Education Outreach:
Taking the “Fire” Beyond the Lecture Hall and Lab

2003 Arthur C. Guyton Teacher of the Year Award

George Ordway,
University of Texas, Southwestern

   I am extremely pleased to have this opportunity to share some of my thoughts about the roles of APS members as educators. Let me begin by first saying how honored I am for being selected as the 2003 Arthur C. Guyton Physiology Educator of the Year. This was truly a bittersweet honor, given the untimely deaths of Dr. Guyton and his wife, Ruth, so close in time to the presentation of the award at EB 2003 in San Diego. I am privileged to have my name associated with Arthur Guyton and with all the previous recipients of this unique award. I thank my friend and colleague, Dr. Jere Mitchell, for nominating me for the award, the Teaching Section of the APS for selecting me as this year’s recipient, and the W.B. Saunders/Elsevier Publishing Company for their long-standing support of the award.
    On the occasion of his selection for this award in 2000, Dr. Aviad Haramati wrote an article (1) for The Physiologist entitled, “Teaching Physiology: Filling a Bucket or Lighting a Fire?” In his article, Aviad very cogently presented the case that, rather than simply serving as dispensers of facts and content knowledge, our primary task as educators should be as motivators and role models, facilitating learning on the part of our students. Extending Aviad’s analogy, we’ve all seen examples where “bucket fillers” have actually extinguished “fires” that had been effectively lit by others. In continuing this theme and in the spirit of the upcoming Olympic Games, I’ve chosen to present some thoughts about what I consider an important additional task as physiologists and educators, taking the “fire” beyond the lecture hall or laboratory in ways outside what we normally consider “education.” Specifically, I’m referring to science education outreach opportunities that can have a dramatic impact on teachers and students at all educational levels. Examples of programs that provide these opportunities already exist within the APS and in numerous local settings, serving as models for establishing similar programs elsewhere.
    Two APS-sponsored programs in which members can light fires beyond the classroom include Frontiers in Physiology and the related Explorations in Biomedicine. These provide middle and high school teachers with opportunities to spend a summer working fulltime in the lab of an APS mentor, as well as to attend a special weeklong teaching workshop and the EB meeting in the year following their summer experience. These research experiences can have profound effects on a teacher and his or her students. They are educational, giving teachers a chance to learn about and conduct science as it’s done in the “real world.” They are revealing, often exposing teachers to a myriad of science- and healthcare-related careers about which they were unaware. And perhaps above all they are rejuvenating, reminding teachers about the excitement of science that attracted them in the first place, an excitement that gets reflected in their teaching and passed on to their students.
    Other opportunities for APS members include Local Outreach Teams, which provide middle and high school teachers with workshops focusing on hands-on, inquiry-based classroom lessons and activities. In addition, members can participate in “Physiology for Life Science Teachers and Students,” a full-day workshop at EB for local high school students and teachers. This unique opportunity to interact with scientists and tour the posters and exhibits at a national meeting like EB lets students and teachers see how research is carried out by ordinary people who happen to be excited about their profession. Other opportunities include serving as a mentor for the recipient of a NIDDK/NIGMS Minority Travel Fellowship Award at EB or an APS Conference, or as a local judge to select the winners of APS Special Awards at the International Science and Engineering Fair. While the time investment for these is minimal, the fire-lighting potential that they have is incredible.
STARS (Science Teacher Access to Resources at Southwestern), a science education outreach program at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, is an example of how APS members can take the “fire” beyond the classroom in a local setting. STARS began in 1991 as an effort to improve science education in North Texas. Since then, it has developed into a multi-faceted program of 15 separate activities, some of which closely resemble those offered through APS. There are eight-week summer re-search experiences for middle and high school teachers, and workshops or in-service training on selected topics, including all those offered through the APS Local Outreach Teams Program.
    Basic Science Symposia were the initial activity offered by STARS and continue as a hallmark of the program. Symposia are presented six times a year with talks by UT Southwestern faculty on a featured topic that provides teachers with continuing education and professional development credit. Topics for this year are Muscle Development & Wasting, Gastroenterology, The Dallas Bedrest & Training Study, Proteomics, Sensory Physiology, and Asthma & Allergies.
