This project combines the expertise of high school biology teachers and neuroscientists in developing process oriented instructional classroom materials for both groups that will allow them to facilitate student encounters with problems associated with the nervous system. The goals of this project are to (1) improve high school biology teacher and student understanding of the nervous system and its relationship to human diseases, including drug abuse; and (2) promote interaction among neuroscientists, high school biology teachers, and their students. The National Association of Biology Teachers (NABT) will work with the Society for Neuroscience (SN) in identifying 20 teams of exemplary high school biology teachers and neuroscientists nationwide to participate in a summer workshop on the campus of Wake Forest University (WFU) in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. During the workshop, the neuroscientists will update the teachers' knowledge of neuroscience. Teachers will then work with the neuroscientists and personnel from NABT and WFU in developing supplementary process oriented materials for the high school biology classroom. Materials will be field tested nationwide the following year by teacher developers and by 40 additional teachers. Neuroscientists at local sites will be available to assist teachers with implementation. The best of the field tested materials will be edited and distributed nationwide to biology teachers and neuroscientists through inservice workshops conducted by all teacher participants and through presentations at national science teacher and neuroscience conventions. The Society for Neuroscience and NABT will advertise the materials and continue to identify and match teams of neuroscientists and teachers nationwide interested in implementing the materials.
