Advances in Physiology Education, Vol 262, Issue 6 15-S17, Copyright © 1992 by American Physiological Society
Physiology course for secondary school biology teachers
J. L. Poland
Department of Physiology, Medical College of Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond 23298.
The Department of Physiology at the Medical College of Virginia/Virginia
Commonwealth University offered a human physiology course to middle school
and high school science teachers in the Richmond, VA, area. It was a
three-credit course, team taught, and given at a location convenient to
many area teachers. This course served the community by contributing to the
continuing education efforts of teachers and concurrently enhanced our
recruitment program by advertising "physiology" to teachers who will
influence college-bound students for years to come. In addition, we
established ties between teachers and physiology faculty such that
continuing interactions (e.g., collaborative research during the summer)
should be facilitated. The success of the course suggests that this is an
effective way to serve local communities, enhance efforts to recruit
graduate students into the basic sciences, and at the same time help
reverse the educational crisis in the US by bolstering the backgrounds of
secondary school teachers.
