The Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History has received its third Science Education Partnership Award (SEPA) from the National Institutes of Health. SEPA projects are designed to immerse students in science, increase science literacy and encourage biomedical research careers. This new initiative is led by Leonard Munstermann, Senior Research Scientist in the Yale School of Public Health and Curator of Entomology at the Yale Peabody Museum.
The current SEPA project, which will run from 2011 through 2016, aims to improve communication between research scientists and the general public through development of middle and high school curriculum resources and via museum exhibits and public forums. Teachers, museum educators and research scientists will cooperate in this endeavor, centered at Peabody Museum and drawing on the research resources of the Yale School of Medicine (clinical and public health). Three infectious, vector-borne diseases—malaria, leishmaniasis, and dengue—will be used as models (1) to illustrate impact of climate on changes in epidemiological patterns and (2) to provide teachers with engaging and relevant new ways to address their required state and national science standards.
Six specific aims will be achieved:
1. Innovative, standards-based science curricula will be developed that are based on active and current research in university laboratories. This will be accomplished with a consultation team of teachers, museum educators and a research advisory board.
2. Teacher capacity will be enhanced by use of museum collections in making the link between climate and insect-borne disease ecology. Summer teacher training institutes will expose educators to the curricula and associated museum and laboratory resources.
3. Students (grades 7-12) will strengthen investigative science skills through the use of museum specimens and laboratory tools, inquiry-based experiments, and field trips to biomedical research facilities.
4. The new curricula will be disseminated first in selected sites in Connecticut and then at education centers in Texas, Oregon, and California. These classroom resources will be marketed nationally by the Peabody Museum publications office, and available on the museum website.
5. Annual family events that highlight the infectious disease theme will be sponsored at the Peabody Museum and participating schools; a traveling kiosk exhibit will be designed that explores the interplay between human travel patterns, climate cycles and insect-borne infectious disease risks.
6. The model of science partnerships developed through this project will be made available for use by other informal science institutions, research institutions and public schools; this will be disseminated via the Peabody Museum website, by contacts with local schools, and at regional and national conferences.
The Peabody Fellows Biodiversity and Human Health Program began in 1997 as a science literacy initiative for elementary school teachers, students and their families. It aims to educate and excite them about 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. Originally funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) and subsequently funded by two Science Education Partnership Awards (SEPA) from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the program is currently supported through a third SEPA (2011–2016) from the NIH. The Peabody Fellows Biodiversity and Human Health 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 throughout 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.
Biodiversity and Vector-borne Disease: Lyme Disease and West Nile Virus (2005-2011 R25 RR020818)
The previous NIH–SEPA grant, administered through the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR), was awarded to Principal Investigator Leonard Munstermann, senior research scientist in the School of Public Health at the Yale University School of Medicine and Curator of Entomology at the Yale Peabody Museum. Using research on Lyme disease and West Nile virus, this project has created a curriculum module 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.
Program Objectives
Curriculum Development Phase
A competitively selected group of curriculum-writing Fellows participated in two spring workshops in 2006. 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 Nile virus. They also attended a 2-week summer institute at the Museum. This core of Fellows, along with museum educators, developed and piloted a science curriculum module on Lyme and West Nile in coordination with the loan of the Museum's BioAction Kit, which contains scientific instruments, specimens and supplies for classroom teaching. Over the subsequent years of the grant, this module was refined through further field testing, disseminated to other chosen school districts across the country, and made available for national release in 2010.
Click here for the curriculum and supporting documents.
National Dissemination Phase
The program disseminated its completed resources through the following national sites:
Exhibition Development Phase
Two exhibitions were developed through this project. Each had an in-house and a traveling version. Click on the exhibit titles for the companion websites.
Solving the Puzzle: Lyme Disease, West Nile Virus & You. Emerging infectious diseases are regularly in the news. Humans are changing environments in ways that bring people into closer contact with organisms (vectors) that transmit disease from one species to another. This exhibit takes a closer look at some of these changes, such as reforestation and the expansion of suburbs into forested areas. Lyme disease and West Nile virus are used as models for exploring the interplay between environmental change, biodiversity and vector-borne disease. The exhibit highlights information on the puzzle that comprises the transmission, detection, and treatment of these diseases. It addresses key components of the pathogens, vectors and hosts for each disease, including the following:
Invasion of the Bloodsuckers: Bedbugs and Beyond! How do you identify bedbugs, lice, mosquitoes, fleas and other bloodsucking arthropods? Media headlines are full of stories about these animals and this exhibit will give visitors the chance to meet these common human parasites. We often view these organisms as pests, as spreaders of frightening diseases, as invaders. Most bites, although irritating, are harmless, but others that are deadly may go unnoticed. Yet we do not always fully appreciate the diversity of these blood-feeding organisms and their relationship to humans. Each has a unique repertoire of adaptations and a distinct lifestyle that have evolved in close association with a host. All blood feeders need one essential element to live—blood. This exhibit focuses on six blood-feeding species: the bedbug, flea, head louse, pubic louse, mosquito and tick. It aims to provide a better understanding of each of these blood-feeding species by answering these questions:
Theodore G. Andreadis, PhD
Chief Medical Entomologist, Department Head
Soil and Water Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station
Laurent Bonneau, PhD
Project Manager
Yale Center for Earth Observation
Yale Institute for Biospheric Studies
Richard Bucala, MD, PhD
Professor
Department of Internal Medicine
Yale University School of Medicine
Maria Diuk-Wasser
Assistant Professor of Epidemiology
Yale School of Public Health
William Casey King, PhD
Executive Director
Yale Center for Analytical Sciences
Yale School of Public Health
Dr. Peter Krause, MD
Senior Research Scientist
Yale School of Public Health
Choukri Ben Mamoun, PhD
Associate Professor
Department of Internal Medicine
Yale University School of Medicine
Diane McMahon-Pratt, PhD
Professor of Epidemiology
Yale School of Public Health
Leonard E. Munstermann, PhD
Senior Research Scientist
Yale School of Public Health
Robert Sherwin, MD
Director
Yale Center for Clinical Investigation
Yale University School of Medicine
Kirby Stafford, PhD
Vice Director, Chief Scientist/State Entomologist
Department of Entomology
Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station
Paul Turner, PhD
Chair, Professor
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Yale University
Leonard E. Munstermann, PhD
Principal Investigator
Senior Research Scientist, School of Public Health;
Curator of Entomology, Yale Peabody Museum
Laura Fawcett, Program Director
Beth Hines, Curriculum Specialist/Science Educator
Phone: (203) 432-8494
Peabody Fellows Biodiversity and Human Health Program
Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History
P.O. Box 208118
New Haven, CT 06520-8118
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