    STARS extensively recycles lab equipment, computers, and scientific journals for use by teachers and students. Equipment that is “outdated” for use in a research lab is often in excellent condition for use in a middle or high school science lab. An example are the 100 compound microscopes used by first-year medical students that UT Southwestern recently replaced and made available to schools in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. As a result, the return on the use of these microscopes will be far greater than would have been the case had they simply been sold as surplus equipment. UT Southwestern’s inventory warehouse is affectionately known among local public school teachers as “The Candy Store.”
    Although teachers are the primary target audience of STARS, several activities focus on students. There is a summer research program for high school and community college students, and two to three tours per week of UT Southwestern facilities and its affiliated hospitals for middle, high school, and college science classes and interest groups. Career opportunities in science and healthcare are a particular interest of those who visit. For classes or schools unable to come to UT Southwestern, Science Ambas-sadors are recruited to go to them. One of my personal accomplishments as a Science Ambassador came as a result of a career day visit to a school in a small town outside of Dallas and being told that the students liked my presentation even better than the ones by the professional bass fisherman and the big rig driver. In addition, STARS provides judges for local and regional science fairs, as well as mentors for students working on science fair projects.
My purpose in detailing the activities of this particular outreach program is not to brag about STARS, although I’m happy to do so, but to point out the variety of ways we can help beyond our own lecture halls, classrooms, and laboratories. Nor do I wish to imply that an effective outreach effort needs to include all of these types of activities. Any one of them can be of great benefit to teachers and students. In addition, while a number of these activities require financial underwriting, many can be done with little or no funding. As an example, faculty, staff, and student participation in all STARS activities is strictly voluntary.
    Outreach partnerships are effective at all education levels: medical, graduate, and allied health science schools; undergraduate institutions; community colleges; and secondary and elementary schools. A given program might focus on an individual school, a group of schools, or a school district. Importantly, establish partnerships with schools or districts that not only will benefit from your efforts, but also want your help and are willing to work with you. Although this may seem intuitive, schools or districts rarely will turn down additional resources even if they don’t see an immediate need for them or don’t view them as an investment in which they too must contribute.
    In establishing any outreach program, capitalize on your institution’s strengths. For most of us, that usually turns out to be science in general and biological science in particular. Outreach efforts that combine the strengths of institutions at multiple levels are especially effective; for example, a medical school working with an undergraduate institution or community college to benefit a local school district. In addition, keep in mind that working with some school districts and administrations may often be frustrating; however, the reward of seeing a positive impact on teachers and students within those districts usually more than outweighs any frustration.    
    Although capitalizing on your institution’s strengths, be “customer oriented.” Provide the help and resources that the recipient needs and wants rather than simply what you think is best for them. A workshop on the latest RNA interference techniques might capitalize on your strengths, but probably won’t be of much help to a ninth-grade general science or biology teacher. Topics listed in the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) as requisite for biology are given high priority when planning STARS symposia and workshops. Likewise, teachers who participate in the summer research program must address the TEKS or other science education standards as part of the classroom or lab activity they are required to develop.
    As physiologists and educators, we frequently seem overwhelmed with responsibilities. Among these is our charge to “light a fire” in students in our lecture halls, classrooms, and labs. Equally important, however, is what I consider an obligation we share as scientists, to take the fire beyond these places and serve as mentors and role models for teachers and students outside our institutions. We can help teachers become better at their profession while making them feel like colleagues in the scientific community. We can inspire students to become active learners and improve science literacy, and perhaps in the process, excite them to pursue a career in science or healthcare. Effective education outreach programs often begin on a small scale, but they do begin. As Dr. Fred Zechman, who was Chairman of the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at the University of Kentucky when I was a graduate student used to say, “Just get on with it.”

Reference
1. Haramati, A. Teaching Physiology: Filling a Bucket or Lighting a Fire? The Physiologist 43(3): 117; 119-121, 2000.