Progress 07/15/08 to 07/14/13
Outputs
Target Audience: The target audience of the eUBET Grant was Hispanic and other under-represented minority high school and college students and the goal of the grant was to enable these students to pursue agriculture related careers. E-UBET brought college level biosciences into urban and suburban high schools so high school students can earn dual enrollment college credits toward agriculture related college degrees. Many of these students continued their college degree program at a community college or university after high school graduation, several having earned 24 or more transferable college credits. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? The eUBET Grant supported 48 hours of teacher professional development during twelve workshops. A total of 720 teacher development hours accrued during the eUBET Grant. Over three hundred hours of mentoring was provided by the coordinator of science labs and science lab techs for students in addition to the 600 hours by faculty mentors at the USDA/ARS ALARC lab in Maricopa with summer interns. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? E-UBET built a new web page for the USDA/NIFA Grant and has open source lab modules for teachers "azbioed.org"; facebook, career and internship information for students, current event presentations for the community, and links to agriculture related organizations on the web page. Besides using the bioscience website to disseminate grant information, the project director presented eUBET student success data to members of the Maricopa Community College District Biology Instructional Council and at the annual advisory board meetings too. E-UBET interns presented their research posters to the Arid Lands Agriculture Research Center in Maricopa and at a public forums at South Mountain Community College at their conclusion of their summer internships the past two years. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
The eUBET Grant developed comprehensive biotechnology curricula and high school laboratory facilities to produce sustainable and academically rigorous bioscience programs in Arizona high schools. The timing for eUBET coincided with Arizona’s new high school graduation requirements that added a third year of science and because of eUBET, bioscience courses (HS Biotechnology I and Biotechnology II) became the science courses of choice to meet the new science requirement for eUBET high schools and many students. E-UBET focused on ensuring a recruitment and retention strategy that increased the access of minority students to college bioscience courses and laboratory facilities. The program makes use of curricula that promotes a highly interactive learning environment which includes experiential learning, critical thinking, science fair projects, and internships. During the five years, the e-UBET Grant sponsored twelve teacher workshops in biotechnology (exceeding the grant objective) and forty-two teachers attended one or more of them. E-UBET sponsored a Hispanic student who earned a graduate certificate in water and soil science at the University of Arizona and now is completing an internship for Weyerhauser Inc. in the state of Washington. Two Hispanic high school girls developed and presented a poster at the USDA/NIFA conference in Texas last year. James Dalton, another Hispanic student employed by the eUBET grant as a science lab technician presented at NACTA in Virginia this year. The eUBET grant provided lab supplies, lab technician support, lab equipment, and student mentoring at fourteen high schools. Arizona high schools faced deep budget cuts across all teaching disciplines during the e-UBET Grant. Though an Arizona law passed in 2007 increased the high school graduation requirement to three years of science and four years of mathematics, no additional funding was provided. Science courses being among the most expensive to operate received a larger share of the budget cuts at many high schools and class sizes grew to 40 or more students at some locations. However, the eUBET grant augmented high school science programs and preserved high quality college level student experiences by leveraging supply budgets and providing professional development and classroom support to fill the budget gap at partner high schools. In addition, SMCC paid dual enrollment reimbursement funds to high schools (based upon the number of full-time student enrollment equivalents) over the last five years resulting in over $700,000 flowing back to eUBET partner schools to sustain their bioscience programs. As a result, more high school students (2,760) earned more college bioscience credits (11,040) in Phoenix high schools than ever before (exceeding grant objectives). More high schools (14) added more bioscience dual enrollment courses (7) as a result of eUBET than ever before. Finally, high school biotechnology courses were brought under the umbrella of Career and technical Education (CTE) in Arizona. Many eUBET teachers used grant resources to become CTE certified so they could receive funds for supplies and equipment from Carl Perkins grants thereby sustaining and expanding their bioscience and agriculture programs. A-UBET, a forth USDA/NIFA funded Grant, leveraged funds for agriculture programs and provided student scholarships, internships, professional development, and research for partner high schools. The spread of science fairs to more eUBET high schools (14) and eUBET zponzored student mentoring increased community awareness of USDA and raised the competitiveness of Arizona science fair bioscience student projects. Ten eUBET high schools held science fairs during the eUBET Grant, an increase from one school before the grant (exceeding the grant objective). Teachers were highly collaborative and willing to share their lab equipment, supplies, and time. This spirit of collaboration, resource sharing, and teacher mentoring were hallmarks of eUBET teachers. Two former eUBET students who graduated high school and entered undergraduate programs at University of Arizona returned to ALARC for paid internships. Four eUBET teachers and their bioscience students did genomic research sequencing soil bacteria DNA. Students from Birgit Musheno (Teacher of the Year for the 2011 Governor's Celebration of Innovation) bioscience classes won the 2011, 2012, and 2013 Arizona Quiz Bowls and competed in the National Quiz Bowl each year. 179 students participated in the Arizona Science and Engineering Fair through the eUBET Grant, 53 were Hispanic and 39 were non-Hispanic Minority students. 139 eUBET students received AzSEF category awards and 41 received “special awards” from private companies, professional associations, or government agencies. Five eUBET students won Intel ISEF category awards. These results indicate that under-represented minority student participation in college biosciences and science fairs reached new highs due in part to the USDA NIFA HSI Higher Education eUBET Grant. The eUBET Grant expanded non-high school partners as well. University of Arizona Cooperative Extension (UA Coop.) for Maricopa County became a new partner and provided scientists for science nights and visiting scientists in high school classrooms. Four high school students completed summer internships with UA Cooperative professors during summer 2013 too. Rio Salado College became an eUBET Grant partner. Dual enrollment from eUBET exceeded South Mountain Community College's capacity and Rio Salado College stepped in to conduct student registration and testing for dual enrollment in many eUBET high schools. Estrella Mountain Community College (EMCC) joined the eUBET Grant.
