Akins and Browning teach science in Berrien County. But during
July, they’re seeing science in action on the Tifton campus of
the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and
Environmental Sciences.

Akins, Browning and 10 other science teachers from Irwin, Tift,
Turner and Worth counties are participating in the Georgia
Industrial Fellowship for Teachers program.

GIFT allows teachers to tag along with real scientists and
mathematicians and see firsthand some practical applications of
the very things they teach in their classrooms.

“It’s a win situation for both groups,” said Susan Reinhardt, a
UGA education program specialist. “Scientists become aware of
the needs and expectations of teachers. And teachers understand
the importance of producing more students interested in
science.”

Teachers in the program are charged with taking this experience
back to their students and showing them that science is more
than just lectures and textbooks.

The program was developed by Georgia Tech in 1991. Since then,
more than 80 organizations and universities have provided this
opportunity to 750 teachers in 44 Georgia school systems.

GIFT, for the most part, has been offered to teachers in and
around metro Atlanta, Savannah and Augusta, Reinhardt said.

“I’ve seen this program work for many years,” she said.

This is the first time, however, it has been offered to teachers
south of Macon. The teachers will spend time with UGA scientists
from animal and dairy sciences, entomology, horticulture and
plant pathology, along with researchers from the National
Environmentally Sound Production Agriculture Laboratory and U.S.
Department of Agriculture.

It’s a paid experience for the teachers, Reinhardt said. A grant
provided the funding, along with money from the participating
school systems.

Both Browning and Akins said the sciences often don’t get the
funding or attention they deserve. And getting students
interested in science can be difficult to say the least.

Armed with a bag full of new ideas, though, they believe they
can change this and spark the interest of their science students
this fall.

“We want to turn the students on to science,” said Akins, a
sixth-grade teacher for 12 years.

“This has given us the avenue to ideas we can utilize in the
classroom,” said Browning, a 10th-grade teacher for 22
years. “We want to interest the kids in science so that they
might want to pursue a career in science.”

They hope to dispel the stereotypical “Hollywood-image” of the
scientist, Browning said.

“It was a real eye-opener, for instance, to see so many females
are involved with the actual field research,” Akins
said. “Science is not just a male-oriented program anymore.”

Akins said many people in south Georgia don’t realize the value
of the research conducted by scientists like the ones on the UGA
Tifton campus.

“We are very fortunate to have this resource here in Tifton,”
she said. “I’d love to come back every year to see what trends
are currently in science.”