NanoBioScience Institute
NBEC - Education and Human Resource Plans and Objectives
The educational mission of the Center is to educate our target audience on NanoBioScience and its applications, and on its impact for the betterment of life. The overall objective is to educationally prepare a diverse cohort of U.S. trained scientists who are capable of assuming the next generation of leadership roles in the U.S. academic and industrial environment. To achieve these objectives, the Center will address the knowledge and training of individuals throughout the science pipeline. Our focus will be concentrated on undergraduate, graduate and post-graduate research and training, with additional outreach programs directed towards K-12 teachers and students. The Center will enjoy competitive access to all applicants to WSU’s doctoral programs. In the past five years, the applicant pool has exceeded 120 annually, with >65% of the applicants being US nationals. Approximately 60% of the applicants annually are female and 10% of the applicants are from underrepresented minority groups.
The participating faculty (through external funded research and training programs) provide >20 new, fully supported graduate research assistantship (GRA) positions annually to the Center. In addition to GRA support, the Center will develop a new doctoral degree focusing on Nano-Femto-Bioscience, through participation in a planned Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Materials Science. This new degree program will be modeled after our well-established and successful doctoral programs in Physiology, Chemical Engineering, Physics, Chemistry, cancer biology and neuroscience, programs that already are the most competitive for our GRA positions, as well as our recently created programs in reproductive biology (OBGYN) and the biomedical engineering program in the College of Engineering. This new doctoral program will be based upon the existing core curriculum of the integrated biomedical sciences as well as a series of advanced courses (the PSL 7215 NanoBioScience & Technology Course) specifically designed for students within this degree track.. It is estimated that two to five such courses will be offered, on an alternate year basis, with one of the courses serving as a capstone course (the PSL 7215) which integrates newly acquired knowledge from the various and diverse disciplinary backgrounds. These new courses will emerge from a series of specialized mini-courses, typically intensive 4-6 week offerings, which will be developed by Center faculty as discoveries are made. Since all courses are offered through the University’s Graduate School, students from a variety of disciplines will be encouraged to enroll and participate.
An important and exciting cooperative educational agreement, already established between Wayne State University (WSU) and its participating institutions, will be extended to include this Center. Under NSF Center programs, this cooperative research and educational agreement has begun engaging faculty from our participating institutions into the WSU Center’s research program as well as provide for systematic inclusion of nano-and femto-science education in undergraduate curriculum at the participating institutions. Students who participate in this program and who successfully apply to the WSU graduate program will be offered priority placement within the Center’s GRA applicant pool. Undergraduate students from participating institutions within the US, will also participate in research at WSU through a Center-sponsored internship program, thereby gaining additional skills and training for career development at WSU. The Center continually seeks post-doctoral students from participating institutions, since such individuals have considerable background experience for such advanced training. Interest in graduate training in the sciences, particularly in emerging areas such as nano- and femto-science, is critically dependent upon the early de-mystification of science.
The Center is beginning to elaborate upon an established and successful model, created through the Environmental Health Sciences Center at WSU. The target audience will consist of K-12 educators, students and members of established community-based organizations. Experience has taught us that the greatest efficiency and benefit is derived from programs that educate the teachers, through day long workshops, the development of level-specific educational materials, the creation and maintenance of a topical website, such as the cyber schoolhouse (www.cyberschoolhouse.org), for the targeted audience’s reference and use, as well as extracurricular programming. Examples include “Science Seekers Science Nights” held in local schools that include the participation of teachers, principals and PTO groups and the involvement of graduate students in various “Science Wizards Science Clubs” at local schools. The Center will also work with the Michigan Metropolitan Girl Scout Council to expand their “Science Encounters Summer Camp”, a camp that is held daily for one week during July. Finally, the Center will work closely with the Detroit Area Pre-College Engineering Program (DAPCEP) to expand the DAPCEP Saturday Institute offerings. Students who participate in these offerings will be encouraged to participate in the area Science Fairs. Center faculty will offer their services to serve as judges at these events. Collectively, it is expected that these K-12 outreach offerings will reach 200-250 individual teachers and students annually. Assessment of these varied offerings is essential and will be coordinated through a purchase of services from the University’s Center for Urban Studies. Their assessment tools, already in successful in other K-12 program areas, include student pre- and post-testing of knowledge in the classroom setting and surveys from individual workshops; teacher assessment includes tests for classroom offerings as well as surveys based upon workshop presentations. Additions and corrections will be continuously incorporated in these educational offerings based upon assessment-derived outcomes.
Updated: 04/23/2008