Jun 24, 2008 - Claremont, Calif. - Mary Williams, professor of biology at Harvey Mudd College, and a team of collaborators have been awarded a grant from the American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB) Education Foundation to conduct research that will advance plant biology through K-16 education and public outreach activities.

Williams will collaborate with Jeffrey Coker, assistant professor of biology at Elon University and Jane Ellis, associate professor of biology at Presbyterian College, on the project. ASPB has defined The 12 Principles of Plant Biology as a springboard for plant science education at the K-12 levels. These principles serve as guidelines for curriculum developers and teachers to ensure that students gain a thorough understanding of plant biology.

Williams, Coker and Ellis will use their award to complete the components of a project that was started with funding from a 2007 project entitled, Twelve Activities to Accompany the 12 Principles of Plant Biology.

The first six of these plant science activities are in their final stages of assessment. The 2008 funding will go toward the development and disbursement of the last six activities. This will include field testing and optimizing them through the Elon Academy at Elon University and the CHAMPS program at Presbyterian College.

The Elon Academy is a one-month program for talented 8th through 12th grade students with underprivileged backgrounds. The CHAMPS (Communities Helping, Assisting, Motivating, Promising Students) is a summer program for 6th-graders at Presbyterian College. Along with their own assessment process, the team will incorporate feedback about the project from a variety of noted experts in the fields of education and plant biology.

Finally, the team will disseminate the project annually to several thousand new people around the country. They will present their activities at teacher workshops within various school systems and prepare documentation of the activities to be archived on the ASPB website. The team also will develop traveling booth activities for teachers to conduct at National Association of Biology Teachers, National Science Teacher Association (NSTA) and public science events like American Association for the Advancement of Science Family Science Days. When the 12 activities are fully developed, the trio will present to the Council of State Science Supervisors at the NSTA conference with the goal of disseminating the project through this influential network of science education outreach.

ASPB, headquartered in Rockville, Md., was founded in 1924 as the American Society of Plant Physiologists. This professional society has a membership of 5,000 plant scientists from the United States and more than 50 other nations. ASPB publishes two of the most widely cited plant science journals in the world: The Plant Cell and Plant Physiology.