Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Grant
In April 2008, Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) awarded a $1.4 million grant to the University of Richmond to enable faculty to integrate all five sciences majors into a new, two-semester introductory "supercourse" for highly motivated science students. The course will replace standard introductory classes in biology, chemistry, physics, math and computer science for top science students. It will train students to approach scientific inquiry from multiple perspectives and to develop the kinds of cross-disciplinary problem-solving skills that will lead to significant advances in human understanding.
The grant also includes funding for other interdisciplinary science programs, including undergraduate research opportunities for pre-freshmen, freshmen and sophomores, new upper level cross-disciplinary courses, the development of an integrated quantitative science minor, and outreach training in science for middle school mathematics teachers. The 2008 grant builds on the success of the 2004 HHMI award.
Supporting student research
The grant has resulted in two different kinds of financial awards going to support undergraduate research programs in the sciences. The STEM Summer Undergraduate Research (SSUR) Program is multi-disciplinary summer research program for first- and second-year students. This opportunity is designed for highly motivated first- and second-year students who are considering research careers in any of the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) disciplines or in interdisciplinary areas that arise from these disciplines. Research internships bring pre-freshmen to campus to research with faculty during the summer between high school and their first year at the University of Richmond.
Research Introductions is a program that pairs professors in a variety of science disciplines to give short talks on their research, its relevance and how undergraduates can have an impact on research in the field. Check out the current series schedule.
The HHMI Science Symposium showcases the research conducted by the previous summer’s Howard Hughes Medical Institute research fellows. Poster sessions in the afternoon are followed by student talks and a dinner that features a prominent keynote speaker. All HHMI students participate in the program, and other students who researched in the sciences are invited to present their findings as well.
Course Development
The integrated quantitative (IQ) science course is a first-year course for prospective science majors that provides an integrated introduction to biology, chemistry, physics, mathematics and computer science, with an accompanying integrated lab. It will train students to approach scientific inquiry from multiple perspectives and to develop the kinds of cross-disciplinary problem-solving skills that will lead to significant advances in human understanding. A team of 10 faculty members from the contributing disciplines is developing the course, to begin in the fall semester of 2009.
Outreach
A team of faculty from several disciplines are developing a course for middle school mathematics teachers in which participants will learn simple science experiments from a variety of scientific fields that will allow them to collect data that can be used as examples when teaching middle school mathematics concepts. Participants will develop classroom materials to accompany these experiments. The course will be team-taught by Dr. Harry F. Hoke (mathematics faculty) and Dr. Patricia Stohr-Hunt (education faculty) with help from several of biology, chemistry and physics faculty members. The course will first be offered in the summer of 2010.