By Peta Gillyatt

Special to the Gazette

For some Harvard Medical School professors, teaching isn't limited to just Harvard students. Every summer, a group of HMS faculty members explains the latest research in neuroscience to Boston and Cambridge science teachers and help them adopt Harvard Medical School's problem-based method of learning in their own classrooms.

For the past three years, the Teacher Institute in Neurosciences has provided examples and experience from the inquiry-based, self-directed approach used at the Medical School that encourages students to investigate real-life medical cases the way a doctor would.

"Teachers do a heroic job day after day with inadequate recognition, and they always struggle with trying to motivate students whose concerns may be elsewhere," said Ed Furshpan, Robert Henry Pfeiffer Professor of Neurobiology, who has taken part in the Teacher Institute since its inception. "Problem-based learning appeals to kids, especially if the cases touch on issues with which they are familiar."

Last month, a dozen science teachers from Boston and Cambridge schools attended the weeklong program at HMS, where they received a crash course in neuroscience, obtained hands-on laboratory experience, learned how to develop cases, and visited local hospitals for demonstrations of diagnostic tests.

"We are really trying to build a partnership between K-12 science teachers, our local schools, and Harvard faculty," said Institute Director Joan Reede, assistant dean for minority faculty development and assistant professor of medicine. "We are able to provide science content, our experience in using the case-study method, and our wide array of resources, such as the Countway Library of Medicine. The teachers bring knowledge and experience in how to best teach and relate to adolescents."

Reede hopes that by developing partnerships with HMS faculty and local science teachers, students can learn up-to-date science, become interested and knowledgeable about science careers, better understand aspects of their own health, and begin to think about some of the ethical and societal issues that relate to science, research, and medicine.