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BioTeach: an Innovative Professional Development for High School Biology Teachers
Author(s) -
Wyss J Michael,
Jarrett Kevin,
Busch Katie
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.27.1_supplement.517.26
Subject(s) - professional development , mathematics education , class (philosophy) , science class , psychology , faculty development , science education , pedagogy , medical education , medicine , computer science , artificial intelligence
As science information increases at exponential rates, professional development is needed to keep teachers current and innovative in their discipline. BioTeach provides teachers throughout Alabama and adjacent states tools and training to implement high‐level, inquiry‐based biology labs. Teachers participate in a 3‐week summer course and return for 3 professional development sessions (school year), providing teachers the first‐hand knowledge of how to guide their students in molecular biology experiments in a classroom. The teachers continue their professional development by bringing their students to hands‐on, molecular biology labs in the GENEius Lab, where high school students conduct college‐level labs, which the teachers previewed in BioTeach. 91% of the BioTeach teachers bring their class to the GENEius lab twice per year or more and >;90% implement the skills they learned from BioTeach/GENEius in their classroom. >;75% of the 192 BioTeach graduates (past 10 years) continue to use materials and pedagogy they received in BioTeach, and >;50% of the inquiry‐based experiences the teachers develop in BioTeach continue to be used in the classroom after 5 years. Student assessment shows significantly improvement (>;155%), and teachers have noted increased student performance after their GENEius experience. Thus, BioTeach develops inquiry‐based, biology educators, who are improving science education.