Teacher Institute for the Experience of Science

描述(由申请人提供)： 科学家和学校教育工作者之间的文化差异阻碍了开创性研究直接转移到学校、教师和学生手中。教师是缩小这一差距的潜在桥梁，但他们经常被快速的科学技术进步吓倒。科学家和临床医生需要帮助将他们的工作转化为所有人都能理解和欣赏的信息。科学家和教师之间的这些文化差异导致了一些破坏性的后果，包括失去了教育和激励年轻人的机会，其中一些年轻人本身就是潜在的科学家，以及公众对动物研究、基因工程和干细胞研究的误解。这些后果在短期和长期内都威胁到科学研究。因此，缩小科学家和教师之间的文化差距是招募未来科学家和为开创性研究创造积极氛围的重要一步。 为了满足这些需求，我们提出了一项I/II阶段的联合提案，该提案将通过与中学教师建立独特的合作伙伴关系，提高我们的生物医学研究人员向公众传达其工作重要性的能力。这一互惠互利的合作伙伴关系将使科学家能够在我们校园内由NCRR资助的两个中心--普通临床研究中心(GCRC)和俄勒冈州国家灵长类动物研究中心(ONPRC)--的丰富研究环境中吸引教师。反过来，教师将让科学家们将他们研究中复杂且有时有争议的方面转化为适合他们的课堂和公众的形式。这种伙伴关系的力量将来自于建立对各自合作伙伴独特技能的相互尊重和理解。在传播过程中，课程将适应不同的文化背景，并在网上公布。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Cultural gaps between scientists and school educators have hampered the direct transfer of groundbreaking research to schools, teachers, and students. Teachers are a potential bridge to close this gap, but all too often, they are intimidated by rapid advances in science and technology. Scientists and clinicians need help in translating their work into messages that can be understood and appreciated by all. These cultural gaps between scientists and teachers lead to a number of damaging consequences, including lost opportunities to educate and inspire young people, some of whom are themselves potential scientists, and public misconceptions about animal research, genetic engineering and stem cell studies. These consequences threaten scientific research in the short- and long-term. Thus, closing the cultural gaps between scientists and teachers is an important step both in recruiting future scientists and in creating a positive climate for groundbreaking research. To address these needs, we propose a combined Phase I/II proposal that will improve the ability of our biomedical researchers to communicate the importance of their work to the general public by forging a unique partnership with middle school teachers. This mutually beneficial partnership will allow scientists to engage teachers in the rich research environments of two NCRR-funded centers on our campus, the General Clinical Research Center (GCRC) and Oregon National Primate Research Center (ONPRC). In turn, the teachers will engage the scientists in translating the complex and sometimes controversial aspects of their research into a form appropriate for their classroom and the public. The strength of this partnership will come from building a mutual respect for and understanding of unique skills of the respective partners. During dissemination, the curricula will be adapted to a variety of cultural backgrounds and published on the web.