Eight teachers from schools across the St. Louis region have been selected to work with Washington University faculty members for the Summer 2024 Teacher Researcher Partnership Program.
Administered in collaboration with the University’s Institute for School Partnership (ISP), the program is designed specifically to provide opportunities for faculty to connect in meaningful ways with educators in the broader community and to provide professional development for K-12 teachers to gain experiences, learn new things, and gain skills.
Three teachers are new to the program this year and will work with WashU researchers and faculty from the McKelvey Biomedical Engineering:
- Sarah Scerba (Lafayette High School) working with Assistant Professor Nate Huebsch on research and curriculum development in mechanobiology;
- Alex Messina (St. Charles High School) working with Assistant Professor Abhinav Jha on research and demonstration development in biomedical imaging; and
- Mary Russo (Clayton High School) working with Associate Professor Jai Rudra on research and curriculum development on the chirality effects in nanomaterials and immune cells.
Five teachers are returning after participating in the program in 2023:
- David Ganey (Maplewood Richmond Heights High School) working with Associate Professor Marcus Foston (McKelvey Energy, Environmental and Chemical Engineering) on accelerated discovery of synthetic biological materials;
- Joseph Bartin (Kirkwood High School) working with Professor Jian Wang (McKelvey Energy, Environmental and Chemical Engineering) on research and curriculum development in aerosols and climate;
- Kirstin Blase (Villa Duchesne) working with Assistant Professor Michael Vahey (McKelvey Biomedical Engineering) on research and curriculum development in virology and immunology;
- Courtney Hausner (Oakville High School) and Anne Deken (John Burroughs) working with Professor Douglas Chalker (Arts and Sciences/ Biology/ASSET Program) curriculum development and the incorporation of bioinformatics into high school lessons for the ASSET Program.
Participants of the Teacher Researcher Partnership Program have the opportunity to create lessons aligned to national education standards and implement a lesson field test or pilot during the 2024-2025 academic year.
“These innovative lessons will be broadly disseminated as open-source curriculum, making them accessible to schools nationwide and enhancing STEM education.“
Alexandra Forgerson, ISP Instructional Specialist
To learn more about the program, visit https://schoolpartnership.wustl.edu/faculty-engagement/ or contact: Chris Mohr mohr@wustl.edu or Alexandra Forgerson forgerson@wustlisp.org.