Bench to Blackboard Overview

Overview

Bench to Blackboard is a joint initiative of Nature Education, the educational division of Nature Publishing Group, and the Center for Educational Outreach at Baylor College of Medicine whose goal is to provide free, high quality professional development for US-based middle and high school biology teachers via BioEd Online. The Bench to Blackboard program combines BCM's expertise in designing credit-granting, online professional development courses for science educators with Nature Education's library of evidence-based scientific readings in key life sciences areas to form a rich, inquiry-based immersion in current science for experienced educators.

Bench to Blackboard for Teacher Professional Development Contact Hours.
All Bench to Blackboard courses are available for free teacher professional development contact hours. The Center for Educational Outreach at Baylor College of Medicine is approved by the Texas State Board of Educator Certification as a provider of Continuing Professional Development Education. However, all professional development contact hours must be approved by a teacher's employer.

About the Center for Educational Outreach at Baylor College of Medicine

The Center for Educational Outreach (CEO) at Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) seeks to promote quality teaching and learning in science and health through teacher professional development and the creation of unique, high-quality curriculum materials. The CEO provides a wide diversity of resources through BioEd Online (www.bioedonline.org) and K8 Science (www.k8science.org), including streaming video lesson demonstrations and science content presentations, downloadable inquiry lessons, complete instructional modules and annotated PowerPoint¨ slides, self-paced learning opportunities for teachers, and a new undergraduate-level course on genetics and genomics. BCM is a premier academic health science center known for excellence in education, research and patient care. For more information, visit www.bcm.edu and www.ccitonline.org/ceo/.

About Nature Education

Nature Education, the educational division of Nature Publishing Group (NPG), is dedicated to developing innovative science education resources for undergraduate and high school science students and faculty. Nature Education's platform, Scitable, is an openly accessible science learning resource combining a free library of high quality scientific overviews with a collaborative network of researchers, instructors, and students. Nature Publishing Group (NPG) is a publisher of high-impact, print and online scientific and medical information. NPG publishes journals, online databases, and services across the life, physical, chemical, and applied sciences and clinical medicine. Its key journals include Nature (founded in 1869), the leading weekly, international scientific journal, and Scientific American, the oldest continuously published magazine in the US and the leading authoritative publication for science in the general media. For more information visit www.nature.com.

Course Developers

Nancy Moreno, PhD
Professor, Allied Health Sciences and Family and Community Medicine
Senior Associate Director, Center for Educational Outreach
Baylor College of Medicine
Houston, Texas

Vikram Savkar
Senior Vice President and Publishing Director
Nature Education
Cambridge, Massachusetts

Deanne Erdmann, MS
Assistant Professor, Allied Health Sciences
Baylor College of Medicine
Houston, Texas

Ilona Miko
Senior Editor, Life Sciences
Nature Education
Cambridge, Massachusetts

Disclaimer and Disclosures

The professional education material presented in these online courses is intended for use by students, science educators and other life-long learners and is intended solely to provide broad consumer understanding and knowledge of science and biomedical content. The Center for Educational Outreach at Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) and Nature Education strive to offer activities that are scientifically based, accurate, current, and educationally relevant. The opinions, findings and conclusions expressed in this publication are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of BCM or Nature Education.

Links are provided to other Internet sites solely for the convenience of the user. Once you link to another site, you are subject to the site's terms and conditions of use, including copyright and licensing restrictions.

Information provided by Bench to Blackboard is for educational purposes only and should in no way be taken to be the provision or practice of medical, nursing or professional health care advice or services. The information should not be considered complete and should not be used in place of a visit, call or consultation with a physician or other health care provider, or the advice thereof. The information presented is not exhaustive and does not cover all diseases, ailments, physical conditions or their treatments. Call or see a physician or other health care provider promptly for any health care-related questions. The authors, Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) and Nature Education, cannot be responsible for any accidents or injuries that may result from participation in the courses, conduct of activities or science lessons, from not specifically following directions, or from ignoring cautions contained in the text.