A $1.8 million grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute today to the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ at Boulder will enrich science education for hundreds of university undergraduates, as well as thousands of Denver area K-12 students.
Since 1989, HHMI has awarded CU-Boulder $5.6 million in three separate grants to strengthen undergraduate science programs and K-12 outreach efforts in the biomedical sciences. The Hughes Initiative supports programs designed to increase the number of students interested in biological or medical careers -- especially minorities and women -- and to strengthen biology education.
"We are very excited that we were selected to continue to provide this valuable service," said Mark Dubin, a CU-Boulder biology professor and principal investigator on each of the three Hughes educational grants made to CU-Boulder. "There was more competition for these grants than ever before, and the results show that HHMI recognizes the high quality of CU-Boulder programs."
CU-Boulder was one of 58 research universities of about 200 that applied to receive science education grants ranging from $1.1 million to $2.2 million from HHMI in 1998. Since 1988, HHMI has granted more than $425 million to universities for science education.
Thus far, more than 30,000 undergraduates from around the nation have participated in programs made possible by HHMI funding. Fifty-six percent have been women and 28 percent have been ethnic minorities.
This summer, several K-12 teacher workshops were held at CU-Boulder as part of the Hughes Initiative outreach program. The workshops covered infectious diseases and immune system responses, new ways of studying molecular genetics and the social behavior of insects. Area teachers learned up-to-date research and hands-on science activities to take back to their classrooms, said Graf.
CU's Hughes Initiative also funds a group of graduate and postdoctoral students known as "The Science Squad," who make presentations at Denver area schools and work with teachers on classroom science activities with state-of-the-art science equipment purchased through Hughes funds. Last year, the CU Science Squad made 359 visits to K-12 schools in the Denver area, reaching several thousand students.
Presentations have included diabetes education and experiments with blood glucose levels, forensic botany, sampling water for bacteria contamination and the use of gel electrophoresis to examine genetic differences in both people and animals. The Science Squad also provides information to middle school and high school students about science careers and the college experience.
Outreach efforts to K-12 schools in the Denver area account for about 45 percent of the Hughes grants, said Julie Graf, CU-Boulder program director of the Hughes Initiative. Since 1989, CU-Boulder has provided about $120,000 worth of equipment grants to K-12 schools through an awards program for teachers.
Hughes funds for CU-Boulder undergraduate programs have been used to strengthen undergraduate classroom and lab instruction, largely through undergraduate laboratory equipment acquisitions, said Graf.
"We are now seeing students that participated in the Hughes Initiative in Denver area high schools enrolling at CU-Boulder and continuing to be a part of the program. We have definitely established a strong link with these schools," Dubin said.
"We have seen a tremendous return on our investment," said Graf. "Former students from Denver area schools now are majoring in science at CU-Boulder, and some undergraduates in the Hughes program have gone on to graduate school or medical school, which is gratifying to us."
The Howard Hughes Medical Institute is a research organization that carries out biomedical research at 72 sites nationwide. HHMI has awarded more than $700 million over the past decade to enhance science education at all academic levels. With an endowment exceeding $11 billion, HHMI spends three-quarters of its annual operating budget of $500 million on research by Hughes Investigators, including four faculty members at CU-Boulder.
CU-Boulder's Hughes Initiative offers student opportunities in the Undergraduate Research Assistant Program and the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program to get paid to work on research projects with faculty mentors.
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