1988
By the end of the 1980s, Research Corporation was concerned about the quality of science education in our schools, the qualifications of high school science teachers in their subject matter, and the minimal involvement of college and university faculty with the high school community.
These issues inspired a new program, Partners in Science, which funded research opportunities in which high-school science teachers would partner with research scientists at colleges and universities. The Partners awards were made to active research scientists in colleges and universities, providing funding to support high-school teachers working in laboratories under a scientist’s mentorship during two consecutive summers.
One teacher who participated in the program said, “After 21 years of teaching high school chemistry, this was the first opportunity I had to experience ‘real science.’ Now I will have meaningful answers to give my students when they ask about practical applications.” Brian Andreen, the founding program officer for the Partners program, mused, “We would never think of certifying a music teacher who had never played an instrument, so why do we do the equivalent in science?”
Research Corporation has always believed that research is a vital component of science education; the Partners program was a natural extension of that philosophy.
In addition to the research component of the grant, all participants were encouraged to attend an annual conference. Each conference addressed timely topics such as global climate change, forensic science, molecular biology, DNA and astronomy. Among the many notable scientists who addressed these issues were Thomas R. Cech, Ralph Cicerone, Arthur B. Ellis, George D. “Pinky” Nelson, Leon Lederman, and Eugene Shoemaker.
In addition to plenary talks and poster sessions, the conferences gave high school teachers opportunities to network with their peers and discuss the research in which they’d been involved and how they were applying their experiences to influence their teaching.
In 1988, the first year of the program, 33 teacher-professor partnerships were established in Arizona, New Mexico and California. In 1990, the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust joined RC, funding the program in the Pacific Northwest. During its 11-year lifespan, 514 high school teachers and 423 mentors participated in the program that was eventually available in 19 states. Some of the high-school teachers were inspired to seek additional education, some continued working in university labs far after their awards ended, and all of them had unusual educational experiences that no doubt influenced their teaching, thoughts and actions during subsequent years. One high-school teacher remarked, “It was as if I’d wanted to fly a jet plane all my life, and suddenly someone parked one outside my door and said, ‘here, fly it!'”
It is interesting to note that the program’s very success prompted its decline. Research Corporation program officers found the program too time-consuming and the program was suspended in 1999. M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust, which had supported Partners in Science in the Pacific Northwest, continued the program, though only in that area. Partnering once again with the M. J. Murdock Charitable Trust, Research Corporation reinstated the Partners in Science program in Arizona in 2009. The last partnerships of this program were established in 2014.