Carnegie Investigator Dr. Marnie Halpern developed a science outreach program "Women Serious About Science" together with science teachers at Baltimore's Polytechnic Institute, with the goal of encouraging more girls to pursue research careers and to dispel stereotypes about scientists. Several times a month, on a voluntary basis over their lunch period, students meet with engineers, physicists, cell biologists, geneticists, astronomers, neuroscientists, forensic scientists, etc. - all accomplished women in their respective fields. By providing girls with these important female role models at a time when they are making college decisions, sparks their interest in taking science courses in college and introduces them to a myriad of career options in biomedical research, engineering and the physical sciences. For more information on the Women in Science Program, contact Dr. Marnie Halpern.

The Carnegie Institution for Science has a long history of Outreach. In 1989, Maxine Singer, then president of Carnegie, founded First Light, a Saturday science school for children in Washington D.C. This was the start of the Carnegie Academy for Science Education (CASE) whose goal is to encourage interest in science among school children and teachers in Washington, DC. In March 2011, BioEYES is being piloted in Montgomery County, MD and we hope to expand in the D.C. area in the near future!

For more information on BioEYES at Carnegie in Baltimore, contact Valerie Butler.

To learn about Carnegie’s other outreach programs around the county go to the Carnegie Department of Embryology website, The Observatories website and the Carnegie Academy for Science Education website.

At Notre Dame

We are grateful for the opportunity to participate in the BioEYES program. BioEYES has helped us foster a vibrant science community and a rich science culture in Southern Michigan and Northern Indiana. In this, our 3rd year, we will introduce BioEYES to over 3,500 students from kindergarten through 12th grade. We will have the opportunity to team teach with 54 K-12 teachers in 29 schools.

Each summer the 25 teachers new to the local BioEYES program attend the BioEYES Summer Institute at Notre Dame’s Jordan Hall of Science. During the annual, week-long Institute teachers investigate zebrafish and their embryos just as their students will. In addition to the BioEYES portion of the Institute, teachers are invited to tour University research laboratories and to perform some of the modern techniques used in these facilities.

We have enjoyed collaborating with the local BioEYES teachers. To provide a public outlet for their creativity we have created http://bioeyes.michianastem.org/ , a wiki where they can share pictures of their students and resources that they have developed to enrich the BioEYES activity.

We recently purchased a van equipped with a wheelchair lift. The lift is a welcomed addition to our operations as we routinely transport about 300 pounds of equipment and zebrafish to each of the dozens of schools that we visit annually.

For more information about the BioEYES program at Notre Dame please contact Anita Beebe.

At Penn

In our new home at the University of Pennsylvania BioEYES is growing every day. For example, our partnership with the Institute for Regenerative Medicine (IRM) provides students and teachers the opportunity to get involved in our Bridge to ReBIO program. This program builds research teams made up of experienced high school science teachers, undergraduate and graduate mentors and Philadelphia high school students. In 2008-2009, thirty students and 13 mentors worked in teams to build research projects. As a result of their hard work, 19 students received awards at the annual Carver Science Fair, and 4 of these students went on to win at the Delaware Valley Regional Science Competition. Take a look at our ReBIO wiki page to learn more about what the '09-'10 ReBIO students have been up to!

IRM also provides paid summer internships for high school students! For more information contact Dr. Shuda or visit the IRM website.

In addition, UPenn provides university students and local public schools with resources, courses, and professional development seminars through the Moelis Access Science Program. BioEYES staff and scientists at the IRM are excited to partner with Access Science to design a new ABCS (academically-based community service) course focused on regenerative biology.

At Carnegie

The Carnegie Institution for Science Department of Embryology BioEYES Program in Baltimore is growing by leaps and bounds! This year we will train over 90 teachers and reach over 6,000 students in Baltimore City and Baltimore County.

We are the first area to have a school system adopt BioEYES as their own. The Baltimore County Public Schools created a new position, hiring one of our trained Master Teachers, Bo Dunlap, as a full time BioEYES Educator. This year, he will serve over 3,400 students in the County!

Your Watershed, Your Backyard field trip to Stony Run.

We deliver two programs in Baltimore: Project BioEYES and Your Watershed, Your Backyard. Your Watershed, Your Backyard is a 7th grade curriculum that uses zebrafish embryos to study the environment. This innovative unit aims to raise student awareness of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, how pollution affects the organisms living there, and how they can become involved in local solutions. We partner with several organizations in this endeavor, including Blue Water Baltimore, Trout Unlimited's Trout in the Classroom, and The Natural History Society of Maryland.

In July 2010, we are proud to have delivered Project BioEYES to The Hearing and Speech Agency’s Gateway School and to have developed a special needs version of BioEYES. Read about it here.

In addition to BioEYES, Carnegie’s Department of Embryology is host to several High School Students from the City’s pre-eminent Math and Science High School, Baltimore Polytechnic High School. Students come to work on research projects under the mentorship of a post-doctorate student in one of our cutting edge laboratories.

Kindergarteners at work drawing the zebrafish from observation.