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The Peabody Fellows Program began in 1997 as a science literacy initiative for elementary school teachers, students and their families. It aims to educate and excite them to experience the diversity of the natural world with a positive attitude towards scientific inquiry, and to promote the incorporation of science and scientific inquiry methods in the classroom. With original funding from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) and currently supported through a Science Education Partnership Award (2005–2010) from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Peabody Fellows Program works closely with selected teachers on science curriculum projects aligned with state and national science standards. The program has evolved into a respected resource for professional development in southeastern Connecticut that helps teachers show children new ways to view their environment, strengthen their observational and investigative skills, and instill a respect for biodiversity. It provides teachers with access to the educational resources of the Yale Peabody Museum to enhance the learning experience in their classrooms.
Downloads:
Application to be a 2008 Peabody Fellow [PDF 40 KB]
Conceptual Structure of the Connecticut Science Framework addressed by the Peabody Fellows 2008 Summer Institute on Biodiversity and Human Health, July 14–18, 2008 [PDF 40 KB]
Connecticut Science Framework B INDs, C INQs and D INQs
[PDF 91KB]
Peabody Fellows brochure [PDF 298 KB]
Current Focus: Grades 5 to 10
The latest NIH–SEPA grant, administered through the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR), was awarded to Principal Investigator Leonard Munstermann, senior research scientist in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at the Yale University School of Medicine and Curator of Entomology at the Yale Peabody Museum. Using information on the locally relevant Lyme disease and West Nile virus, this project will create a curriculum unit to teach students in grades 5 to 10 about biodiversity and vector-borne disease, including the differences in transmission, detection, and treatment of viral and bacterial diseases.
A competitively selected group of curriculum-writing Fellows began their undertaking by participating in two spring workshops. These were held at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station in New Haven, one of the original research sites for Lyme disease in the 1970s and now an important location for investigating and monitoring West Vile virus. They also attended a 2-week summer Biodiversity Institute. This core of Fellows, along with museum educators, is developing and piloting a science curriculum unit on Lyme and West Nile in coordination with school visits by the mobile BioAction Lab. Over the subsequent years of the grant, this unit will continue to be refined through further teaching, disseminated to other chosen school districts across the country, and finally made available for national release by the end of 2010.
Click here to view a video clip of students exploring the BioAction Lab, courtesy of WTNH-TV News Channel 8 in New Haven. (Best viewed with the latest version of RealPlayer.)
Highlight: In 1999, the New Haven Board of Education recommended the Peabody Fellows Program to the Yale Child Study Center (YCSC) as a model science literacy initiative in the public schools. The program was first invited to provide a science education workshop for 160 educators nationwide at the YCSC’s annual Academy for Developmentally Based Education in March 2001. This was the first year that the Academy included science education since its inception in 1997. Historically, it had promoted the teaching of literacy and mathematics in a developmentally appropriate way. This invitation was the first opportunity for widespread dissemination of the Peabody’s acclaimed science literacy program beyond Connecticut, and the Peabody Fellows Program has played an important role in every Academy since that time. As an invited presenter each year, the program’s curriculum specialist provides an inquiry-based workshop that aligns the National Science Education Standards with the six developmental pathways espoused by Dr. James Comer, creator of the YCSC’s nationally recognized School Development Program.
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To build teacher capacity
for bringing research in biodiversity and disease ecology into grade 5 through 10 classrooms in an engaging, inquiry-based style. |
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To develop innovative standards-based science curriculum resources that
use museum collections to investigate biodiversity and vector-borne disease ecology. |
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To increase middle school students’ understanding and practical application of science process skills in the context of investigating Lyme disease and West Nile virus. |
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To increase public understanding of the nature
of biomedical sciences and scientific research in the context of vector-borne diseases. |
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Principal Investigators |
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Leonard E. Munstermann, PhD
Senior Research Scientist (Epidemiology and Public Health),
Curator (Entomology) |
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Michael J. Donoghue, PhD
Director, Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History
G. Evelyn Hutchinson Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology,
Curator of Botany,
Peabody Museum |
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Staff |
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Laura Fawcett
Program Director
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Terri Stern
Science Educator/
Curriculum Specialist |
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Mary Anderson
School/Community Liaison
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Peabody Fellows Program
Peabody Museum of
Natural History
Yale University
P.O.Box 208118
New Haven, CT 06520-8118 |
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peabody.fellows@yale.edu |
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(203) 432-5715 |
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