEP: the Daly Ralston Resource Center and a new pilot program, Partners for Inquiry.
The Daly Ralston Resource Center is a lending library of materials to support hands-on science learning. Materials include classroom sets of scientific tools such as stopwatches, graduated cylinders and magnets; anatomical models and human anatomical specimens; a large collection of animal skulls; kits (or classroom investigations in a box); as well as charts and curriculum guide books. Any teacher in the SFUSD or UCSF volunteer working with SFUSD teachers or students is eligible to borrow materials from the center.
During open hours, the resource center is staffed by an experienced SEP coordinator, who is available for lesson planning and consultation. The grant, the first SEP has received explicitly to support the center, will allow an expansion of the library's open hours and provide dedicated staff support to maintain the center, which has been experiencing a steady growth in usage over the past few years. The grant also provides funds for SEP to more broadly advertise the availability of the center to the teachers of San Francisco.
"The increase in open hours and promotion of the resource center should help to continue our trend of annual growth in usage of this lending library of materials to support hands-on science instruction in the public schools," says Rebecca Smith, an academic coordinator at SEP.
The Noyce Foundation grant also will fund a new pilot program, Partners for Inquiry. In this partnership program, UCSF scientist-volunteers will be paired with SFUSD teachers in grades three through eight. Teachers, volunteers and SEP staff will work together to open up science lessons - translating teachers' science learning goals for students into lessons that are reflective of the scientific process.
"Students will be able to design investigations to questions, analyze data and share their findings with their classmates - experiencing firsthand the joy and excitement of scientific discovery," says Smith. "In this partnership program, scientist-volunteers will combine their expertise in authentic scientific inquiry with teachers' knowledge of pedagogy and students. Together, the scientists and teachers will craft lessons, and both groups will improve their teaching practice."
Reinstating Internship Program
The grant from the Peninsula Community Foundation will allow SEP to reinstate the popular High School Summer Internship Program. This program brings SFUSD students who have just completed their junior year to UCSF to conduct scientific research with a mentor for eight weeks in the summer as part of a paid internship.
The
goals of the high school internship program
are to:
• provide students the opportunity to conduct
scientific research with a mentor,
• expose students to a university environment, and
• expose students to careers in science.
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"For many of these students, this is their first opportunity not only to understand how science is actually done and to talk with real scientists, but also is their first opportunity to build a relationship with someone who has been to college, and where completing college has been instrumental in helping them attain their career goals," Smith says.
More than 92 percent of the alumni from this program have enrolled in college, whereas when taking into account their parents' education attainment, only 54 percent would have been expected to do so. Despite the long and successful history of this program, it was eliminated after the summer of 2003 when the California State Legislature cut School/University Partnership Funds from the state budget.
"SEP is very excited that, with the support of the Peninsula Community Foundation, we will be able once again to make a very real difference in the lives of these exceptional young students," Smith says.
Source: Lisa Cisneros
Related Links
Science & Health Education Partnership
