The Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation announced today that its Oklahoma Science Project has received a grant for $538,650 from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. The project provides public high school science teachers from around the state with laboratory training and experience at OMRF and ongoing mentoring after they return to their classrooms.
“The Oklahoma Science Project seeks to give teachers novel instructional tools that they can use to introduce their students to the nature of science and scientific discovery,” said OMRF scientist Philip Silverman, Ph.D., who has headed the project since 1992. “Through the continuing generosity of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, we hope to continue to improve the quality of science education in this state.”
Begun in 1988, the project offers teachers an eight-week summer research experience at OMRF, where they work side-by-side with both their fellow teachers and with OMRF’s researchers and technicians. “It’s that kind of peer interaction that forms the basis of science,” Silverman said. “You don’t practice science in a tower all by yourself.”
Silverman stressed the importance of establishing relationships between researchers and teachers. “High school science teachers too often feel disconnected from the world of research,” he said. “They need contact with active scientists, both for practical guidance and for encouragement and support.”
To reinforce the teacher’s summer experiences, the project offers Return to Science, a follow-up course at OMRF. The project is also in the process of developing OSPNet and E-Lab, a pair of communications networks that will address the isolation of rural communities through both telecommunications and computer linkage.
“We think it’s especially important to work with teachers from Oklahoma’s rural school districts,” said Silverman. “These teachers serve small communities, which often lack museums, universities and other resources that are so crucial in supplementing the science education offered in the schools.”
David West, a Stillwater High School teacher who participated in the project, found the experience invaluable. “The program gave me a greater insight into real science and how it is done,” he said. “I am now in a better position to help my students differentiate between what is and what is not science.”
For the last nine years, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute has supported the project. With this most recent grant, the Maryland-based nonprofit medical research institute, which is one of the world’s largest private supporters of science education, has devoted more than $1.2 million to the project. Substantial funding has also come from the Williams Companies, Ardmore’s Merrick Foundation and the estate of Ralph Enix of Kingfisher.
“The Howard Hughes Medical Institute has made a crucial investment in Oklahoma’s future,” said Silverman. “With its ongoing support of the Oklahoma Science Project, HHMI has sent the message that the teacher is the critical factor in the educational reform equation.”
Chartered in 1946, the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation is a private, nonprofit biomedical research institute dedicated to basic research, education and finding better treatments for a wide range of diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease, cardiovascular disease, cancer, arthritis and lupus.
