A proposal designed to put more scientists into middle school science classrooms is moving forward. At its meeting Thursday night, the Guilford County Board of Education approved a plan for GCS to partner with UNC-Greensboro to apply for a National Science Foundation Discovery Research K-12 (DRK-12) grant.

GCS currently partners with UNC-G on a project that puts graduate students – known as “resident scientists” in the program – in science classes at three GCS schools: Welborn Academy, Andrews High and Montlieu Academy.

The resident scientists act as an additional expert and bring added scientific knowledge and practices into the classes through hands-on science experiences.

That grant ends after this school year, but its success encouraged GCS and UNC-Greensboro to use the same model in their next project. The DRK-12 grant would allow resident scientists to work with all eighth-grade science teachers in a school instead of just one teacher.

If GCS and UNC-Greensboro are awarded the grant, the new program would go into effect during the 2016-17 school year at Northeast Middle, Aycock Middle, Jackson Middle, Allen Middle, Ferndale Middle, Welborn Middle, Hairston Middle and Eastern Middle schools.