Free NIH Teaching Tools Help Educators Meet State Science Education Standards

Main Category: Medical Students / Training
Article Date: 15 May 2008 - 2:00 PDT

email to a friend   printer friendly   view / write opinions   rate article

A popular series of curriculum supplements from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) aimed at promoting science education achievement is now aligned to individual state education standards in science, math, health and English language arts for kindergarten through the 12th grade. This cross-curricular alignment, unique to each state, shows educators how the NIH curriculum supplements will help them meet specific learning goals for students and spells out the usefulness of the series nationwide. This series is FREE to educators upon request.

"The NIH curriculum supplement series brings the latest biomedical research from our institutes and centers into classrooms across the nation. This alignment of the supplements will help educators provide state-of-the-art instruction that meets individual state requirements," said NIH Director Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D. The recently completed alignment is designed to help teachers and schools incorporate these materials into their classrooms. Every effort has been made to use the current published academic standards for each state and the District of Columbia. The alignment of a supplement to state standards can be downloaded by visiting http://science.education.nih.gov/supplements.

More than 300,000 copies of the NIH curriculum supplements have been ordered by educators. The ongoing NIH curriculum supplement series - which includes 16 supplements on such topics as genetics, infectious diseases, cell biology, toxicology, and the process of science - promotes inquiry-based, interdisciplinary learning. The supplements are interactive teaching units that combine cutting-edge science research discoveries and real scientific data from NIH with state-of-the-art instructional materials for use in grades kindergarten through the 12th grade.

The NIH supplements are also aligned with the National Science Education Standards, released by the National Academy of Sciences in 1996. To request supplements or learn about how they are aligned with your state's standards, visit the NIH Office of Science Education (part of the Office of the Director) Web site at http://science.education.nih.gov/supplements.

The Office of the Director, the central office at NIH, is responsible for setting policy for NIH. This involves planning, managing, and coordinating the programs and activities of all NIH components. The Office of the Director also includes program offices that are responsible for stimulating specific areas of research throughout NIH. Additional information is available at http://www.nih.gov/icd/od/.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) - The Nation's Medical Research Agency - includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is the primary federal agency for conducting and supporting basic, clinical and translational medical research, and it investigates the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit http://www.nih.gov.

National Institutes of Health