Projects of Interest to Middle School Teachers and Children
Medicinal Mysteries from History - The RECONSTRUCTORS Investigate Opioids
Medicinal Mysteries from History - The RECONSTRUCTORS Investigate Club Drugs
Leslie Miller, Ph.D.
Rice University
lmm@rice.edu
Product Developed: an award winning web site, The Reconstructors
Target Audience: middle school children
Goal: The site provides an entertaining, kid friendly means of educating children about abused drugs. It places children in the year 2252, ten years after the Great Plague that killed millions, caused the collapse of civilization, and resulted in the loss of past knowledge. The children, acting as the Reconstructors, attempt to regain medical knowledge by visiting virtual laboratories, libraries, and other learning stations.
Alignment with Standards: National Science Education Standards; Healthy People 2000 and 2010; Technological Innovation and Learning Theory.
Availability: http://reconstructors.rice.edu; offered through a computer kiosk as an interactive exhibit at the McGovern Museum of Health and Medical Science in Houston
Translation: This site is also available in Spanish.
Awards:
- Received an "A" review from Education World, an internet resource guide for educators
- The Exploratorium named The Reconstructors one of their Ten Cool Sites for February 2001.
- Was named Hot Site of the Week at the Pacific Bell Knowledge Network
- Received the Talking Hands Award for web sites appropriate for teaching hearing impaired children
- The Science Teachers Association of Texas has recognized The Reconstructors Series as "Best of CAST 2003" (Conference for the Advancement of Science Teaching) in the July 2004 issue of the Texas Science Education Monthly.
- Was selected as a Digital Dozen site, which recognizes it as an exemplary web site for educators as chosen by the Eisenhower National Clearning (ENC). View at: www.enc.org/features/dd/archive/0,1577,10-2004,00.shtm
- The Reconstructors Team was awarded the Ed-Media 2004 Outstanding Poster Award for the poster "Using Web-based Multimedia Narrative and Simulations to Teach Drugs of Abuse."
- Web Page of the Month by Neuroscience for Kids Newsletter
Papers:
- Teaching Neuroscience Through Web Adventures: Adolescents Reconstruct the History and Science of Opioids, Miller, L.M., et al., (2002) The Neuroscientist 1(8):16-21.
- Flash Forward to Problem-based Science, Miller, L.M., et al., (2002) Science Scope 25(3):154-157.
- Middle School Students and Technology: Habits and Preferences, Miller, L.M., (2001) TechEdge, Journal of Texas Association of Computer Educators 20(1):125-140.
- Middle School Students' Technology Practices and Preferences: Re-Examining Gender Differences. Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia, 10(2), 125-140, 2001.
- An Online, Interactive Approach to Teaching Neuroscience to Adolescents, Miller, LM, et al., (2006) Cell Biology Education, Vol 5 p. 137-143.
- Using Web-Based Multimedia Narrative and Simulations to Teach about Drugs of Abuse, Miller, LM, et al., (2004) Conference Proceeding of ED-MEDIA 2004: World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia, and Telecommunications, Lugano Switzerland, Vol 2004, Issue, 1, pp. 3959-3961. (Recipeint of the Ed-Media 2004 Outstanding Poster Award).
- The Reconstructors (2004), Texas Science Education Monthly, Best of CAST 2003.
- Using Narrative to Teach Neuroscience Concepts to Middle School Students Through a Web-Based Adventure Story, Miller, LM, et al., Proceeding of SITE 2002 Conference, Nashville Tenessee, March 18-23, 2002.
- Technology Acculturation Among Adolescents: The School and Home Environments, Miller, LM, et al., Conference Proceedings of ED-MEDIA 2000: World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia, & Telecommunications, Montreal, Canada, June 26-July 1, 2000.
Presentations:
Listed at http://reconstructors.rice.edu/recon2/teach.html - click on teacher workshops
Web Adventures to Teach Adolescents about Inhalant Abuse
Leslie Miller, Ph.D.
Rice University
lmm@rice.edu
Product to be Developed: a web site titled Web Adventure on inhalants similar to the previously developed award winning THE RECONSTRUCTORS web sites
Target Audience: middle school children
Goal: This site will develop a web site for middle school children on inhalants with the goal on increasing students' knowledge about the biological effects of inhalants. In addition it will compare two versions of the site, a science only version and a science plus version again a control condition to determine short and long term impacts in motivating students not to use inhalants. The science plus version will include prevention messages in addition to the science. The site will also model science process skills as well as portray a wide variety of science careers.
Alignment with Standards: National Science Education Standards; Healthy People 2000 and 2010; Technological Innovation and Learning Theory.
Drug Abuse and Addiction: A Multimedia Approach
Anne Westbrook, Ph.D.
