EAST LANSING, Mich. – With support from a  fellowship program, eight Michigan State University doctoral students in ecology and evolutionary biology are headed for southwest Michigan K-12 classrooms this fall.  

The fellows, who will join a national effort to place doctoral students in primary and secondary schools, will hone their teaching skills while working with K-12 teachers to help invigorate science and math instruction.

“This fellowship program is an important part of our outreach mission,” said Phil Robertson, program director and an MSU professor of crop and soil science. “We’re continuing not only to conduct world-class research, but also to strengthen our ties to the community, particularly to area science teachers.”

The three-year, $1.6 million program builds on a long history of university-community linkages at MSU’s W.K. Kellogg Biological Station in Hickory Corners, Mich. For several years, various station-sponsored workshops and summer institutes have promoted improved science instruction in the surrounding rural school districts.

Participating school districts in the 2006-07 school year include Gobles, Gull Lake, Harper Creek, Lawton, Martin, Olivet, Plainwell and Vicksburg. In each district, a doctoral student will be paired with a mentor science teacher to promote hands-on science instruction. Other districts involved in the program, but not hosting fellows this year, are Comstock, Galesburg-Augusta and Parchment.

Four one-day workshops will provide opportunities for science teachers in all 11 districts to participate in program objectives – namely, to enhance Michigan and U.S. K-12 science instruction. The MSU fellowship is one of 50 such National Science Foundation programs nationwide.

Besides Robertson, the program will be led by Thomas Getty, an MSU zoology professor based at the station, and Charles Anderson, a science education professor in MSU’s College of Education. Other MSU participants include station faculty members Gary Mittelbach and Jeffrey Conner.

The station, MSU’s largest off-campus education complex and one of North America’s premier inland field research stations, has made important contributions to ecological science and evolutionary biology. It’s also part of the National Science Foundation’s network of long-term ecological research sites that study the kinds of slow ecosystem changes – such as those related to climate change – that only are evident after many years of observation. And, the station is the only site within the network devoted to the study of agriculture-based ecosystems.

For more information on the Web, see www.kbs.msu.edu/GK-12.

###