ANN ARBOR—Four Detroit area science teachers have been selected to participate in an innovative new research fellowship at the Michigan Center for Urban African American Research (MCUAAAR), a collaborative program jointly operated by the University of Michigan and Wayne State University.

MCUAAAR is one of six national resource centers for minority aging research focusing on investigating and reducing disparities between minority and non-minority older adults.

The one-year fellowship?the African American Aging Summer Immersion for Science Teachers?is designed to provide middle school, high school, and community college teachers with an opportunity to learn about the field of minority aging, and to enrich the social science and science curricula with this new knowledge.

AASIST Fellows will receive training, mentoring and instruction from U-M and WSU experts in the field of minority aging, and will develop projects of their own in collaboration with these experts. They will present their findings at the 2010 meeting of The Gerontological Society of America, the nation’s largest interdisciplinary organization devoted to research, education, and practice in the field of aging.

The fellows are Martha Cunigan-Wells, Oak Park Schools; Jermaine Evans, Inkster Public Schools; and Michelle Morden and Juanita Tansil, Detroit Public Schools.

“Our primary aim is to provide science educators with a unique, one year educational experience focusing on minority aging, especially physical and mental health disparities,” said U-M researcher James S. Jackson, who co-directs MCUAAAR with Peter Lichtenberg of WSU.

AASIST steering committee members are U-M faculty members Carmen Green, Jacqui Smith, Toni Antonucci and Letha Chadiha.

These programs are supported by the National Institute of Health, NIA, The Office of Behavioral and Social Science Research and the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities; in addition the AASIST is funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and the National Institute on Aging of the National Institute of Health.
For more information about the AASIST fellowships or MCUAAAR, visit: http://mcuaaar.iog.wayne.edu/

AASIST fellowships or MCUAAAR