The University of Minnesota Department of Neuroscience (U of MN) and Science Museum of Minnesota (SMM), in conjunction with a teacher advisory group, propose to develop, implement, evaluate, and disseminate a model biomedical science education program in neuroscience. The project, BRAIN (Bringing Resources, Activities, & Inquiry in Neuroscience) to Middle Schools, will result in the development of in-depth, multiyear, inquiry-based curriculum materials and teacher training programs supported by a mentoring network, which will promote enhanced understanding and application of neuroscience and its health-related issues into middle school science curriculum. A pilot phase of this project produced a two-week professional development institute for grade 5 through 8 science teachers. During the school year, participating teachers were supported with classroom activities and resources including an assembly program, interactive exhibit stations, and a resource trunk. While successful, teachers requested additional years training and resource support to refine and consolidate their knowledge of neuroscience and inquiry pedagogy. Thus, a three-year sequence is proposed composed of summer teacher institutes, team teaching with U of MN and SMM staff, teacher peer mentoring, development of additional inquiry-based middle school neuroscience curriculum an resources, and opportunities for teachers and students to present their investigations to a wider audience. During the institutes, teachers interact with U of MN neuroscientists and visit laboratories. Participating teachers will continue to interact with project staff and peers, observing each other's classrooms and sharing implementation strategies. Teachers will report on their experiences at local, regional and/or national education and neuroscience conferences. Program materials will be available on the project website in order to reach a larger audience. Professional evaluation will assess the effectiveness of the multiyear teacher training institutes and support network as well as individual teacher performance and will be used to refine the contents of the program and middle school curriculum. The two cohorts of teachers to be trained will reach a total of 22,500 students over the life of the grant.
| Dubinsky, Janet M; Roehrig, Gillian; Varma, Sashank (2013) Infusing Neuroscience into Teacher Professional Development. Educ Res 42:317-329 |
| Roehrig, G H; Michlin, M; Schmitt, L et al. (2012) Teaching neuroscience to science teachers: facilitating the translation of inquiry-based teaching instruction to the classroom. CBE Life Sci Educ 11:413-24 |
| Dubinsky, Janet M (2010) Neuroscience education for prekindergarten-12 teachers. J Neurosci 30:8057-60 |
