Biology students share research at symposium

PROVIDENCE – More than 40 Rhode Island high school biology students presented original research at a symposium at Brown University on May 3, capping a year-long professional development program in which high school teachers were trained in cutting-edge topics in genetics and neuroscience.

Through the Project ARISE program, high school teachers attended workshops taught by Brown faculty and graduate students on molecular biology, bioinformatics, neuroscience and physiology as well as discussions about, and demonstrations of, inquiry-based learning.

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Teachers left the workshops with four ready-made unit plans, each containing four to six weeks’ worth of lessons, as well as the information and tools to develop their own inquiry-based lectures and lab experiments. Teachers also received equipment and supplies, such as gels that separate DNA fragments.

Biology students and their teachers from five high schools – Cranston East, Mount Hope and Scituate as well as the William M. Davies Career and Technical School and the New England Laborers Construction Career Academy – shared the results of their experiments and research at the Nature of Discovery Symposium on May 3. •