By Cat Holmes
University of Georgia
When it comes to science education, U.S. students don’t reflect
the superpower status of their homeland. But a new program at
the University of Georgia addresses some of science education’s
biggest challenges.
Compared with their peers in 38 other countries, U.S. students
rank in the ho-hum middle, between Bulgaria and New Zealand in
the Third International Mathematics and Science Study.
To improve that, “The Science Behind Our Food,” funded by a
$1.5
million National Science Foundation grant, pairs 10 UGA
graduate
teaching fellows with 10 Georgia high school teachers.
Together, they will create a high school science curriculum
centering on something everybody can relate to: food.
Last week, UGA’s College of Agricultural and Environmental
Sciences announced the 10 NSF graduate teaching fellows, with
fields ranging from stem cell research to aquatic toxicology to
environmental engineering.
“A major goal of this grant is to train scientific
professionals
as communicators,” said David Knauft, associate CAES dean and a
key developer of the program.
“Pairing each graduate fellow with a high school teacher,” he
said, “ensures that the fellow will learn how to communicate
ideas and set up experiments that are accessible to both
teachers and their students.”
It’s a worthy goal, said Rodney Nash, a Ph.D. student in animal
and dairy sciences and a newly appointed graduate fellow in the
program.
“For a lot of people, science is as incomprehensible as
Frankenstein’s lab,” Nash said. “And a lot of scientists don’t
help the situation. They make it more complicated than it has
to
be.”
Nash’s doctoral work at UGA focuses on embryonic stem cell
research in humans and mice.
“There’s still a great deal about stem cells that we don’t
know,” he said. “How do we make them turn into what we want
them
to turn into? That’s the mystery right now.”
In his graduate studies, Nash works “with some of the most
distinguished scientists in the world … Steve Stice, Steve
Dalton, Cliff Baile,” he said. “This program will make their
work accessible to high school students. We’re planning to
videotape some of the experiments.”
Through the program, high school students will be exposed to
the
latest technology through the graduate fellows and the
professors who guide the fellows’ studies.
“Many of these scientists are working on research that has
direct applications on the food we eat,” Knauft said. “They’re
sequencing the genomes of Georgia’s major crops, cloning
livestock, developing new breeds of pecans or techniques for
detecting genetically modified organisms in food. It’s cutting-
edge science.”
The program starts July 9, when all 10 teaching fellows and 10
high school teachers begin a two-week crash course on some of
the most current research UGA has to offer, touring facilities
in Athens, Griffin and Tifton.
Nash will present his research on stem cells during this
time.
“There is so much controversy with stem cells and cloning,” he
said. “I would like to clarify some ideas and talk about the
ethical and moral principles involved. Some people think we get
these cells from aborted fetuses, which is totally not true.”
As for learning how to communicate complex scientific
principles
to regular folks, Nash says he has a great teacher.
“I explain everything I’m working on to my grandmother, who is
74,” he said. “I know if I can break it down so she can
understand it, I’m doing a good job.”
The other graduate fellows are Vedas Burkeen, food science and
technology; Anna Cathey, environmental engineering; Emily Duff,
animal and dairy science and nutrition; Eva Daneke,
environmental health science; Juanita Forrester, entomology;
Jackie Hoffman, poultry science; Jeremy Peacock, aquatic
toxicology; Amy Rowley, food science and technology; and
Christopher Wildman, ruminant nutrition.
(Cat Holmes is a science writer with the University of Georgia
College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.)
