MGH/Timilty School Science Connection receives grant from Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Support will allow expansion of science education partnership

BOSTON - June 25, 2003 - Science Connection, a program designed to encourage middle school students to explore science as a possible career, has been awarded a major science education grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). Part of a longstanding collaboration between Massachusetts General Hospital and the James P. Timilty Middle School in Roxbury, Science Connection is designed to enhance the science literacy of middle school students, develop their lifelong appreciation of science, improve their critical thinking abilities and motivate some of them to pursue health or science careers.

The four-year HHMI Precollege Science Education Initiative Award for almost $450,000 will help the Science Connection broaden its impact among Timilty students - expanding from supporting science fair and mentoring activities to enriching science education for all students at the school and starting a model professional development program. This award is a renewal of HHMI support for the Science Connection; the institute contributed $300,000 to the program in 1999. Science Connection was one of 19 awardees chosen from almost 300 medical schools, academic health centers and other scientific institutions invited to apply for the nearly $10 million in HHMI grants.

"The Timilty Partnership continues to add value to the hospital's mission," says Candace Burns, director of Boston Public School Partnerships for the MGH. "We are pleased that HHMI recognizes and has agreed to support the Science Connection for another four years. As we move toward building upon our past successes, we look forward to working together with the school's administration, teachers, students and families to offer new programs that will both enrich and enhance science education at the Timilty school."

For almost 14 years, Science Connection has matched Timilty students interested in science with MGH mentors, who meet with their students on a regular basis. A focal point of the program is the students' preparation of science fair projects under the guidance of their mentors - several of whom are professional scientific researchers. The projects are not only presented at the school's annual science fair, but some of the best have been displayed at the hospital or have gone on to the competitive Boston citywide science fair.

With the new HHMI funding, Science Connection will be able to extend a new Science in the Classroom model to all of the Timilty's 6th grade students, establish a classroom-centered professional development program, and involve Timilty science teachers in mentoring and training future science teachers. It is anticipated that almost 900 students will benefit over the next four years from the expanded Science Connection, compared with 200 who have participated in the program in the past. The program also will involve more than 200 MGH scientists or other professionals as mentors, science fair judges or teaching partners and several participating Timilty teachers.

During the years of the MGH/Timilty partnership, the school has become the most frequently selected middle school in Boston's choice-driven assignment system. Its students now have the highest acceptance rate into the city's prestigious examination schools.

"I am very excited about this additional support for the Science Connection, which is a foundation for our science education activities," says Valeria Lowe-Barehmi, principal of the Timilty Middle School. "The partnership we have with Massachusetts General Hospital has helped us develop from a small demonstration project to our current program, in which all students prepare science fair entries, and we are seeing the results of these activities on our students' MCAS [Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System] tests. We could not have made this progress without the classroom and outside support provided to our students and teachers by the Science Connection."

Massachusetts General Hospital, established in 1811, is the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. The MGH conducts the largest hospital-based research program in the United States, with an annual research budget of more than $350 million and major research centers in AIDS, cardiovascular research, cancer, cutaneous biology, medical imaging, neurodegenerative disorders, transplantation biology and photomedicine. In 1994, MGH and Brigham and Women's Hospital joined to form Partners HealthCare System, an integrated health care delivery system comprising the two academic medical centers, specialty and community hospitals, a network of physician groups, and nonacute and home health services.


Media Contact: Sue McGreevey, MGH Public Affairs

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