This project is designed to nationally disseminate a successful hands-on science implementation model which has been developed and field-tested in St. Louis area high schools for seven years. Modern Genetics For All Students is a fourteen week activity-intensive, investigative curriculum unit combining strong scientific content with hands-on investigations and human health applications. The curriculum materials were created and implemented by a partnership of Washington University faculty, learning specialists, and teachers at four St. Louis area high schools. This unit, aimed at enhancing scientific literacy among high school students of all learning levels and socioeconomic environments, represents a significantly higher level of hands-on involvement for students than is found in traditional biology classrooms. It provides hands-on activities, student problem solving, and group projects allowing students to explore modern genetic concepts as well as the relevance of current biotechnology and medical research to human health issues. Quantitative and qualitative evaluation of student knowledge gains and improvements in student attitudes towards science and personal health show the curriculum to be effective with all student levels, and also with females and underrepresented minorities. Evaluation of our field-testing model has identified three factors which are essential for the success of hands-on intensive science in the classroom: teacher content training, provision of materials in classroom-ready form, and strong implementation support during the first year of new curriculum use. Teachers at the local high schools indicate that this model has not only enabled them to improve their current teaching strategies, but also to establish an internal support network which will sustain itself after the current grant period. Our continuing evaluation results indicate that this project provides a model which could be used to implement any hands-on, investigative science curriculum in a way that creates sustainable change within schools. The development of a replication manual which carefully describes the key factors responsible for the continuing success of this project will allow science education partnerships nationwide to replicate an efficient and sustainable implementation model for the use of hands-on, investigative curriculum in a variety of classroom environments.
