Based on the model and recommendations of the previously NSF-funded program, Science Education for New Civic Engagements and Responsibilities (SENCER), which connects science education to complex civic issues, faculty members from a four-college consortium in the Carolinas are teaching a unique introductory biology course that connects basic concepts in the life sciences with issues relating to health and disease in sub-Saharan Africa. In addition to Meredith College, the course is being taught at two other four-year institutions, North Carolina Wesleyan College and Bennett College, and one two-year institution, the University of South Carolina at Sumter. The course is taught simultaneously at Kenyatta University in Nairobi, Kenya. Students in the American classrooms are doing collaborative classroom work with students at Kenyatta University using internet-based communications. The intellectual merit of this project is that it addresses the need for educational tools and methodologies that engage and motivate students through integrated, contextualized learning in a global context. The broader impact involves improved science literacy and interest among introductory students. Women and African American students are particularly impacted because they comprise a large proportion of the student body at Bennett College and the University of South Carolina at Sumter. The course promotes cultural sensitivity among students living in widely disparate cultural and economic conditions on the North American and African continents. This award was cofunded by NSF's Office of International Science and Engineering.