Publications
- Type:
Books
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2012
Citation:
Two new lab manuals were published, "Biotechnology I (ISBN 978-1-4652-2546-7)and II (ISBN 978-1-4652-1323-5) The Fusion of Imagination and Inquiry, Kendall Hunt Publishing Company, 2012. Both e-UBET partner high schools and non-partner high schools in Arizona have adopted these lab manuals for their biotech courses.
|
Progress 07/15/11 to 07/14/12
Outputs
OUTPUTS: The primary goal of eUBET is to increase the number of under-represented minority and non-minority students pursuing agriculture related careers. To do this, eUBET provides access to college level bioscience courses in urban and suburban high schools enabling high school students to earn dual enrollment college credits toward agriculture related college degrees. E-UBET students continue their college degree program either at a community college or university after high school graduation; many having earned 24 or more transferable college credits. As a consequence, eUBET high school graduates/college transfers not only receive access to college biosciences and achieve college readiness, but they complete college degrees more quickly than peers who did not earn dual enrollment credits. The eUBET Grant developed comprehensive biotechnology curricula and high school laboratory facilities to produce sustainable and academically rigorous bioscience programs in Arizona high schools. The timing for eUBET coincided with Arizona's new high school graduation requirements that added a third year of science and because of eUBET, bioscience courses (HS Biotechnology I and Biotechnology II) became the science courses of choice to meet the new science requirement for eUBET high schools and many students. E-UBET focused on ensuring a recruitment and retention strategy that increased the access of minority students to college bioscience courses and laboratory facilities. The program makes use of curricula that promotes a highly interactive learning environment which includes experiential learning, critical thinking, science fair projects, and internships. The e-UBET Grant sponsored three teacher workshops in biotechnology, forty-two teachers attended. E-UBET is sponsoring a Hispanic student pursuing a graduate degree in water and soil science at the University of Arizona this year. The e-UBET grant coordinator of science labs and two Hispanic high school girls developed and presented a poster at the USDA/NIFA conference in Texas last May. The eUBET grant provided lab supplies, lab technician support, lab equipment, and student mentoring at forteen high schools last year. E-UBET built a new web page for the USDA/NIFA Grant and has open source lab modules for teachers "azbioed.org"; facebook, career and internship information for students, current event presentations for the community, and links to agriculture related organizations on the web page. Besides using the bioscience website to disseminate grant information, the project director presented eUBET student success data to members of the Maricopa Community College District Biology Instructional Council to acquire their support for continuing the USDA/NIFA supported dual enrollment bioscience courses program through 2014, despite calls to restrict dual enrollment. Another presentation was made to Dr. Harper Marinick, MCCCD Executive Vice Chancellor/Provost. Grant information was shared at the annual advisory board meeting too. PARTICIPANTS: The eUBET Grant employed a coordinator of science labs that coordinated: ordering and delivering of lab supplies, lab tech schedules in high school classrooms, teacher workshops, recruitment and registration activities, mentoring schedules, maintaining the bioscience web page, and science fairs. She worked approximately 1,200 hours last year. The science lab technician received and inventoried supplies, prepared lab materials for classrooms, calibrated equipment and assisted students in labs, assisted teachers with labs, assisted with teacher workshops, assisted with student recruitment and registration, assisted with science nights, collected student and teacher surveys and he worked 800 hours. The project director was the chief administrative officer and chief instructional faculty for the grant: overseeing and approving budget purchases; employee hiring and performance reviews; analysis of student summative and formative evaluation data; making linkages with scientists, high schools, and colleges; crafting subgrant agreements and Intergovernmental agreements for partners; overseeing time and labor; overseeing employee training; writing end of year reports, overseeing the development of the lab manuals and other instructional materials, certifying teachers, and developing grant presentations. The project director received reassigned time from South Mountain Community College for 480 hours of eUBET Grant work. The eUBET Grant expanded its partners in 2011/2012. University of Arizona Cooperative Extension for Maricopa County became a new partner and provided scientists for science nights and visiting scientists in high school classrooms. Rio Salado College became a partner this year. Dual enrollment from eUBET exceeded South Mountain Community College's dual personnel capacity and Rio Salado College has stepped in to do student registration and testing at many eUBET high schools. Two new high schools joined the eUBET Grant this year, Saguaro high in Scottsdale and Mountain Pointe High in Phoenix. We are working with two other high schools to possibly add to eUBET for next year. The eUBET Advisory Board grew to twenty-four members last year. It now includes a lead teacher from each of our thirteen high school partners, two scientists from UA cooperative extension, three scientists from USDA/ARS in Maricopa, two South Mountain administrators and another from Rio Salado College, and three eUBET employees. The eUBET Grant supported twenty hours of teacher professional development during three workshops last year. Over eighty hours of mentoring was provided by the coordinator of science labs and science lab tech for students and forty hours of mentoring was provided to each of two new teachers. TARGET AUDIENCES: The target audience of the eUBET Grant is Hispanic and other under-represented minority high school and college students and the goal of the grant is to enable them to pursue agriculture related careers. To do this, eUBET brings college level biosciences into urban and suburban high schools so high school students can earn dual enrollment college credits toward agriculture related college degrees. Many of these students continue their college degree program at a community college or university after high school graduation, several having earned 24 or more transferable college credits. The grant provides bioscience lab equipment and supplies to upgrade high school labs and lab technicians to assist teachers. The eUBET Grant developed comprehensive biotechnology lab books that are inquiry based; promoting both scientific reasoning and science lab skills. E-UBET teachers create a highly interactive learning environment that includes experiential learning activities, critical thinking, science fair projects, and internships. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.
