$750,000 Howard Hughes Medical Institute Grant will advance science and math literacy for pre-college students in VCU community outreach

By Sathya Achia Abraham

Virginia Commonwealth University is one of 31 U.S. biomedical research institutions to receive a grant from the prestigious Howard Hughes Medical Institute to advance understanding and access to science for pre-college students and teachers in the Richmond community and nationwide.

The institute today announced $22.5 million in grants to help biomedical research institutions engage in community outreach to advance science and math literacy for students in Kindergarten through 12^th grade and their teachers.

Through the HHMI Pre-college Outreach Initiative, VCU plans to use the grant, totaling $750,000 for five years, to foster children's interest in and knowledge of science and inspire them to consider careers in basic and health sciences through classroom, laboratory and field activities. VCU will develop programs to increase math and science literacy for students in Central Virginia, enhance research and life sciences training for K-12 science teachers and expand Internet-based life sciences videos and lessons to teachers and students nationwide.

Just last year, VCU received a $1.5 million HHMI grant to keep up with the rapid evolution of biology and its increasing interaction with other disciplines like chemistry, math and computer science. VCU is using that grant to change the emphasis in undergraduate biology and life sciences education from a traditional, organismal approach to a more integrated "systems biology" approach in which all the molecular interactions in a system – pathway, organelle, cell, organism or ecosystem – are examined to understand function.

For the community outreach grant, the Institute invited applications from 300 nonprofit institutions that are accredited medical schools, academic health centers, independent research institutions or schools of veterinary medicine, dentistry or public health. Additionally, the institutions were required to have significant peer-reviewed research support. The Institute received 126 applications, and a panel composed of leading scientists and educators, including HHMI professors and investigators, reviewed the applications. The grant is awarded every four years and participation in the competition is by invitation only.

"This award enhances VCU's visibility on a national level in the field of biomedical research and science education," said Richard J. Rezba, Ph.D., director for VCU's Center for Life Sciences Education.

"The grant will allow us to build upon efforts that we have begun in the past and provides the resources to expand, improve and assess our programs. Additionally, pre-college outreach introduces students to the basic and health sciences early in their development, which helps to build a pipeline of well-prepared students entering undergraduate studies."

Rezba will serve as program director on the HHMI grant, and Jan F. Chlebowski, Ph.D., associate dean for graduate education at VCU, will serve as the institution director on the grant. Together they will oversee the development of four major components of the program, including a summer enrichment day camp for elementary school students and a school-year program for middle and high school students to learn about biology, human physiology and careers in medicine and life science research.

For teachers, there will be intensive, summer science workshops and academic year programs to develop lab activities and lessons on systems biology, human genetics and other life science topics. VCU has established partnerships with several school systems in the Richmond area from which both students and teachers will participate.

Additionally, Rezba said that there would be five new episodes of Secrets of the Sequence, a video series that has influenced teachers and students alike in their understanding of science. The program is about how the genomic revolution affects all aspects of life. More than 60,000 copies have been downloaded by teachers worldwide. The new episodes will focus on topics including systems biology, human genetics and life sciences.

A nonprofit medical research organization, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute was established in 1953 by the aviator-industrialist. The Institute, based in Chevy Chase, Md., is one of the largest philanthropies in the world, with an endowment of $14.8 billion at the close of its 2005 fiscal year. HHMI spent $483 million in support of biomedical research and $80 million for support of a variety of science education and other grants programs in fiscal 2005.