Enhancing bioscience education
Our goal is to stimulate attitudes of inquiry

The College of Arts and Science, working cooperatively with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), is at the forefront of efforts to make revolutionary changes in undergraduate biology education.

In July, HHMI awarded the University a new four-year, $1.7 million grant to support enhancements to its undergraduate biology and biochemistry programs. UD was one of 44 research institutions nationwide selected to receive a total of $80 million in funding from the institute. This is the third major grant the University has received from HHMI, after a $1 million award in 1992 and a $1.6 million award in 1998.

"The continuing success of our program stems from UD's excellent record of integrating research and undergraduate education. This is something that many research universities have trouble doing well," says Hal White, professor of chemistry and biochemistry, who directs the HHMI program at the University. David Usher, associate professor of biological sciences, is the assistant director.

In its announcement of the award, HHMI said that "undergraduate biology education is in the midst of a revolution" and that the grants will help UD and other institutions "address the challenges of a rapidly changing and increasingly interdisciplinary science."

"Biology is progressing so rapidly and interfacing with so many other disciplines that undergraduate teaching runs the risk of substituting quantity for quality," HHMI President Thomas R. Cech, a Nobel Prize-winning biochemist, says. "Through these grants, the institute is providing resources to help universities bring their undergraduate science teaching up to the level of their research programs."

At UD, the new grant will support numerous programs, including some that encourage graduate students and postdoctoral fellows to hone their teaching skills. Other programs will bring such emerging scientific disciplines as genomics and computational biology into the undergraduate curriculum. Additionally, the grant will assist programs that encourage minorities to pursue careers in science, as in UD's Network of Undergraduate Collaborative Learning Experiences for Underrepresented Scholars (NUCLEUS) Program.

"Our goal is to 'stimulate attitudes of inquiry,'" White says. "That theme permeates all aspects of the program, including undergraduate research, student facilitators in problem-based learning classes, the NUCLEUS Program, faculty development, equipment for undergraduate teaching laboratories, training of teaching assistants and outreach efforts to promote interest in science. We seek to recover the curiosity that seems to disappear late in elementary school, when most students become reluctant to raise their hands and begin to keep their questions to themselves."

White says summer 2002 marked the pilot of a new HHMI outreach program to local high school students and chemistry teachers. The course, taught by Thomas Beebe, professor of chemistry and biochemistry, engages students in environmental and biological problems whose study requires a sound foundation in analytical chemistry.

Also last summer, there was special programming for 29 HHMI Research Scholars--26 from UD, two from Delaware State University and one from Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. The scholars participated in the Summer Undergraduate Research Enrichment Program, which included sessions on research and laboratory safety, life-science and research career opportunities, research funding and ethics.

The program activities were capped by a special lecture in August by Jeremy Nathans, professor of molecular biology and genetics at Johns Hopkins University and son of the late Nobel Laureate Daniel Nathans, AS '50. Known as the father of modern biotechnology, Daniel Nathans received the Nobel Prize in medicine in 1978.

White, a biochemist, says modern biological science draws from many disciplines. As a result, he says, the research scholars worked on campus in a variety of departments, including plant and soil sciences, chemistry and biochemistry, chemical engineering, medical technology and biological sciences.

In addition to the summer programs, White says, the HHMI program coordinates with other University efforts, such as the Institute for Transforming Undergraduate Education (ITUE), a national workshop on integrating problem-based learning and technology.

Science faculty from UD, Delaware State and Lincoln universities who attend ITUE are supported by incentive funds for training in a variety of areas. Those include educational conferences, computer hardware and software and assistance with the use of leading-edge classroom technologies. In turn, the faculty members will develop new stand-alone investigative laboratories in introductory biology and chemistry courses for undergraduates.

White says new laboratory courses will be taught by faculty active in research, with the help of teaching assistants.

The fall 2002 semester marked the beginning of another initiative funded by the grant, "Introduction to Laboratory Instruction," a course for new teaching assistants in biology and chemistry.

--Neil Thomas, AS '76