Impacts
Arizona high schools have faced deep budget cuts across all teaching disciplines. Though an Arizona law passed in 2007 increased the high school graduation requirement to three years of science and four years of mathematics, no additional funding was provided. Science courses are among the most expensive to operate and at many high school locations they have received a disproportionately larger share of the budget cuts. However, the eUBET grant has augmented high school science programs and preserved high quality college level student experiences by leveraging supply budgets and providing professional development and classroom support to fill the budget gap at partner high schools. In addition, SMCC pays dual enrollment reimbursement funds to high schools (based upon the number of full-time student enrollment equivalents) resulting in thousands of dollars flowing back to eUBET partner schools so they can sustain their bioscience programs. As a result, more high school students are earning more college bioscience credits in Phoenix high schools than ever before. More high schools are adding more bioscience dual enrollment courses and asking to join eUBET. Finally, high school biotechnology courses were brought under the umbrella of Career and technical Education (CTE). Most eUBET teachers became CTE certified so they receive funds for supplies and equipment from Carl Perkins grants enabling them to expand bioscience and agriculture programs and move towards sustainability. A-UBET, a new USDA/NIFA funded Grant, leverages funds for agriculture programs and provides student scholarships, internships, professional development, and research. The spread of science fairs to more eUBET high schools and the eUBET grant student mentoring has increased community awareness of USDA and raised the competitiveness of Arizona science fair bioscience student projects. Ten of fourteen eUBET high schools held science fairs in 2011/2012, an increase of four schools from last year. Teachers were highly collaborative and willing to share their lab equipment, supplies, and time. This spirit of collaboration, resource sharing, and teacher mentoring are hallmarks of eUBET teachers. Two former eUBET students who graduated high school and entered undergraduate programs at University of Arizona returned to ALARC for paid internships. Four eUBET teachers and their bioscience students did genomic research sequencing soil bacteria DNA. Birgit Musheno (Teacher of the Year for the 2011 Governor's Celebration of Innovation) bioscience class won the 2011 Arizona Quiz Bowl and competed in the National Quiz Bowl. Ninety-five students participated in the Arizona Science and Engineering Fair March 12, 2012, 20 were Hispanic and 39 were non-Hispanic Minority students. eUBET students won 84 received AzSEF category awards and 34 "special awards from private companies, professional associations, or government agencies. Two eUBET students won 2012 Intel ISEF category awards. These results indicate that under-represented minority student participation in college biosciences and science fairs is reaching new highs annually due in part to the USDA NIFA HSI Higher Education eUBET Grant.
Publications
- A new lab manual was produced, Biotechnology II The Fusion of Imagination and Inquiry. Kendall Hunt Publishing Company, 2012.
