W&M receives $1.2 million for young scientists
$1.2M from HHMI for science education
The College of William and Mary has been awarded $1.2 million in funding by
the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), part of a nationwide program to help
universities strengthen undergraduate and precollege science
education.
"HHMI is committed to funding education programs that excite
students' interest in science," says HHMI President Robert Tjian. "We hope that
these programs will shape the way students look at the world-whether those
students ultimately choose to pursue a career in science or not."
William
& Mary is one of 50 research universities in 30 states and the District of
Columbia selected in this latest round of four-year grants awarded through
HHMI's Precollege and Undergraduate Science Education Program.
"William
& Mary's continued support from Howard Hughes reflects the extraordinary
quality of our faculty and students as well as the strength of our
interdisciplinary approach to science. In the current era of financial
stringency, HHMI's support is especially telling," said President Taylor
Reveley.
The May 20 HHMI announcement marks William & Mary's fourth
consecutive receipt of the funding, says Margaret Saha,
Chancellor Professor of Biology and director of the HHMI program at the
College.
She said the HHMI initiative at William & Mary involves
several departments, "dozens and dozens of faculty members and literally
hundreds of students." There is a strong outreach component, as well, which will
benefit high-school science labs and students transitioning to college. Saha
said the versatility of the Precollege and Undergraduate Science Education
Program is one of its strengths.
"HHMI is just absolutely wonderful about
stimulating innovative approaches and novel programs, and letting each
institution tailor its initiatives to its own environment-its mission, needs,
students and faculty," Saha said.
At William & Mary, the program will
have four major components, Saha said:
1. Student research
HHMI will fund 20 positions for full-time summer research for undergraduates, in addition to a freshman research program. The summer researchers can also apply for mini-grants for lab supplies or travel expenses. "Students who are first authors on posters or scientific talks can apply to obtain funds to present at national meetings," Saha explained.
2. Faculty development
The grant will allow the College to hire an interdisciplinary biomathematics faculty member. "This person will strengthen the quantitative approaches that are becoming essential in all aspects of contemporary biology," Saha said. In addition, William & Mary will continue an extremely successful summer collaboration program with faculty and students from historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). Each summer, five faculty members from HBCUs (and their students) work with William & Mary researchers in their labs. "We form mutually beneficial and, hopefully, long-lasting collaborations," Saha said.
3. Curriculum development
Saha said that William & Mary will expand the concept of its freshman bacteriophage labs, a separate initiative funded by HHMI. New
programs introduce freshman labs to the bacterial diversity found in College
Woods. Initially, a five-week unit for introductory biology students, the HHMI
grant will allow faculty to expand the College Woods initiative into a year-long
study. Saha said a study of the effects on gene expression of mercury in the
ecosystem will be expanded as well, allowing more students to engage in
authentic research activity early in their careers.
Another element of
curriculum development that the grant will make possible is the incorporation of
mathematics into the introductory biology courses. "This will get biology
students over any fear of mathematics early," Saha said.
There also will
be curriculum enhancement in the upper-level undergraduate courses, including a
new genomics-proteomics course that serves as a more advanced continuation of
the freshman phage lab. Saha explained that there also will be a new course in
"eco-devo," or ecological-developmental biology, an emerging interdisciplinary
field that deals with the effect of ecological phenomena on the development of
an organism.
"A developing organism, even if it's in the womb, is still
prone to being affected by all kinds of environmental agents," Saha explained.
"There's a continual interaction between genes and the environment. This field
is becoming more important because of all the new compounds we are routinely
introducing into our environment, ranging from new medications to novel plastics
to food additives. Discerning the effect on developing organisms is extremely
important."
4. Outreach
"We will be reaching out to local teachers with workshops and update courses
in aspects of the sciences that they don't usually get on a regular basis," Saha
said. Teachers will attend workshops at William & Mary, receiving material
and instruction that lets them go back to their schools and conduct lab
experiments with their students. Saha pointed out that the labs are chosen to be
in line with Virginia's Standards of Learning (SOL) curricula and
tests.
She said that another aspect of the outreach component will be a
transition program for science-bound rising freshmen at William and Mary.
Working with existing pre-college programs, the grant will bring students from
disadvantaged backgrounds to campus for several weeks before their first
semester at the College. "We'd like to have them work in a lab and become part
of the lab research community, something which will provide a support system for
the transition to the college environment," Saha explained.
The 50 grants
to research universities were part of a $79 million grants package announced by
HHMI on May 20. HHMI, the nation's largest private funder of science education,
has spent $1.6 billion since 1985 to reform life sciences education from
elementary through graduate school. At the undergraduate level, HHMI's strategy
leverages the advantages of working both with institutions and individual
professors, explains Peter J. Bruns, HHMI's vice president for grants and
special programs.
The grants allow large research universities to tackle
projects that affect hundreds or even thousands of students, both inside the
university and at local K-12 schools, Bruns says.