Biological Sciences professors receive honor

Congratulations to Ophelia Weeks and Martin Tracey, Jr., who were each named a National Academies Education Fellow in the Life Sciences for the 2004-'05 academic year. The accolades are a result of their competitive selection to and participation in the 2004 National Academies Summer Institute on Undergraduate Education in Biology that was held last August in Wisconsin.

The summer institute is an initiative that grew out of a key recommendation of a 2003 National Research Council report that called for development efforts to engage faculty at research-intensive institutions in taking greater responsibility for high-quality undergraduate biology education.

Teams from 20 research universities assembled at the University of Wisconsin-Madison for more than four days of presentations, discussions, intensive group work and other activities, all focused on enhancing undergraduate education - with the main focus being active learning, assessment and diversity. Participants' research interests spanned the entire spectrum of the life sciences from ecology to genetics, from plant sciences to developmental biology, from evolution to molecular biology. Attendees included department chairs, deans, professors from all levels, undergraduate coordinators, lecturers, instructors and members of the National Academy of Sciences.

The teams worked with colleagues from across the country to develop or adapt a "teachable unit" that they will implement in an introductory course during the next academic year - and be able to assess whether students have learned from that unit. Each team will also implement a mentoring seminar designed to enhance the ability of graduate students, post doctoral fellows and others to mentor undergraduates in the research laboratory.

Weeks and Tracey were part of a team that developed a basic genetics unit designed to be covered in 1-2 class periods titled "Are You My Mother?" that they hope will inform and engage the students.

"We'll be using some of these 'babies-switched-at-birth' stories that run in the newspapers to introduce some of the various genetic-testing techniques that exist," says Tracey, whose research interests include forensics and diabetes. "We also hope to capitalize on the popularity of CSI and other crime dramas that reference testing techniques that can be employed in less-gory circumstances."