|
Progress 07/15/10 to 07/14/11
Outputs
The primary goal of eUBET is to increase the number of under-represented minority and non-minority students pursuing agriculture related careers. To do this, eUBET provides access to college level bioscience courses in urban and suburban high schools enabling high school students to earn dual enrollment college credits toward agriculture related college degrees. E-UBET students continue their college degree program either at a community college or university after high school graduation; many having earned 24 or more transferable college credits. As a consequence, eUBET high school graduates/college transfers not only receive access to college biosciences and achieve college readiness, but they may complete college degrees more quickly than their colleagues who did not earn dual enrollment credits. The eUBET Grant developed comprehensive biotechnology curricula and high school laboratory facilities to produce sustainable and academically rigorous bioscience programs in Arizona high schools. The timing for eUBET coincided with Arizona's new high school graduation requirements that added a mandatory third year of science. Because of eUBET, biosciences (HS Biotechnology I and Biotechnology II) have become the science courses of choice to meet the third year science requirement for eUBET high schools and many students. E-UBET focused on ensuring a recruitment and retention strategy that increased the access of minority students to college bioscience courses and laboratory facilities. The program makes use of inquiry-based curricula administered in highly interactive learning environments that promotes critical thinking, science fair projects, and internships. PRODUCTS: An eUBET Facebook page was developed so bioscience students could interact with each other and with eUBET personnel and so they could easily access eUBET resources. Nearly 50% of eUBET students received college registration materials and completed formative evaluations online in 2011. As a result, we noticed a significant decrease in the time it took for students to complete registration (less than one day) and for students to complete the formative evaluation (less than one week). eUBET personnel created a recruitment power point presentation and delivered it to over sixty classes at fifteen high schools. College registration cards with eUBET contact cell phone numbers were also distributed to students to assist them in completing college registration and scholarship forms online. OUTCOMES: Savanna Malkus, an eUBET student at Mesa High received a Wood Scholarship to Arizona State University, School of Life Sciences. The Wood Scholarship pays tuition and fees for four years. Birgit Musheno' eUBET Bioscience class won the 2011 Arizona Quiz Bowl and competed in the National Quiz Bowl. Fifty students participated in the Arizona Science and Engineering Fair (AzSEF) March 21, 2011 and thirteen were under-represented minorities. Twenty seven received awards; one was the Grand Prize winner for seniors and four were Hispanic. Three Arizona students received 2011 Intel ISEF category awards, two from eUBET High schools (Savanna Malkus and Soumya Kambhampati). Hamilton High, an eUBET partner was awarded AZSEF Champion for the senior division. Though many eUBET activities went smoothly and were well received by high school customers, opportunities for improvement also surfaced. In 2011, teacher requests for lab support and supply surfaced more quickly to eUBET personnel; they were resolved more quickly as well. Communications between eUBET customers, eUBET personnel, and the project directors dramatically improved when the Facebook page was created and cell phone contact numbers were widely distributed; these efforts resulted in better planning and project outcomes. Teachers gave high marks for Antonio Garcia, eUBET science lab technician for his role in their classrooms as a peer mentor and teacher assistant. The economic recession, loss of student scholarship funds, and heightened focus on illegal immigration issues in Arizona caused a significant decrease in college registration for eUBET dual enrollment courses; resulting in adjustments in recruitment and retention strategies for the project. E-UBET project directors conducted individual planning meetings at each high school and involved stakeholders from all employee levels this year in addition to conducting an annual Advisory Board Meeting in November. Customized plans were developed and implemented at the individual meetings which resulted in significant enrollment and retention increases during the year. Enrollment was 547 in 2010/2011 based upon unduplicated headcount (33% minority, 16% Hispanic). Thirty two eUBET students received college scholarships in 2010/2011 vs.274 the year before. All thirty-two were first in the family to attend college; fourteen were minority and eight Hispanic. The overall eUBET course completion rate was eighty-three percent during 2010/2011, a decrease from 93% the year prior. The eUBET scholarship committee awarded the USDA/NIFA eUBET scholarship to Keren Loya, a Hispanic Carl Hayden High School Graduate; accepted into the University of Arizona (UA) College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) and majoring in microbiology. Keren's mentor is Elaine Marchello, Ph.D., Bart Cardon Dean, Academics Dean,College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. E-UBET and SMCC have an approved sub-grant with University of Arizona to administer the eUBET scholarship. DISSEMINATION ACTIVITIES: Marshall Logvin, eUBET Grant PD received a Certificate of Appreciation and Acknowledgement from the Tempe Union High School District (TUHSD) for significant contributions made to student learning through the USDA/NIFA eUBET Grants. The awards ceremony was videotaped and showcased on the TUHSD website. Marshall also presented eUBET student success data and provided classroom tours to members of the Maricopa Community College District (MCCD) Biology Instructional Council, securing their support for the USDA/NIFA supported biosciences program through 2014, despite calls to restrict dual enrollment courses to 100 level introductory courses. A similar presentation was made to Dr. Harper-Marinick, MCCD Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost that resulted in her continued support for the USDA/NIFA bioscience grants. Christine Remenih, eUBET Science Coordinator and 2011 Kika de la Garza Fellow shared eUBET Grant information with colleagues in Washington DC; Christine also presented a poster summarizing eUBET impacts at the 2011 NACTA meeting in Edmonton. All fifteen eUBET high schools have included internal communications about the impact of this grant and ten list it on their web pages. Mr. Antonio Garcia, eUBET sciecne lab technician and Arizona State University Senior, College of Sustainability was wUBET Grant student representative for the HSI Leadership for Agriculture Students Program in Washington DC (September 26-29,2010). As part of the leadership conference, Antonio presented a poster illustrating eUBET results at USDA and shared these results with Mr. Pastor, US Congressman during a visit arranged by the leadership team. FUTURE INITIATIVES: During 2011-2012, eUBET personnel and SMCC staff will need to cooperate closely to ensure the dual enrollment process is administered well in partner high schools (Carl Hayden High, McClintock, Marcos de Niza, Tempe High, Corona del Sol, Desert Vista, Mountain Pointe, Red Mountain, Mountain View, Hamilton, Sierra Linda, Mesa High, and Arcadia). Some school districts do not permit their staff to get involved with student residency issues (even though Arizona statutes mandate students provide it for dual enrollment registration) and this causes conflicts with the dual enrollment staff at the college. Given new immigration laws in Arizona, it is anticipated there will be increased issues involving the registration of high school students for college classes, though the Maricopa County Community College District is simplifying the process. During the 2011-2012 year, additional efforts will need to be in place to increase the teacher and student response rates to surveys for timely year end feedback. Survey respondents indicated that science fairs had the most favorable impact on eUBET high schools; generating excitement and pride among participants and the broader student population as well. Efforts will be made to increase the breadth and participation in science fairs. EUBET teachers were highly collaborative and most willing to share lab equipment and related physical resources. This sprit of collaboration and resource sharing are project strengths that need to continue to retain this important project norm. The eUBET grant development committee developed and submitted a new USDA/NIFA HSI grant which subsequently was awarded funding and began September 1, 2011. USDA/NIFA approved a one year no-cost extension for eUBET enabling the grant to continue to support HS biosciences and the eUBET Scholarship recipient.
