Although there is growing national recognition of the need to reform undergraduate biology education, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) and Tribal Colleges have comparatively been slow to respond. Slow response time primarily is due to a lack of resources, including faculty training and professional development opportunities. The goal of this proposal is to conduct microarray technology workshop for 48 faculty teaching high proportions of underrepresented minority undergraduates. The workshop, to be held at Morehouse College in summer 2005, will be organized by Dr. A. Malcolm Campbell (Davidson College) and Dr. Edison R. Fowlks (Hampton University), members of the Genome Consortium for Active Teaching (GCAT; www.davidson.edu/GCAT). The workshop will be the third NSF-supported GCAT workshop and will provide background information and readings on microarrays, software training, hands-on experience with microarray data analysis, and wet-lab experiences with DNA microarray hybridization. Workshop participants are expected to integrate microarray technology into their courses. Participants will be able to provide their students the opportunity to work with real DNA microarray data so they can discover first hand how biology is an informational science, and organisms are complex systems. Faculty at HBCUs, HSIs, and Tribal Colleges (TCs) will be recruited for participation.
