The University of Colorado at Boulder has been awarded a four-year, $1.9 million bioscience education grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute to fund programs benefiting undergraduates and K-12 teachers and their students.
The grant, to CU-Boulder's Biological Sciences Initiative, or BSI, will be used to fund research opportunities for roughly 60 undergraduates annually, said Leslie Leinwand, chair of the molecular, cellular and developmental biology department. The HHMI funds also will be used to bring hands-on science education to thousands of Colorado K-12 teachers and their students through teacher workshops, courses and outreach programs to schools.
The $1.9 million award from HHMI is a continuation of a series of undergraduate science education grants to CU-Boulder from the Chevy Chase, Md., philanthropic organization that began with a $2 million grant for undergraduate biology education in 1989. HHMI also awarded CU-Boulder $1.8 million in 1994, $1.8 million in 1998 and $2.2 million in 2002 for undergraduate education for a total of $9.6 million.
"This is a tremendous boost to CU-Boulder and the community, and we are thrilled to be selected once again," said Leinwand. "This award fosters valuable research experiences for undergraduates, and the K-12 component of the grant has a multiplying effect on thousands of students by bringing modern science into their classrooms."
HHMI invited more than 200 research universities with "proven track records" in undergraduate science education to compete for the 2006 awards. Fifty schools in 28 states were selected for 2006 grants totaling $86.4 million, according to HHMI officials. The individual grants ranged between $1.5 million and $2.2 million.
"We believe it is vital to bring fresh perspectives to the teaching of established scientific disciplines and to develop novel courses in emerging areas, such as computational biology, genomics and bio-imaging," said HHMI president Thomas Cech, a CU-Boulder Distinguished Professor. "Our grantee universities are providing hands-on research experiences to help prepare undergraduates, including women and minorities underrepresented in the sciences, for graduate studies and for careers in biomedical research, medicine and science education."
Some HHMI funds to CU-Boulder will be dispersed through the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program, while other grant money will be used to fund CU's Bioscience Undergraduate Research Skills and Training Program. Both programs provide stipends for students to work directly with faculty on research projects, said BSI Director Julie Graf.
The grant to CU-Boulder also will provide continued funding to a BSI program known as the Science Squad, a group of CU-Boulder graduate students and postdoctoral fellows who visit schools individually to engage students in hands-on science activities, said Graf. The Science Squad reaches about 12,000 K-12 students in Colorado annually.
The HHMI grant also allows CU-Boulder to offer professional development opportunities in the life sciences for K-12 Colorado teachers, tapping the expertise of CU-Boulder faculty. The courses are designed to update teachers on scientific advances and offer related hands-on activities. BSI's professional development activities involve roughly 300 Colorado K-12 teachers annually, said Graf.
HHMI funds also will be used to support the Genomics Teaching Place, a program launched in 2004 in the MCD Biology building that allows students and faculty to study the structure and function of genes using recent advances in biology and computational science. Funds from the 2002 HHMI award to CU-Boulder were used to purchase state-of-the-art equipment for the facility.
CU-Boulder academic departments participating in BSI include MCD biology, ecology and evolutionary biology, integrative physiology, chemistry and biochemistry, psychology and anthropology.
In April 2006, Leinwand was named a Howard Hughes Medical Institute professor, an honor that included a four-year, $1 million grant to bring creative undergraduate science teaching concepts into the classroom.
For more information on BSI activities contact Graf at (303) 492-8230 or visit .