Weaving READ-IT into the K12 Curriculum

B2B has received funding from the NSF-funded Research Experience for Teachers (RET) so that a K12 teacher can work alongside of scientists at the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine conducting studies on wild chimpanzees. The RET focused on B2B’s READ-IT program. READ-IT, an acronym for Research, Education And Dissemination using Information Technology is designed to enhance and facilitate educational opportunities for students and teachers to advance science in the 21st century.

Through the READ-IT program, learning modules can be created to help K12 teachers weave contemporary research topics and technology into their science curriculum. The goal is to align learning modules with the Standards of Learning (SOL) for Virginia Public Schools in both science and math, to provide a way for teachers to supplement their daily lesson plans and bring current research topics and technology into their classrooms. The modules are designed to make learning more interactive and fun for the students and more readily accessible for teachers with limited resources.

The original READ-IT modules where designed by B2B undergraduate and professional veterinary students and were very simplistic. Through RET funding, B2B has developed new modules that provide more in-depth material, are more interactive and align with SOL for Virginia Public Schools.

The modules will help teachers show their students how scientific research is conducted, what methods are utilized and how contemporary topics can be used to advance knowledge and interest in science and math. See B2B’s DNA Technology Module and Chimpanzee Module.

From the teachers perspective: “Many times students feel disconnected from the topics we teach, but the READ-IT modules will offer teachers a common thread, or research topic, that can be woven through their curriculum the entire school year. These modules will expose students to a variety of technological applications and will allow them to investigate the impact and uses of these applications. The Bush-To-Base scientists are researching how a human virus is impacting wild chimpanzees. The research and data from this study will be used to create READ-IT modules on topics such as viruses, genetics, endangered species, and infectious diseases. Each of these topics will relate back to the Bush-To-Base research. This one topic will act as a common thread and will provide our students with a topic that they can refer back to as they work through the curriculum”. Sara Cann, 2008 RET Recipient