Biology professor named Vision & Change Leadership Fellow

Biology professor April Hill has been recognized as one of 40 Vision and Change Leadership Fellows to help improve undergraduate science education.

"A lot of people, when they think about biology, think that you just march through facts and that it's not interesting," Hill said. "But that's not what it is. We need to make education for biology more like real biology, so you get excited early on."

After recognizing the need for biology education reform, the National Science Foundation, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the National Institutes of Health have worked together to form the Partnership for Undergraduate Life Sciences Education, or PULSE, Hill said. This organization chooses one to two people from each state to serve as fellows for one year.

In order to revise the current curriculum, these fellows need to focus on biology departments throughout the country and the ways in which they respond to student needs, Hill said.

One main problem in the curriculum right now is the old fashioned notion of teaching, she said, which is learning everything from the textbook before students are able to participate in more hands-on activities, applying what they have learned to real world situations.

Instead, these strategies must be used simultaneously, she said. Hill's students agree that her unique way of teaching has been effective.

Contact reporter Jamie Edelen at jamie.edelen@richmond.edu