Forging Future Scientists

UCSF students are nothing if not passionate about science and health — so why not share that enthusiasm with future generations? Find out how you can bring hands-on learning to students in San Francisco's public schools (K-12) during a meeting of Science and Health Education Partnership (SEP) staff and past and present volunteers.

Drop by the SEP social hour on Thursday, October 13, from 4:30 to 6 p.m. at Byers Hall, 2nd Floor Lobby, Mission Bay.

Initiated in 1987 by UC San Francisco professors Bruce Alberts and David Ramsey, the SEP is recognized nationally and internationally as a model organization that promotes partnership between scientists and educators in support of high quality science education for K-12 students.

For SEP, the primary meaning of partnership is mutual teaching and learning among partners.

SEP offers a diverse programmatic menu: a variety of classroom-based partnership models bring UCSF volunteers into K-12 classrooms, summer courses and seminars provide pedagogically rich content learning experiences for teachers, school-site science teams build capacity for science teaching at elementary schools, and a high school internship program pairs students from backgrounds underrepresented in the sciences with mentors and immerses them in a university environment conducting scientific research.

Additionally, teachers and UCSF volunteers receive lesson coaching and borrow materials from SEP’s lending library – these materials provide enriched science and health learning experiences for nearly 30% of San Francisco Unified School District’s 55,000 students.

And SEP’s online lesson resource, SEP Lessons provides access to quality investigative science and health lessons designed by partnership teams.