BIORETS Biological pathways to adaptability, interactions among the genome, epigenome and environment.

A fundamental concept in biology is that life on Earth changes over time. The Iowa State University Research Experience for Teachers (ISU BIORETS) program aims to help teachers and their students better understand how organisms adapt or fail to adapt to a changing environment by promoting scientific literacy and curiosity, which impacts attitudes towards public policy and its implementation.

Never has there been a time where science, education, and action have been more critical in the stewardship of the planet. Teachers play a crucial role in enhancing scientific literacy, but studies show that many lack confidence when teaching how organisms adapt to changing environment and research processes in this area of science. The ISU BIORETS program addresses this issue by providing teachers, particularly those underrepresented in STEM fields and those who teach students from marginalized populations, with authentic, hands-on summer training in university research laboratories.

Helping the educators develop their content knowledge and curriculum development skills will build their teaching proficiencies. In turn, their students will wrangle over real scientists' questions to convey the cumulative nature of science - that new data adds to a more complete understanding. In addition to summer training for teachers, the program will build innovative, on-going relationships among university researchers, teachers, and their students throughout the school year, offering teachers and students opportunities to make valuable scientific contributions towards solving real-world problems.

ISU will partner with four Iowa school districts and an area education agency to conduct an RET site based on investigating how organisms adapt to changing environments. Teachers will partner with host university faculty for six weeks in the summer to address major research questions regarding adaptability. Plant and animal study systems in the hosts' labs will advance fundamental biological concepts, while addressing the plant-awareness deficit.

Conceptual integration across different biological levels will be developed and reinforced during weekly teacher/faculty meetings. Relationships between faculty mentors and teachers is year-long, with two day-long teacher-cohort activities during the school year, individual coaching, follow-up visits by faculty to high schools, and student visits to ISU.

Biweekly professional development programming will help teachers translate research experiences into classroom practices and develop new curriculum that encourages student experimentation and dilemma-based learning. Where possible, deliverables will have options for both in-person and virtual activities. A focus on plant biology will engage and recruit diverse students into the plant sciences.

Teachers and students will benefit through 1) increased content knowledge and curriculum development; 2) expanded educational and career opportunities for students, especially from underrepresented, economically disadvantaged, or rural populations in STEM disciplines; and 3) recruitment of teachers from school districts with high enrollment of underrepresented populations and students who receive free and reduced lunch. These benefits advance the goals of the Next Generation Science Standards and enhance US global competitiveness through increased scientific awareness and world-class training.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.