HOWARD HUGHES MEDICAL INSTITUTE RENEWS $1.2 MILLION GRANT TO TEMPLE UNIVERSITY FOR UNDERGRADUATE AND PRE-COLLEGE SCIENCE EDUCATION
A $1.2 million grant has been awarded to Temple University by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) to enhance its undergraduate program in the biological sciences and--working with two Philadelphia high schools--introduce qualified pre-college students to basic research in the life sciences.
Temple is one of 58 research and doctoral universities nationwide--and the only one in the Philadelphia area--to receive a 1998 grant from HHMI, which announced the awards totaling $91.1 million on Wednesday, Sept. 16. The four-year HHMI grants program, which began in 1988, is the largest private initiative to enhance undergraduate science education nationwide.
Temple's award is a renewal of an initial HHMI grant received in 1994. Since then, of the 37 Temple undergraduates in the program who have graduated, 21 have gone on to either medical school or graduate school, and 11 are working in technical or research fields such as the pharmaceutical industry.
"Through the Howard Hughes Medical Institute award, students have the opportunity to get the hands-on experience with the research technologies they will encounter when they move into career positions in research labs," says Temple biology professor and project director Nina Hillman.
The grant renewal will enable Temple to expand the current program that puts undergraduates on research teams working side-by-side with graduate students and post-doctoral fellows under the guidance of a faculty mentor.
"Right from the start, the students become a part of a research team," notes Hillman. "They're challenged to figure out why things go right, and why they go wrong, in lab experiments."
The grant will also provide for the purchase of additional equipment, including chromatographs, upgraded video-microscopes and laptop computers.
In addition to broadening research opportunities and enhancing the undergraduate science curriculum in molecular biology, biochemistry and analytical chemistry during the academic year and in an intensive 10-week summer program, the grant gives students access to the scientific community.
"Giving undergraduates the satisfaction, and joy, of scientific research helps them make the transition from science major to scientist," says Hillman. "The grant will provide support for our undergraduate students to go to scientific meetings and present the results of their research."
The project also incorporates outreach to the pre-college level for 30 students from the Carver High School for Engineering and Science and Edison-Fareira High School, as well as two science teachers from each school.
"High school students may apply and enter the six-week summer program at any point during their high school years," says Hillman.
The experience introduces them to the academic community and helps them to realize that becoming a part of it is within their grasp.
The involvement of high school teachers helps reinforce continuing student interest during the school year and enables the teachers to bring the new technologies into their high school classes and labs.
Hillman points out that the pre-college outreach has helped to get students into the science major/science career pipeline and has already served as a feeder into Temple's undergraduate science programs.
"All of the high school students who have participated during the first four years of the program have gone on to attend college, and most have become science majors," notes Hillman.
"The HHMI grant enables us to meet students' needs at two critical periods of their education--not just in the first two years of college when they encounter rigorous chemistry and biology courses, but even earlier, during the high school years, when they often lose interest and stop taking science courses."
Both high school and undergraduate students are competitively selected for the HHMI program based on grade point average, letters of recommendation and a personal essay.
Founded in 1953 by the aviator-industrialist for whom it is named, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute is the nation's largest private philanthropy. It carries out biomedical research at 72 sites nationwide.
This year's grants bring to more than $425 million the amount awarded since 1988 through HHMI's undergraduate grants program.
For more information, contact
Harriet K. Goodheart at Temple's News Bureau, 215-204-7476, [email protected] or
David Jarmul at HHMI, 301-215-8857. [More information is also available at HHMI's Web site:
http://www/hhmi.org/undergrad98]
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hkg-223 September 17, 1998
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