Public release date: 24-May-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Natasha Pinol npinol@aaas.org 202-326-7088 American Association for the Advancement of Science

An undergraduate course that allows students to build mathematical models of biological phenomenaand to experience a convergence of disciplines with potential in areas ranging from cancer treatment to reforestationis the winner of the Science Prize for Inquiry-Based Instruction (IBI).

Hillel Chiel, professor of biology, neurosciences, and biomedical engineering at Case Western Reserve University, is the creator of the course. As he explains, biology students who know how to build models of biological phenomena and engineering students who can explore biological phenomena for engineering insights are better prepared to do research in their fields.

"People who have training in both are going to have an advantage," says Chiel.

Science's IBI Prize was developed to showcase outstanding materials, usable in a wide range of schools and settings, for teaching science courses at the college level. The materials must be designed to encourage students' natural curiosity about how the world works, rather than to deliver facts and principles about what scientists have already discovered. Organized as one free-standing "module," the materials should offer real understanding of the nature of science, as well as providing an experience in generating and evaluating scientific evidence. Each month, Science publishes an essay by a recipient of the award, which explains the winning project. The essay about the Dynamics of Biological Systems course, by Chiel, Jeffrey Gill, Jeffrey McManus, and Kendrick Shaw, will be published on May 25.

"We want to recognize innovators in science education, as well as the institutions that support them," says Bruce Alberts, editor-in-chief of Science. "At the same time, this competition will promote those inquiry-based laboratory modules with the most potential to benefit science students and teachers. The publication of an essay in Science on each winning module will encourage more college teachers to use these outstanding resources, thereby promoting science literacy."

A review of Chiel's background shows the protean tendency that would evolve into the interdisciplinary approach evidenced by much of his workincluding his novel designs for biologically inspired robotsand by the course module Dynamics of Biological Systems. As a child growing up on Long Island, Chiel planned to be a scientist and was fascinated by how things worked, but he was so fond of reading novels that once he was almost locked in his school library overnight.

At age 14, Chiel was given an opportunity to study calculus with physicist Alan Natapoff, which he says was "a very positive experience." When it was time for Chiel to go to college, however, he chose Yale over MIT, becoming an English major, enchanted at the thought of spending his time reading in the stacks of Yale's Sterling Memorial Library.

During the summer between Chiel's junior and senior years, he worked in the neurochemistry lab of Richard Wurtman, doing research that resulted in the publication of Chiel's first scientific paper. Chiel graduated from Yale and then went on to do a Ph.D. with Wurtman at MIT.

See the rest here:
Science magazine prize awarded to course that brings biology and math worlds closer