SURE Summer Research Program Applications Due Feb 10

Applications are now available for the Summer Undergraduate Research Program at Emory (SURE). Open to undergraduate students from colleges across the world, SURE offers a supervised research experience in one of our many laboratories. Students receive training in the research methods applicable to their research plan, analyze their data and create written and oral presentations of their results. At the end of the summer, each participant takes part in a formal research symposium.

Panels of faculty and graduate students help explore mentoring issues, and make recommendations on how to choose a graduate program and how to balance work and family responsibilities. Speakers address their own involvement in science careers and the requirements for success in their fields. Weekly ethics discussions allow students to explore the ethical aspects of research careers. Awards for scientific posters are made at the end of the program. Approved posters and essays will be published through our program web site.

Join us this summer at Emory University!

Teaching Scientists to Teach

In case you missed it, ECCSE Director, Pat Marsteller, got some press this summer about incorporating teaching and communication practices into graduate student education.

Her Communicating Science course for graduate students and post-docs, co-taught with Dr. Meisa Salaita of the Center for Chemical Evolution, was featured in The New York Times. The course helped students learn and practice various ways to communicate with non-scientists, from elevator speeches and blogs about their research, to formal presentations and lesson plans.

Also, Dr. Marsteller co-authored an article in Science responding to NSF funding cuts for graduate education. These cuts affect programs under NSF's GK-12 program, which has funded ECCSE's PRISM program for 9 years.

Summer In Sum: 117 Student Researchers!

As we welcome the beginning of a new school year, the next few posts will highlight our summer programs. Here's what you missed as far as student research this summer at CSE:

The Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) program supported 111 research fellows in 35 different departments or research units. Students from Emory and Oxford Colleges and 23 other schools shared their research with the Emory community at the program's capstone poster session. SURE is primarily funded by our Howard Hughes Medical Institute award but draws additional support from a variety of sources. Rising senior Wen Zhang, whose work was supported by the Center for Chemical Evolution, celebrates a summer well spent (see photo).

Another CSE-supported program, the International Research Experience in Science (IRES), supported six Emory undergraduates for 10+ weeks of full-time research and cultural immersion in England, Canada, Finland, New Zealand, Ireland and Ecuador. Learn more about their experiences and see some great pictures at the IRES blog.

Coming up next time on the CSE blog: hear about our PREP, HUES Summer Institute, and teacher programs!

Reflections on PRISM's Demo Day

By Kelsi Jackson, Emory College Class of 2014

I recently had the unique opportunity of attending PRISM Demo Day 2011. Problems and Research to Integrate Science and Mathematics (PRISM) is an NSF-funded program aimed at improving scientific and mathematic learning in K-12 school children. The program pairs graduate students in the sciences and mathematics with middle and high school teachers in Georgia who collaborate to create engaging problem-based learning (PBL) lesson plans for classroom implementation. During Demo Day, the PRISM fellows from the previous year present their experiences with the PBL they used in their classrooms throughout the year.

I should mention that I am neither a graduate student nor a K-12 teacher. In fact, I’m barely a year out of high school and currently preparing to venture into my second year as an undergraduate at Emory. Though I don't fit the target audience member for such presentations, I still found them very interesting and worth sharing my perspective.

Like many of my peers, I definitely felt like a product of a formulaic educational system which became predictable and boring around the seventh grade—especially in math and science (I feared math, but still maintained some interest in science). I didn’t begin having "fun" learning those subjects again until the 11th and 12th grade!

What was missing during those years? Cases that come out of programs like PRISM: engaging lesson plans that are applicable to real life - a shift in the educational paradigm.

Each PRISM presentation reminded me of the necessity for PBLs to be implemented at such a critical stage in students' personal and educational development. I've seen too many peers become so jaded by their formulaic primary/secondary education that by the time they’re in college they’ve sworn off anything science- or math-related. They automatically deem the subjects as "boring" or of little use. The PRISM fellows testified to the positive student reception to their creative lessons, which speaks to the pedagogy’s effectiveness. Plus, even if the students didn’t leave with a burning passion for science or math, at least they gained thinking skills applicable to other subjects and to life in general.

The fellows' results illustrate that sometimes it takes a short theatrical introduction to chemicals like toxins or relating a fundamental biological concept like meiosis to a pop-culture hit like the Twilight series to enliven the inanimate scientific/mathematic portion of the student’s mind—unlocking the potential of the next generation of thinkers who have the power to impact every aspect of our society.

PRISM 2011: The Last Hurrah!

This summer marks the final year of our long-standing PRISM program, funded by NSF and various Emory sources.

CSE Director Promoted to Professor of Practice

CSE Director, Dr. Patricia Marsteller has been promoted to Professor of Practice by the Emory College of Arts and Sciences.

Five Emory College faculty members received the honor today of being the first five in the history of Emory College to be promoted to the new academic ranks of Professor of Practice, Professor of Pedagogy or Professor of Performance. These promotions aim to "recognize faculty members who build new models of learning engagement, redefine the role of pedagogy at the University and contribute to the national conversation in their respective fields."

Dr. Marsteller is the director of the Emory College Center for Science Education and a faculty member with the Department of Biology and the Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology program.

To read more about Dr. Marsteller and the Center for Science Education, and to read the announcement in the April 26, 2010 issue of the Emory Report, follow the links below.

Important Links
Dr. Patricia Marsteller
Emory Center for Science Education
Emory Report Article, posted April 26, 2010

Discover College Life at Emory

Emory University's Pre-College Program for High School Students Now Accepting Applications for Summer 2010

Emory’s summer Pre-College Program allows talented rising high school juniors and seniors to experience Emory’s distinctive academic and residential community.

The Pre-College experience can be transformational: both fun and academically focused. Students may enhance their academic portfolio and earn college credit in six-week undergraduate courses or enroll in two-week, non-credit courses for personal enrichment without the pressures of a grade. All classes are taught by committed Emory faculty who enjoy teaching and guiding prospective college students. The topics and courses allow for self-discovery, the chance to explore a possible major or career field, or enjoy that heightened level of creative expression and exposure that's not always available in the high school curriculum.

Six-week credit courses are offered in disciplines including Biology, Economics, Mathematics, Film Studies, Languages, Theater Studies, Social Sciences and Visual Arts.

Two-week non-credit courses span similar subject areas and include classes such as “Globalization: The Sociology of a Shrinking World”, “Lawyer as Advocate and Advisor”, “Spectacular Soundtracks: Music in Movies,” “Public Health Career Opportunities and Practices”, “Medicines for Mental Health”, “Ethics and Bioethics” and the Science of Sustainability Institute.

Courses run from May 18 to August 6.

For a full course listing, admission requirements and an online application to this exciting summer program visit http://www.college.emory.edu/pre-college.

Email the Pre-College Program at summerprograms@emory.edu, or call 404-727-0671 to request a brochure.

The application deadline is May 1, 2010.