Impacts
Arizona high schools have faced deep budget cuts across all teaching disciplines. Though Arizona increased the science requirement for high school graduates to three years, no additional funding was provided. In addition, Arizona K12 funding was cut $183M (19%) for the 2012 academic year even though Arizona ranks 46th in state spending in the US. As a result, continuation of high school bioscience programs is in jeopardy without eUBET Grant support. The eUBET grant has not only helped keep biosciences, but it has enhanced high school science programs and preserved high quality college level student experiences by leveraging supply budgets and providing personnel support to fill the budget gap. SMCC pays thousands of dollars of dual enrollment reimbursement funds to partner high schools to help build sustainable bioscience programs. An eUBET impact is that more high school students are earning more college bioscience credits in than ever before and more high schools are asking to join the eUBET Grant. Finally, high school biotechnology courses have been brought under the umbrella of Career and technical Education (CTE) in Arizona and many of the eUBET teachers have become CTE certified. CTE programs and teachers receive funds for supplies and equipment from Carl Perkins grants enabling them to expand biosciences and move even closer towards sustainability. The next USDA/NIFA Grant titled A-UBET, leverages funds to support biosciences by providing student tuition scholarships, internships, professional development, and research.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
|
Progress 07/15/09 to 07/14/10
Outputs
The primary goal of eUBET is to increase the number of under-represented minority and non-minority students pursuing agriculture related careers. To do this, eUBET increases availability of college level bioscience courses to under-represented minority and non-minority students in urban high schools and enables them to earn college credits which can be applied toward an agriculture related college degree. eUBET students continue their college degree program either at a community college or public university when they graduate from high school. Students are able to transfer their dual enrollment college credits and frequently achieve a college degree more quickly than their colleagues who did not earn dual enrollment credits. The eUBET Grant developed comprehensive biotechnology curricular and laboratory facilities designed to promote student college in college biosciences while they are in high school. The project focused on ensuring a recruitment and retention strategy that increased the access of minority students to college bioscience courses and laboratory facilities. The program makes use of a curricula involving a highly interactive comprehensive learning environment which includes experiential learning, science fair projects, and internships. This year there was ongoing research involving student and teacher interns at the USDA Arid Lands Agricultural Research Center (ALARC). Dr. John Dyer, plant geneticist, researched the genetic amplification of genes that produce bio-fuel plant oils in draught resistant plants and Jeannie McClain did research that involved using PCR to identify Fecal Coliform sources in municipal treated effluent to determine public safety issues for using grey water. Two students completed internships at ALARC. Two students are doing a Helio Internship at T-GEN in Phoenix this summer. Xan Simonson BIO 247 class and Stephanie Kings BIO 107 class performed genomic work on soil microbes which will be published by Dr. David Rhoads, a University of Arizona researcher and principal investigator of an NSF ATE Grant that engages high school students in biotechnology research in high school science classrooms. One student from Birgit Mushemo BIO 245 class received an NIH Internship at the NIDDK lab in Phoenix, Arizona for summer 2010 and he is enrolled at Stanford University for fall 2010. Five other students in Birgit class were awarded National Merit Scholars and two participated at 2010 Intel ISEF. Forty seven students participated in the Arizona Science and Engineering Fair (AzSEF, 3/20/10), twelve were under-represented minorities. Twenty seven placed, two were grand prize awardees and six won first prize in their category. PRODUCTS: A eUBET Facebook page was created so bioscience students could interact with each other and with eUBET personnel so they could easily access eUBET resources. Students received college registration materials and completed formative evaluations electronically for the first time in fall 2009. This produced efficiencies such as decreasing the response time for student registration activities to less than one day and completing the formative evaluation data analysis in less than one week. eUBET personnel created a recruitment power point presentation and delivered it to over sixty classes at twelve high schools. College registration cards with eUBET contact cell phone numbers were also distributed to students to assist them in completing college registration and scholarship forms. OUTCOMES: Though many UBET activities went smoothly and were well received by high school customers, opportunities for improvement also surfaced. In 2009, problems surfaced more quickly to eUBET personnel and were resolved more quickly as well. Communications between eUBET customers, UBET personnel and the project directors dramatically improved when the facebook page was created and cell phone contact numbers were widely distributed; these efforts resulted in better planning and project outcomes. The economic recession and heightened focus on illegal immigration issues in Arizona threatened recruitment and retention goals of the project. These variables will need to be carefully monitored in future semesters. Rather than conducting an annual advisory board meeting to form collective policy for the upcoming year, eUBET project directors conducted individual planning meetings at each high school and involved stakeholders from all employee levels. Customized plans were developed and implemented which resulted in significant enrollment and retention increases during the year. Enrollment increased