News :: Vanderbilt Center for Science Outreach

The December issue of the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) middle school journal, Science Scope, featured an article by MNPS teacher and CSO Scientist-in-the-Classroom Coordinator, Jeannie Tuschl. As a program coordinator at the Vanderbilt Center for Science Outreach (CSO), under the direction of Dr. Virginia Shepherd, Ms. Tuschl initiated the Volunteer Scientist-in-the-Classroom Partnership (vSCP) at Vanderbilt University in collaboration with Dr. Patrice Moss-Gray at Meharry Medical College and Dr. Todd Gary at Tennessee State University. Volunteer graduate students and postdoctoral scientists, in partnership with middle school science teachers, bring real-world science into the classroom. The article, "Volunteer Scientist-in-the Classroom Partnership in Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools," can be accessed via the NSTA website, http://www.nsta.org/middleschool/.

For more information about the Volunteer Scientist-in-the-Classroom Partnership access the website at http://www.volunteerscp.org/.

The Center for Science Outreach is pleased that its popular podcast, Snacks4theBrain! has been included in the newly released Discover Archive, an extraordinary project from Vanderbilt's Jean and Alexander Heard Library. The rapidly growing research resource offers many ways to access S4theB! but one way is to perform a simple search for "snacks" and "brain", which results in this page.

The next episode, number 78, of Snacks, will feature amazing end of semester presentations by the School for Science and Math's sophomore class, as well as some fun independent music and the return of Tech Tip Tidbit! Stay tuned!!!

See an article from the front page of the November 23, 2008 Tennessean about the state of science education and how our office is working to improve the problems facing Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools, as well as schools in general.

View the article on the Tennessean's website or view a PDF of the article.

David Petersen, a former participant in the Scientist-in-the-Classroom Partnership (formerly the National Science Foundation GK-12) program was recently voted the best public school teacher in the Nashville Scene's 2008 Best of Nashville Readers' Poll.

While in the program, David was a fellow at Cameron Middle School. He is currently a math teacher at Independence High School. Congratulations, David!

The results of the 2008 Siemens Competition in Math, Science and Technology are in and two School for Science and Math seniors have earned semifinalist recognition in the prestigious national Siemens Science Competition. Congratulations to Hana Erkou and Elizabeth Wei for this tremendous accomplishment!

Hana Erkou is a student at Nashville School of the Arts and she is working in the laboratory of Louise Rollins-Smith in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology. The title of her research paper is, “Antimicrobial Peptides that inhibit HIV and protect Beneficial Lactobacilli.”

Elizabeth Wei is a student at Hume-Fogg and she is working in the laboratory of Chris Williams in Gastroenterology. The title of her research paper is, “Creating an inducible expression system where the role of MTG8 in colorectal cancer can be better understood.”

All ten School for Science and Math Seniors applied to the competition. Last year one SSMV senior, Uyen Pham, earned semifinalist recognition.

Scott Merrick, Vanderbilt Center for Science Outreach's Teacher-in-residence, has accepted an invitation from conference organizers to speak at this year's Internet2 membership meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana. The conference website explains that the "Fall Member Meeting will feature track sessions and demonstrations that highlight innovative uses of advanced networking for research and teaching, as well as the development and evolution of high-performance network infrastructures in support of local to global cyberinfrastructure." Merrick will share the spotlight October 14 on a panel about Virtual Worlds with Margaret Corbit, Cornell University; Ben Fineman, Internet2, Moderator; Merrilea Mayo, Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation; Chris Melissinos, Sun Microsystems; Rob Rothfarb, Exploratorium; and Kathy Schrock, Nauset Public Schools. He will also attend sessions from the event-packed program and network with leaders in information management from all corners of the nation.

Ten School for Science and Math seniors and 19 Research Internship Program (RIP) students will present their summer research at two poster sessions on July 10, 2008.

The poster sessions will run from 9:30 to 10:45 am and 11:00 am to 12:15 pm in the north lobby of Light Hall.

We encourage everyone to stop by and witness the extraordinary work that these students — the next generation of research scientists — have produced.

See a related article in The Reporter from June 27, 2008

On December 3, students of the School for Science and Math at Vanderbilt hosted Nobel Prize winner Dr. Stanley Cohen. Dr. Cohen won the 1986 Nobel Prize for his work with Dr. Rita Levi-Montalcini in discovering nerve and epidermal cell growth factors. He came to Vanderbilt University in 1959 as an Assistant Professor in the Biochemistry Department where he explored the chemistry and biology of epidermal growth factor (EGF).

The School students, instructors and staff also hosted a banquet luncheon for Dr. Cohen where they had the opportunity to discuss his influential work and receive his advice to, "find what you love and do that.”

The CSO's director, Virginia Shepherd, Ph.D., was awarded the Thomas Jefferson Award for Distinguished Service at the Fall Faculty Assembly on August 30, 2007. The award recognizes Dr. Shepherd "for her diplomatic and efficient leadership of the Faculty Senate; for her creation and direction of the Vanderbilt Center for Science Outreach; for her leadership of the National Coalition on Intercollegiate Athletics and her role on the NCAA Task Force for Recruiting Student Athletes; and for her directorship of the Learning Sciences Institute."

See the full article of faculty achievement awards in the Vanderbilt Register.

The Learning Sciences Institute (LSI) is a Vanderbilt University-wide center dedicated to stimulating and supporting interdisciplinary research and development in the learning sciences. Through that work, the LSI seeks to improve education while developing a new generation of tomorrow's leaders.

With over $80 million in external support, the LSI's 100+ investigators are currently exploring a wide variety of topics such as conceptual and cultural change, the achievement gap, education leadership assessment, embodied mathematical cognition, teacher professional development, the role of culture in learning, and more.

The summer 2007 edition of the LSI's newsletter, "Eye on the LSI," featured an article introducing the School for Science and Math to the LSI investigators and to other community members. Read the article online or download a PDF copy of the whole newsletter.