Biotechnology in American High Schools: Continuing Research

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The Cold Spring Harbor DNA Learning Center (DNALC) conducted a nationwide survey of high school biology teachers in 1998 to collect data on the penetration of biotechnology/molecular genetics in American High Schools. The DNALC possesses other related unique datasets that represent biology teachers who have since retired. The proposed survey provides an opportunity to compare two generations of biology teachers with respect to laboratory instruction and students exposure to four major techniques: bacterial transformation, DNA restriction analysis, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and DNA sequencing. The 1998 study showed that the early adoption of biotechnology lab instruction was concentrated in schools located in high wealth, suburban zip codes. It is important to see if, today, hands-on biotechnology instruction has broadened to include economically challenged and more diverse urban populations. It may also be possible to correlate changes in teacher attitudes and behavior with funding and educational trends over this period of time, including NSF's and HHMI's shift away from teacher professional development institutes and the increased standardized testing under No Child Left Behind. In this way, the study results may provide insights for educational policy and future efforts in teacher professional development.In the first quarter of 2018 an email survey was conducted with the goal of reproducing the sample size, number of respondents, and response rate from the 1998 study. Although the sample size was comparable (approximately 12,000 teachers), the email-based method yielded a much lower response rate (10% in 2018 versus 30% in 1998). To ensure that the study will capture a representative snapshot of U.S. biology teachers, this project will re-administer the survey via the U.S. Postal Service, with the objective of improving the response rate, and increasing the sample size to confirm the initial findings from the email survey. Initial findings include: laboratory teaching in biotechnology has been brought "to scale" in a number of U.S. schools over the last 20 years, the two cohorts of biology teachers have different perceptions of constraints that limit their ability to incorporate new concepts and techniques into their classes, relatively few schools that currently offer molecular biology electives seem to be involved in the school-to-work movement advocated by the ATE program, the current cohort appears to be less professional and less involved than the 1998 cohort, and summer institutes and workshops remain the most important contributors to teacher expertise; however, formal education is much more significant for the current cohort. The project will re-administer the survey using letters and reminders sent by U.S. Postal Service to increase number of respondents and collect retrospective data on the numbers of teachers trained in intensive workshops from 1988 to 2018 to analyze the impact of the reduced numbers of teacher professional development workshops supported by the NSF and HHMI since 2012.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.