Assessment has been vitally important to the TTU/HHMI Science Education Program since its inception in 1992. Part of the assessment consists of tracking students who are involved in the program and documenting their achievements while they are in the program and after they leave. These achievements consist of presentations at regional and national conferences, publications in professional journals, and entry into and completion of graduate programs. Other elements of assessment include reviewing annual reports submitted by TTU/HHMI Scholars and their faculty mentors; forming focus groups to study the strengths and respond to the weaknesses of components of the program; and collecting questionnaire data to better understand Scholars’ experiences in research and science teaching. 
For questions, contact the TTU/HHMI Assessment Coordinator, Dr. Roman Taraban, at
(806) 742-3711x247, roman.taraban@ttu.edu, www.cognition.ttu.edu/taraban.asp
One accessible source of information about the TTU/HHMI Science Education Program,
and others like it can be found at: http://store.tcpress.com/0807748773.shtml
A formal assessment of the TTU/HHMI Traveling Labs program, which is a component of the
TTU/HHMI Pre-College Outreach grant component can be found at: Taraban, R., Box, C., Myers, R., Pollard, R., & Bowen, C. (2007). Effects of active-learning experiences on achievement, attitudes, and behaviors in high-school biology. Journal of Research in ScienceTeaching,44(7).960-979. A discussion of th e role of research experiences in the lab, like those in the TTU/HHMI program,
in the context of instructional technology can be found at: Taraban, R. (2008). An impoverished machine: Challenges to human learning and instructional technology. Behavior Research Methods, 40(3), 639-646. |