Missouri Science Teaching and Education Partnerships (MO-STEP)

University Of Missouri-Saint Louis, Saint Louis MO

Investigators

Abstract

Title of Project: Missouri Science Teaching and Education Partnerships (MO-STEP) (Track1). Institution: University of Missouri-St. Louis. PI and Co-PIs: Patricia Parker (PI), Charles Granger, Bette Loiselle, Patrick Osborne. Number of fellows per year: Ten graduate fellows, five undergraduate fellows. School District Partners: Florissant-Ferguson, Normandy, Maplewood-Richmond Heights, Pattonville, Wellston. Target audience of the project: Grades 9-12. Setting: Urban. NSF supported disciplines involved: Biology, Science Education Background: The Missouri Science Teaching and Education Partnerships (MO-STEP) combines the academic strengths of the Department of Biology, the International Center for Tropical Ecology and the pedagogical background of the Science Education Program at UM-St. Louis in a tightly-coupled collaboration with five urban high schools located near the University and with conservation-focused organizations within St. Louis. Intellectual merit: The intellectual merit of MO-STEP lies in provision of current information and practical, cutting-edge applications that link ecology, conservation biology and molecular genetics. Through close ties with the Missouri Botanical Garden, Saint Louis Zoo, Forest Park Forever and the St. Louis Aquacenter, MO-STEP facilitates opportunities for field trips and summer internships that provide hands-on experience in systematics, ecology and biodiversity conservation. MO-STEP is grounded in two concepts: (1) good teaching requires a sound discipline knowledge base and (2) good teaching strategies are critical to teaching and learning. Broader impacts: MO-STEP facilitates the professional development of a collaborative team of university and high school faculty working to improve science education at grades 9 though 16. Three historic barriers to school-university partnerships are (1) unwillingness of high school faculty to seek information from university faculty; (2) university faculty's lack of understanding of the needs of high school science teachers; and (3) low prestige of science education as career choice in science graduate programs. MO-STEP replaces this culture with close professional associations that encourage long-term partnerships. Strong support of high school science instruction encourages high school faculty to continue the collaborative relationship while expanding graduate career opportunities. The Biology Graduate Program at the University of Missouri-St. Louis has successfully recruited students from diverse cultural backgrounds and the program is well positioned to increase participation of under-represented groups. The schools targeted for participation include a high percentage of students from groups currently underrepresented in STEM fields This project is receiving partial support from the Directorate for Biological Sciences.