Biological Sciences Curriculum Study
awestbrook@bscs.org
Product to be Developed: inquiry based curriculum materials and video
Target Audience: middle school students and the adults in their lives, including parents or guardians, teachers, school counselors, school health professionals and other school personnel
Goal: This grant developed inquiry based curriculum materials about the science of drug addiction, including a multimedia component, a web component and print materials specific for each target audience. The combination of web, print and multimedia approaches provides a coherent program focused on major drug abuse related concepts. Print materials for parents and guardians have been translated into Spanish. This project produced outstanding materials similar to the Office of Science Education/NIDA project developed for high school, "The Brain: Understanding Neurobiology Through the Study of Addiction", also developed by Dr. Westbrook.
Alignment with Standards: National Science Education Standards
Availability: The materials can be obtained at www.bscs.org/curriculumdevelopment/middle/othersupplemental/drugabuse.html
SPARC2000+: Science Fair Drug Abuse Science Literacy
J. Bill Whitlow, Jr., Ph.D.
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
bwhitlow@camden.rutgers.edu
Product to be Developed: Minority middle and high school students and their teachers will receive training in how to conduct science fairs.
Target Audience: minority middle and high school students
Goal: This ongoing project is using science fairs to improve science literacy and minority participation in science. To enable science teachers and adult mentors to get more students at middle and high school levels involved in science fairs, the project is offering training in research methods, technical assistance regarding science fairs, and other resources to science teachers in grades 6-12 in New Jersey. Each summer teachers participate in a 5-week workshop to learn how to use research to study the effects of drugs and the nature of drug abuse and addiction. They also learn how to promote inquiry-based learning in their students and how to engage them in the process of doing science by producing interesting, novel projects for science fairs. Students have the opportunity to present their projects in elementary school, libraries, community centers, science expos, and at research luncheons. An on-line version is being developed.
Alignment with Standards: National Science Education Standards
Presentations:
Long-term Outcome of a Science Enrichment Intervention: Evaluation of SPARC in Camden, NJ, USA. Presented at the Southern African Association for Research on Mathematics and Science Education, January, 2000.
Girls in Drug Abuse Science
University of Kentucky
Carl Leukefeld, Ph.D.
cleukef@uky.edu
Product Developed: a multiyear program for reaching Appalachian girls and increasing their scientific knowledge and confidence
Target Audience: middle school girls and their teachers and parents
Goal: This grant is providing young Appalachian girls with an innovative multiyear program aimed at increasing their scientific knowledge and confidence to counter the under representation of rural girls who chose science and drug abuse research careers and to improve the knowledge of drug abuse research among rural girls, Girls in the program participate in Project Summer Institutes, Saturday Sessions, and scientific as well as community mentoring opportunities. The project also targets middle school math and science teachers with professional development courses which focus on engaging girls in drug abuse research and science. In addition, the project includes parental involvement through a series of workshops. This project is also developing and disseminating a model curriculum to enhance teaching of science and drug abuse in rural areas, and a guide "Promoting Gender Equity in the Classroom" to enhance science education in rural areas.
Alignment with Standards: National Science Education Standards
Drug Scene Investigators
Rees Midgley, M.D.
inDepthLearning
RMidgley@indepthlearning.org
Product to be Developed: an educational game for middle school students about the biology of drugs of abuse
Target Audience: middle school students and their teachers
Goal: This project seeks to educate middle school students about the biology of drug abuse through the use of a problem-solving game in which the students carry out research in a simulated real-life situation. The game will involve a multidisciplinary approach that is designed to make materials comprehensible to a diverse group of learners.
Addiction: Hijacking the Brain
Susanna Cunningham, Ph.D.
University of Washington
susannac@u.washington.edu
Product Developed: a) educational opportunities for middle and high school students through Brain Power, a traveling van, b) speakers bureau for classrooms and community groups and c) a "Neuroscience of Addiction" curriculum for teachers, d) lectures for the general public; e) workshops for professionals in drug enforcement
Target Audience: middle and high school students and teachers; general public; professionals in drug enforcement
Goal: This multifaceted project sought to disseminate research based science information to a broad audience. The Brain Power program was delivered to schools in Washington and neighboring states where it reached over 30,000 students and 4,000 adults. The program consisted of 12 lessons and a materials kit which used engaging and fun educational materials and settings, to stimulate lessons on basic neuroscience and the biology of addiction. Additionally a detailed curriculum, "Brain Power: It's all in Your Head," was developed for middle school teachers and students. The curriculum contains engaging lessons on a variety of neuroscience topics, including drug abuse.
This grant also organized 140 volunteer professionals who traveled to schools and community groups to give seminars on a variety of brain and drug abuse research topics. The speakers all included the importance of animals for biomedical research in their talks. Countless numbers of students and adults have been reached through this program. WABR also held Amazing Animal Research Student Contests in which students submitted essays and posters detailing the importance of animal research.
Alignment with Standards: National Science Education Standards
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