from 179 in 2008 to 331 in 2009 based upon unduplicated headcount. Two hundred and seventy four eUBET students received college scholarships last year. Forty percent of the eUBET student (142) were under-represented minority students, a decrease from sixty nice percent in 2008. Twenty seven percent of the students were Hispanic. The overall eUBET course completion rate was ninety three percent during 2009, a slight increase from the ninety one percent completion rate in 2008. DISSEMINATION ACTIVITIES: Information about the eUBET grant and its impact were highlighted in a broadcast on Maricopa TV and were accessible on the web at WWW.maricopa.edu/ mctv/MN/WM/MN/200906.wmv. In addition, a number of messages have been shared at South Mountain Community College, and within the Maricopa Community College District about the success of the program. All of the high schools involved have also included internal communications about the impact of this grant. eUBET personnel produced a poster that was displayed at the NACTA annual conference in Pennsylvania, June 23, 2010. All of the eUBET project directors conducted end of the year meetings at each high school to share project results. The SMCC office of Institutional Research posts the eUBET reports on the SMCC Bioscience Web page. eUBET personnel presented project results at the Arizona Bioscience Education Leadership (ABLE) 2009 spring meeting. FUTURE INITIATIVES: During the 2010 - 2011 SMCC staff will need to carefully monitor the dual enrollment process. Some school district do not allow staff to be aware of students immigration status and this puts increased burden on staff at the college. Given new immigration laws in Arizona, it is anticipated there will be increased issues involving the registration of students for college classes when they are still enrolled as high school students. eUBET staff will need to work closely with SMCC student services personnel to ensure there are clear and appropriate messages to students. During the 2010-2011 year additional efforts will need to be in place to increase the response rates by both students and faculty to the year end feedback survey. Science fairs have a most favorable impact on students as well as the broader student population at a given high school. Efforts should be made to increase the breadth and participation in the science fair activity. Faculty members were highly collaborative and most willing to share lab equipment and related physical resources. This sprit of collaboration and resource sharing are project strengths and these efforts need to continue to retain this important project norm.
Impacts
Arizona high schools have faced deep budget cuts across all teaching disciplines. Though an Arizona law passed in 2007 increased the high school graduation requirement to three years of science and four years of mathematics, no additional funding was provided. Science courses traditionally have been viewed as the most expensive and have at many high school locations received a disproportionately larger share of the budget cuts. However, the eUBET grant has augmented high school science programs and preserved high quality college level student experiences by leveraging supply budgets and providing personnel support to fill the budget gap at partner high schools. In addition, SMCC pays reimbursement funds to high schools (based upon the number of full-time student enrollment equivalents). This has resulted in thousands of dollars flowing back to eUBET partner schools that are being used to build sustainable bioscience programs. An eUBET impact is that more high school students are earning more college bioscience credits in metropolitan high schools than ever before. eUBET high schools are adding more dual enrollment intergovernmental agreements with the community colleges and more high schools are asking to be included in the project.
Publications
- Marshall Logvin, Discovering the Concepts of Life, a Biology Lab Manual with Inquiry Lab Experiences. Kendall Hunt Publishing, 2010.
|
Progress 07/15/08 to 07/14/09
Outputs
eUBET had 684 teacher development hours. 2 teachers finished and 3 teachers started Master's programs; 2 will receive Master degrees in 2010. 4 biotech teachers were hired at eUBET schools despite Arizona's recession caused reduction in force. eUBET led a teacher in-service for Tempe science teachers to promote biotech education and USDA goals; 27 teachers attended. 15 teachers from 7 eUBET high schools taught 21 college biotech courses to 358 students (248 minority students or 69%, 208 Hispanic students or 58%, and 190 females or 53%). 322 students (90%) successfully completed a college bioscience course (92% of Hispanic students). 28 eUBET students entered Arizona's Science and Engineering Fair. 16 won awards; 4 competed at Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, in Reno; 1 student won 3rd place and another was honorable mention. 64 eUBET students competed in 3 high school science fairs. 12 presented at Mesa Community College' Bioscience Fair. 3 new partners joined eUBET: McClintock, Mountain View, and Red Mountain high schools. Four of their teachers became college certified and will teach 9 eUBET bioscience courses in 2009. eUBET provided lab supplies for 9 high schools. eUBET collaborated with Mesa College (MCC) and ASU (NSF ATE grantees) to distribute NSF funded lab equipment to eUBET partners and leverage resources. eUBET lab techs trained 2 students to do lab tech duties at their high schools. Students each received 4.0 college internship credits for their 320 service hours. An eUBET teacher and student did USDA ARS internships. Another student had an internship at Translational Genomics Research Institute. In all, four eUBET students completed internships last year (two Hispanic, two Anglo); 3 graduated high school; one enrolled at Mesa College, another at University of Arizona, and a third at ASU). All three are pursuing agriculture related degrees. eUBET provided teacher and student mentoring. We performed judging and mentoring duties at five science fairs (including Intel ISEF). An external evaluator measured eUBET quality. He reported All teachers gave high marks for eUBET lab techs, equipment, and