After four attempts in approximately 15 years, Northwestern has acquired a $2 million grant from Howard Hughes Medical Institute, which will fund the NU Bioscientist Program, said Linda Hicke, associate vice president for research.
“I’m actually kind of jealous that they’re starting it right now, and I’m in my junior year,” Weinberg junior Jean Mbachu said. “This definitely would have been something I would have looked into.”
A joint effort among the Program in Biological Sciences, Searle Center for Teaching Excellence, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, Feinberg School of Medicine and McCormick School of Engineering, the program will revamp biology courses and research experience for future students, Hicke said.
Beginning in the 2011-12 academic year, the introductory biology course will become more interactive, moving away from the traditional 50-minute lecture format, she said. In addition, 30 freshmen will have the opportunity to participate in a two-quarter seminar series to prepare them to do research the following summer, Hicke said. The program aims to place science in the context of society so people who are non-scientists become scientifically literate, she said.
Mbachu said the chance to apply learning in a laboratory setting is going to “hook” a lot of people.
“I’m a very hands-on learner,” she said.
Aside from being in the laboratory for organic chemistry sophomore year, Mbachu said her first lab experience will be this summer.
Hicke said it’s not uncommon for students to have their first experience in lab research their junior or senior years, which the program hopes to change.
“The students who have started as freshmen or sophomores have a much richer, deeper experience,” she said.
Funding will also support a summer program, BioEXCEL, to prepare incoming freshmen from traditionally underrepresented groups in bioscience for further coursework.
Mbachu, president of One Step Before, NU’s minority pre-medical society, said the creation of the program shows “great initiative.” The presence of pre-medical minority students is “not up to par,” she said. If the program will improve the diversity of students, OSB will do what they can to help the program succeed, she said.
“This is something OSB is definitely going to advocate for,” Mbachu said.If the program is successful, the two-quarter seminar will ideally be opened to more students, Hicke said.
“We’d like to get as many students involved as possible,” she said. “There’s a whole bunch of people who are interested in presenting science in a freshman seminar.”
– JESSICA ALLEN
