2026 Bishop Museum BIORETS - REACHES
Bernice P Bishop Museum·Honolulu, HI·2026 cycle
Closed for cycleBioinformatics/Computational BiologyIntegrative Biology✓ verified
The NSF funded BIORETS REACHES program at Bishop Museum, in collaboration with faculty in ʻIolani’s Community Science program, the Hawaiʻi Department of Education curriculum specialists, and the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa faculty and students, will offer eight STEM teachers from Hawaiʻi’s public or charter schools and community colleges a seven-week summer research training experience integrated with ongoing research into land snail conservation, ecology, genomics, taxonomy, and an established teacher training program will provide in-depth, regionally relevant, and immediately translatable research experiences. The seven weeks includes field research, captive rearing training, museum curation, experimental design training, and hands-on lab research experience. Participants also participate in workshops, including cultural orientation, museum studies, research methodologies, proposal writing, genomics, bioinformatics, community ecology, and curriculum development. Throughout the summer teachers will work with scientists and cultural practitioners and other kumu to develop a year-long project focusing on Hawaiian land snail ecology and conservation to answer questions from four core research objectives: 1) Develop life history data for endangered Hawaiian snails, 2) Assess snail influence on microbial communities, 3) Characterize microbiome communities in captively reared snail chambers, and 4) Evaluate snail survivorship when fed different diets. Using this research as a foundation, teachers will develop novel curriculum to teach fundamental concepts in ecology, conservation, microbiology, evolution, and Hawaiian ecosystem functions with an emphasis on place-based, relevant examples, embedded in Hawaiian cultural values and practices that will promote retention of students in STEM fields and instill aloha ʻāina for sustainable stewardship of biocultural resources.
Kumu, Aloha 'Āina, snails, invertebrates, conservation, natural history, museum, collections, biodiversity, genomics, genetics, laboratory, mentoring, evolution, ecology, Hawai'i, indigenous values, cultural practices, Āina-based learning, Culturally responsive science education, Microbiome, molecular biology, Environmental DNA (eDNA), Biocultural restoration
Teachers must Be a STEM (e.g., Biology, Earth Science, Chemistry, Physics, Computer Science Mathematics) teacher in Hawaii's public or charter schools, or community colleges Be committed to the entire length of the program (full-time 7 weeks over the summer, monthly meetings during the school year, and shorter periods throughout the year) Be committed to developing new or expanding current curriculum to include research experiences. Have a strong desire to increase your own scientific research literacy with a focus on Ecosystem Sciences in Hawaii and the Bishop Museum Have a strong desire to increase your student's scientific research engagement, literacy, and perceptions, with a strong focus on place based scientific research. Have a strong desire to promote and sustain aloha ʻāina through integration of Hawaiian cultural values, practice, and science. Have the support of school administration for the program (letters of support) We encourage teachers from under resourced schools
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