By: Hilary Parker
The Howard Hughes Medical Institute has awarded Princeton University a $2.2 million Undergraduate Science Education Initiative grant in support of biology education.
Almost half the funds are dedicated to outreach efforts targeting high school and middle school science education, Fred Hughson, associate professor of molecular biology and incoming director of the Princeton/HHMI Undergraduate Research Education Program, said in a written statement. "The essential element is an annual summer workshop that brings secondary school teachers to Princeton, where they interact with faculty and develop laboratory experiments to share with their students," the statement said.
HMI awards the grants every four years, and Princeton has received funding through the program since its inception in 1989. Since then, 450 teachers and more than 300,000 students have participated in the workshops.
In addition to the established outreach programs, portions of the grant will go toward establishing a partnership with the Philadelphia schools, the university said. The grant will also fund undergraduate research during summer months, according to the university, as well as the creation of a new biological imaging course for university students.
