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2003 High School Lab Module
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National Science Foundation Supplemental
Grant for Outreach #0323461
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After
completing the first year of our Plant Genome
Research grant, we gained a better appreciation
of the commitment required to pursue a vigorous
outreach program. While we view our first year's
effort as very successful, we also identified
several opportunities to improve our outreach
program. We requested supplemental funding for
two objectives that improved our ability to
interact more effectively with area high schools.
The first objective was to expand the involvement
of this program to three local high schools. In
doing this we shared the genomics laboratory
exercise (developed during the first year of our
outreach program) with eight biology classes and
over 200 students. The second objective was to
support the purchase of necessary molecular
biology reagents and equipment to be shared among
high schools participating in the outreach
program. The grant was awarded in March 2003, and
this has allowed us to integrate these goals into
our outreach program.
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Paula Jones, the
science teacher from Groton with whom we
collaborated with in 2002, has become the key
collaborator for this award. She directed the
efforts to
extend
the program
to additional area schools in the
spring and summer of 2003 and 2004. Our choice of
schools was based on complementary
demographic
profiles
, geographical proximity (aiding
logistical efforts), and expressed interest and
commitment from individual teachers within the
Cortland and Homer School districts.
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