supplies. Some were critical of recruitment efforts and curricula. As a result, we adopted a new recruitment plan; lab techs make presentations to all bioscience classes and follow up with students for college registration via a face book page. Teachers enthusiastically support this plan. A lab manual authored by eUBET teachers will be used and evaluated by teachers in 2009. Admin and teachers said, eUBET increased student access to biosciences and improved student research project quality. eUBET had a positive impact on students expectations to complete high school and subsequently attend college. Most students said they will pursue science but maybe not agriculture careers. This was not surprising since students experienced just their first biotech course. We expect a greater influence as students take higher level biotech courses and we focus on more students participating in science fairs and internships. Students said biotechnology labs and equipment helped them learn biotech concepts the most. PRODUCTS: Formative evaluations for students and survey instruments for eUBET teachers, administrators, and students were crafted by the eUBET Grant external Evaluator. Both sets of evaluations were administered last year. Analysis and reflections will result in minor edits of the instruments next year. eUBET faculty and employees crafted a student summative evaluation to measure student biotechnology knowledge. The evaluations were administered to over 150 students and results analyzed. Student performance was higher than expected (mean score 87%). eUBET teachers will revise the summative evaluation next year. eUBET and Arizona biotechnology teachers initiated the Arizona Bioscience Education Leaders ABEL, a statewide advocacy group. A primary goal of ABEL is to provide leadership in writing Arizona's bioscience curriculum and helping Arizona educators adopt it. ABEL also seeks to provide resources and instructional opportunities for biotech educators. Comprised of high school bioscience education leaders and eUBET, ABEL partnered with AZ BIO and Flinn Foundation, Arizona' premier bioscience education, research, and business advocacy groups to guide Arizona's bioscience industry. ABEL has two educators that are members of the Arizona Department of Education bioscience education task force which is charged with writing Arizona Science Standards for biotechnology courses. The science standards and a comprehensive test to measure student knowledge of the standards will be completed in 2010. eUBET lab technicians, high school teachers and students at two eUBET schools produce their own plasmids for bacterial transformation labs. eUBET employees prepared portable mini labs for eUBET teachers. The minilabs included premixed reagents, enzymes, DNA sources and teacher instructions so teachers could execute biotech labs with minimum preparation. eUBET lab techs conducted mini-academies at eUBET high schools to train high school teachers how to optimize the biotech mini labs kits and connect the labs to biotech concepts. A new college course was created last year BIO 175, Research Methods in Biology. BIO 175 carries lab science transfer credit to public Arizona universities and it will be taught in five eUBET high schools next year. Students enrolling in BIO 175 will design and complete projects for science fairs and receive college/university credit. Customized eUBET brochures and power point presentations were created for each eUBET school at the end of last year. They will be used to boost enrollment for next year. A eUBET face book page was created to provide bioscience students direct access to eUBET lab techs and each other. eUBET cosponsored science fairs at two high schools last year. Six teachers and 64 students (37 minority students, 58%) participated. Maricopa Community College Television filmed a UBET genetics class at Carl Hayden Community High School and aired the promotional piece on television. The video was shot in a UBET bioscience classroom while students were doing an animal genetics lab. The complete video can be found on the SMCC Bioscience web page under news and events: http://www.maricopa.edu/mctv/MN/WM/MN200906.wmv OUTCOMES: eUBET added two new Mesa Public School (MPS) partners and one Tolleson Unified School District partner. Red Mountain and Mountain View High schools in Mesa, and Sierra Linda high school in Tolleson (an original eUBET partner that was unable to participate in yr. 1 because the construction of their new campus was delayed). All three schools have college certified bioscience teachers and bioscience labs in place; ready to begin robust bioscience programs next year. Tempe High School's fledgling bioscience program was enthusiastically supported by science teachers and the science chair. Twenty Tempe High students completed eUBET courses its first year. Five students shared their science projects with the Tempe High School Buffalo Foundation, a group of alumni and business leaders that raise funds for the predominantly Hispanic and low SES students at Tempe High. As a result, eUBET Co-PD and the science chair submitted a proposal for $3,200 from the Buffalo Foundation for eUBET student scholarships to pay for college tuition and fees for next year. The proposal was accepted and will be funded in 2010. Xan Simmonson, Mesa Biotechnology Academy Director and co-founder of ABEL, is the host city coordinator lead for the regional NSTA Conference in Phoenix in 2009. eUBET is supporting this effort by providing teacher professional growth funds for eUBET teacher registration and release time so several eUBET teachers can deliver presentations and lead workshops that advance bioscience education. eUBET employees will also play significant roles in the NSTA conference. A very close working relationship has been forged between Arizona High Schools and Arizona Community Colleges (particularly South Mountain Community College) through eUBET. This has resulted in better planning (including the mapping of high school and college courses) and better leveraging of resources to optimize bioscience education (including using high school science labs for teacher workshops, research, and eUBET training). It has also produced a seamless