UA officials hope to spark higher student achievement in math and science by establishing a $3 million teaching center at Biosphere 2, where educators will work with researchers to address complex scientific problems such as climate change.
The center, formally announced on Wednesday, is at the science facility in Oracle leased by the University of Arizona. It will host 300 teachers of kindergartners through 12th-graders over the next three years to engage them in the latest advancements in science, technology, engineering and math.
By pairing teachers with UA researchers, officials hope to develop new approaches to teaching science and math that can translate into classroom success.
With other nations advancing in those areas while students in the United States remain stagnant or underperforming, teaching critical subjects such as math and science is taking on increasing importance, said Joaquin Ruiz, dean of the UA's College of Science.
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"The status quo is going to lead us right down the tubes," he said during an event to announce the center's formation.
The center is funded by two $1.5 million grants from Science Foundation Arizona and the Philecology Foundation.
Formed in 2006, Science Foundation Arizona is a non-profit agency composed of business and industry leaders throughout the state who are dedicated to investing in research that could help develop Arizona's economy. Billionaire Edward P. Bass, who built Biosphere 2 for about $200 million in the 1980s, founded the Philecology Foundation, based in Fort Worth, Texas.
Biosphere 2 was constructed to replicate the conditions on Earth and study whether humans could colonize other planets. It's perhaps best remembered from the early-1990s experiment in which a crew tried to live inside the dome for two years.
After the experiments stopped, the site was used by Columbia University and later became a tourist destination and conference site.
Small-scale experiments were conducted on the site until the summer of 2007, when the UA took over the facility with the help of a $30 million grant from the Philecology Foundation.
Besides conducting research at the Biosphere, the UA offers daily tours.
The teaching center at the science facility represents another way the UA can put the Biosphere to good use, Ruiz said.
"The ties between universities and schools need to be stronger," he said. "Teachers are going to tell the university how they can help them, and there will be a statewide conversation."
Using summer and weekend programs designed by the teachers themselves, the educators will work with Biosphere 2 researchers on several science experiments in areas such as hydrology and plant science.
The UA already has several programs that bring teachers into labs to build excitement about science, though the new center will allow educators to collaborate on a larger scale than ever before, said Leslie Tolbert, the UA's vice president for research.
"We want them to remember and understand what it's like to be on the cutting edge of discovery," Tolbert said. "The reason you do research is to push knowledge forward."
Just having teachers come to Biosphere 2 should renew a spirit of curiosity and excitement about science, said Laurie Burrell, a fifth-grade teacher in Amphitheater Public Schools who is a co-leader of the center.
"It's an inspirational sight that piques your interest," she said of the Biosphere. "We want them to take that energy and infect their students."
The success of the teachers will lead to better-educated students, which will ultimately benefit the state and the region, Tolbert said.
"We need to achieve a knowledge-based society," she said. "A K-12 education is the passport for the future success of individuals and society as a whole."
DID YOU KNOW
Biosphere 2 was built in 1986 to research whether the Earth's environment could be re-created to allow for the colonization of other planets.
Funded by Texas billionaire and philanthropist Edward P. Bass, the glass and steel structure contains 6,500 windows and a 500-ton welded stainless-steel liner that makes the enclosure airtight.
The 3.14-acre Biosphere 2 was the subject of international attention during two human experiments in the 1990s, when scientists tried to live there independent of the outside world.
The structure also was the subject of a less-than-comical 1996 comedy titled "Bio-Dome," in which two half-wits played by Pauly Shore and Stephen Baldwin are sealed inside the Biosphere along with a team of scientists. Non-hilarity ensued.
