Whats New?

Project SCORE, a science education program sponsored by the National Science Foundation, recently initiated "virtual field trips" for the participating high school classrooms in Fort Worth ISD. NSF Graduate Teaching Fellow James “Jim” Flynn, graduate student in the Department of Cell Biology and Genetics at UNTHSC, shared his research experience via live, two-way videoconference with his biology students at Amon Carter-Riverside High School. Jim spends around 10 hours a week at Carter-Riverside HS preparing laboratory exercises every week for his collaborating teacher Adam James’ Introductory Biology class. In November, Jim’s presentation was the first time that a graduate student in any of the NSF GK-12 Programs nationwide had shared their research laboratory activities, equipment, techniques, and specific details of their research project using videoconferencing technology. This innovative method of bringing the Graduate Fellow’s science and research projects into the classroom was made possible by using multiple cameras within the research laboratory at the health science center. These were linked to the high school classroom via the internet using the Instructional Technology Department’s network at the Fort Worth ISD. A camera was placed in the classroom so the graduate student could see his students, and have them ask questions during the live broadcast.

In addition to using this cutting edge video conferencing technology to share Project SCORE’s graduate Teaching Fellows’ research, we have used it to give science presentations to elementary school students all over the state of Texas. Project SCORE’s future plans include a second presentation by another SCORE Fellow, Karen Meeks, who is a doctoral student in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology. She will present a videoconference to her class at Paschal High School on January 30th, 2008. We plan to tape the live, videoconference with her class, and will make that video available to our 7 other FWISD high school biology classrooms and any others who request a DVD. In addition, a collaboration is underway with a foundation out of New York, called HealthCorps, which sponsors outreach programs on a national level. The objective of this collaboration is to present science programs for their participants by means of this “virtual field trip” approach pioneered by the NSF-supported Project SCORE, a science outreach initiative at UNT Health Science Center.