transition for students in the 2+2+2 high school to college to university or workplace pipeline. This synergy has resulted in more funding opportunities for all bioscience teachers, a greater focus on achieving financially sustainable bioscience programs, and improved cooperation and trust between Arizona high schools and community colleges to collaboratively achieve these goals. eUBET and USDA ARS worked closely last year. One eUBET teacher completed a summer research internship at USDA ARS in Maricopa and was invited to return next year. ARS invited other eUBET teachers and students to apply for next year. South Mountain Community College increased its dual enrollment scholarship allocation to $15,000 for next year and eligible eUBET students will receive priority. The increase is due to SMCC' commitment to increase under-represented minorities in SMET disciplines and to reward eUBET students (who had a 93% success rate in dual enrollment classes last year) that expressed a strong desire to take additional classes next year (as indicated on the eUBET student survey). DISSEMINATION ACTIVITIES: eUBET had three dissemination activities last year. A USDA Grant link was placed on the SMCC bioscience website and the following items were posted: eUBET advisory meeting presentations, Annual reports to USDA, comprehensive evaluations annual reports, and links to the eUBET schools. Teacher and student links were new additions to the bioscience webpage this year plus a face book page was added to increase student interactions. The teacher link provides curricula, upcoming workshops, applications for professional growth, and field trip expense forms. The student link has dual enrollment forms, scholarship forms, links to student research projects, and a link to USDA/CSREES for those interested in pursuing agricultural-related careers. eUBET co-sponsored high school science fairs last year and our lab techs provided recruitment brochures and answer questions from students and teachers. The eUBET Co-PD brought Antonio Garcia, UBET Lab tech, past UBET student and current Wood Scholar in the College of Sustainability at Arizona State University to the National Bio Link Fellows Forum in Berkeley, California. Antonio delivered a presentation to Bio Link Fellows titled: How Dual Enrollment changed my Life and brought hope and pride to my family. USDA CSREES and eUBET were central themes in Antonio's presentation. FUTURE INITIATIVES: eUBET will continue to strengthen its partnership with high schools, universities, bio industry, education associations, and ARS in Maricopa. eUBET will offer training, supplies, and dual enrollment opportunities to new eUBET teachers and high school partners. eUBET will co-sponsor teacher professional development days in Tempe High School District and Mesa Public Schools to increase the number of eUBET teachers using biotech activities and promote biotech program expansion. eUBET will continue to seek and apply for additional funding to help fund tuition and fees for eUBET targeted minority and first generation college students, many of whom have low incomes. eUBET will strengthen its' partnership with the bio-industry (particularly with T-GEN) to increase the numbers and types of bioscience internships for eUBET students and teachers. eUBET will facilitate classroom field trips to USDA ARS in Maricopa and to T-GEN next year. Filed trips encourage more teachers and students to conduct science fair projects and prepare for USDA careers. Teacher and administration field trips will be coordinated by eUBET this year to bring greater awareness of extraordinary ARS resources to K-12 personnel. The field trips will also be used to encourage more applications for teacher and student internships. eUBET will continue to work with Dr. Rhoads and expand his educational bioscience research into more eUBET classrooms. We may be even more involved with Dr. Rhoads research efforts if his new NSF ATE proposal is funded in November. eUBET will refocus on student enrollment this year. eUBET lab techs will make in-class presentations that promote attaining a college degree, beginning with dual enrollment, and considering an agricultural career pathway in every eUBET class at each of the 11 high schools. The presentations will occur in early fall, followed by one-on-one student/eUBET registration and scholarship application completion. The goal of the new recruitment strategy is to increase eUBET awareness and enrollment and to remove the barriers (the burden on teachers and the miscommunications in registration college processes) and interact directly with eUBET customers (students) in a format they readily use (power point and face book).
Impacts
Bioscience course offerings have expanded from eight to 24 high schools in Maricopa County in the past two years with the aid of eUBET. Where Tempe High Union School District (TUHSD) had one high school offering bioscience courses two years ago, it now has six. Phoenix Union High School District had one high school offering bioscience courses two years ago and now has three. Mesa Public Schools (MPS) had one biotechnology academy and now offers bioscience courses in four schools. Tolleson High School District had no bioscience offerings and today it has a new magnet bioscience high school. Eight of the twenty-four high schools have minority student populations exceeding 50% of their total population and all of these schools began bioscience programs through eUBET. eUBET mapped college bioscience courses in MPS and TUHSD high school districts to ensure students would receive transferable college credits. Xan Simmonson, eUBET teacher and director of Mesa Biotechnology Academy chairs the Arizona Department of Education task force that is charged with creating bioscience high school standards and assessments for Arizona public schools. eUBET teachers and Co-PD's are contributing to this effort to ensure a seamless transition for Arizona bioscience students as they progress from high school to college to university and the bioscience workforce.
Publications
- Nina Simonson, Biotechnology Basics: Inquiry Labs that Promote Science Skills and Scientific Thinking. 1st edition. Premium Source Publishing, 2009.
|
|