[433] TSU, MTSU Celebrate $2.7 Million NSF Grant to Improve Biology Education

Release date: April 23, 2009


News & Public Affairs contact: Randy Weiler, 615-898-2919 or jweiler@mtsu.edu



TSU, MTSU Celebrate $2.7 Million NSF
Grant to Improve Biology Education


(MURFREESBORO) — Tennessee State and Middle Tennessee State university officials today celebrated the announcement of a $2.7 million National Science Foundation TRIAD GK-12 partnership grant to improve biology education.
The event was held in the Tom H. Jackson Building’s Cantrell Hall.
Congressman (and MTSU alumnus) Bart Gordon’s office announced the NSF grant through a news release late Wednesday afternoon.
“Jobs of the future will necessitate a strong educational foundation in the sciences,” said Gordon, who was unable to attend because of Washington commitments.
GK-12 is a NSF program that places graduate students in K-12 classrooms. MTSU and Tennessee State University grad students will work with Rutherford County Schools and Metro Nashville Public Schools’ students.
TSU and MTSU will use the grant to support nine STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) graduate fellows each year for the next five years, officials said.
Project objectives include bringing graduate fellows’ research enthusiasm to the classroom; mentoring student research projects; and incorporating biotechnology applications into the science curriculum.
“We believe this approach will be very effective and sustainable,” said Dr. Tony Farone, an MTSU biology professor and the project’s principle investigator. “Our team is looking forward to working together to train future STEM scientists who will find communicating science to the general public and K-12 outreach a natural part of their career.”
MTSU President Sidney A. McPhee said the project’s research will “engage in solutions and help us move forward as a society,” and “advance the mission of the university.” He added that external grants have grown beyond $40 million while he has served as president.
Dr. Todd Gary, director of TSU’s Center of Excellence in Information Systems, introduced the project team: both universities; nonuniversity partners BioTN of Franklin, the Business Education Partnership Committee of the Rutherford County Chamber of Commerce and Hendersonville’s Pope John Paul II High School; the two public school districts; and graduate faculty mentors from TSU and MTSU.
Dr. Maria Thompson, TSU’s interim vice president of the Division of research and Sponsored Programs, said the “grant project … provides working capital for graduate students to both instruct and inspire high-school students of Davidson and Rutherford counties.
“The graduate fellows will partner with local high-school teachers to engage in inquiry-based research for high-school biology students in high-need schools. This NSF award will strengthen our graduate programs by providing theses students with an opportunity to bolster the educational fabric of middle Tennessee, specifically inculcating young minds with the twin educational values of research and innovation.”
BioTN co-founder Dr. Leslie Lynch said the grant’s attractiveness stemmed from the “incorporation of the industry component into the training program.”
“Not only will the graduate student benefit,” Lynch added, “but the graduate student will partner with a teacher from secondary education twice a week.”
Lynch added that BioTN is an acronym for Bridging Innovations in Tennessee.
“Our goal is to change the way we train graduate students at MTSU,” Dr. Tom Cheatham, dean of the College of Basic and Applied Sciences, said. “He added that “to be successful, we needed to partner with TSU” and that the joint submission beat more than 200 other grants submitted to NSF.

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