Like most grants, a five-year, $770,000 National Science Foundation award to Dr. Bob Rose is designed to fund work that will expand the body of scientific knowledge. But the prestigious Faculty Early Career Development Program award is different from many other grants in one regard: It is designed to enhance science education as well as fund research.

Rose is an assistant professor in N.C. State University's Department of Molecular and Structural Biochemistry. He plans to use the grant to form an unusual collaboration between the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the College of Education's Department of Mathematics, Science and Technology.

Rose will use the funding to establish a teaching laboratory in Poe Hall, where the College of Education is located. The laboratory will be the site of a molecular biology techniques course.

While undergraduates majoring in biochemistry may take advantage of the course, Rose said it is designed primarily for high school science teachers who are pursuing master’s degrees. The course is designed to give such students a taste of research and expose them to what Rose called an “inquiry-based approach” as opposed to the lecture-based method used in most science education classes.
Rose hopes to have the lab up and running in the summer of 2008, with as many as 10 students enrolled.

The students will work on projects associated with Rose’s research, creating mutations in proteins Rose is studying. Rose’s research focuses on transcription factors, proteins that control when and where genes are expressed. The research is designed to lead to a better understanding of the genetic causes of human ailments such as diabetes.

“The proteins they [students] will work on are related to regulating pituitary function,” Rose said. “The protein turns on a gene that is related to adrenal control.”

Rose envisions the effort evolving. “The second summer, we hope to evaluate and help teachers think about how to incorporate what they learned in the classroom,” he said.

“My most rewarding teaching experiences have been through one-on-one interactions in my lab,” Rose wrote in applying for the NSF grant. “Students invariably report the value of working in a research lab for understanding how science is done and for motivating them to continue working in science. Still, many biochemistry students don’t get lab experience, and science educators rarely do. This course will provide one avenue for involving science education students in research and encouraging biochemistry students to consider teaching as a profession. I believe that science educators will be better prepared to inspire the next generation of scientists if they participate in research first hand.”

He added, “I think this is an exciting collaboration. There should be more connections between science and science educators.”

—Dave Caldwell