Dr. Steven Farber eyes the zebrafish he uses in his research.
Our Story
The story of Project BioEYES is an exciting one and exemplifies a true partnership between science and education. Dr. Farber may look like your typical scientist, racing in between his office and his lab full of graduate students and researchers, but he also has a tremendous amount of enthusiasm for getting young kids turned on to science. As a faculty member at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, Dr. Steven Farber opened up his laboratory and dedicated his time to the university community for tours. He also started volunteering in his children’s school to bring live science into their classrooms. His tours and talks became the most popular stop at the university, in part because he works with zebrafish and his facility looks like an aquarium! It became apparent that Dr. Farber could really make a difference in how young people are exposed to science and ultimately careers in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) professions.
As a result of the demand of his research and balancing it with the popularity of his outreach efforts, Dr. Farber hired Dr. Jamie Shuda, an educator, in 2002 to help develop his idea into a practical, fun, and educational program. With Dr. Farber’s science background and Dr. Shuda’s teaching experience, Project BioEYES was born. In its first year, BioEYES recruited teachers from the School District of Philadelphia to help develop and pilot the week-long classroom zebrafish experiment, called BioEYES. The School District of Philadelphia immediately came on board, acknowledging the innovative experiments as a true complement to the National Science Standards and their curriculum. BioEYES was off and running.
Over the next several years, Drs. Farber and Shuda talked about the program’s success at national science and education meetings. Articles in The Scientist, the Public Library of Science (PLoS), and The New York Times were written about the impact of BioEYES on young scientists. Soon the demand for the program far exceeded the amount of time they had. Fortunately, several local foundations such as GlaxoSmithKline and the Brook J. Lenfest Foundation provided support to grow BioEYES! Materials were developed, outreach educators were hired, and Drs. Farber and Shuda started disseminating BioEYES nationally!
Currently, Project BioEYES is an outreach program reaching more than 50,000 students in Philadelphia, PA; Baltimore, MD; South Bend, IN; and Melbourne, Australia, and is growing every day. This program is a grassroots effort formed by a scientist with an excitement for public education (sit next to Dr. Farber on a plane), an urban educator who understands the needs of under-resourced schools, local teachers who not only value university-community partnership but are eager to learn themselves how to be scientists, and a team of dedicated outreach educators who bring these experiences into the classroom. As the demand for our program grows, we hope to continue to expand on our success and develop new and exciting programs that reach students around the world.
Proudly partnered for the advancement of science education.
