It’s true that pedagogy is shifting from a teaching to a learning model, from the “sage on the stage to the guide on the side.”  But social and constructivist learning theories have not permeated all classrooms. Many of us still just teach rather than create environments where learning can take place.

That is why I am pleased that WSU has become the first institution on the West Coast, and only the fourth in the nation, to be designated a Project Lead the Way affiliate in the biosciences. Students are pleased, too, with the chance for hands-on biomedical education that the nationally recognized K-12 program provides. In the words of one high schooler quoted in a WSU article, “We actually do stuff in class.”

We at the College of Education are particularly excited to be involved in the growing biomedical education venture under way on Spokane’s Riverpoint campus.  Our academic director there, Joan Kingrey, and her colleagues are heading up Project Lead the Way. WSU’s College of Nursing and College of Pharmacy also are exploring ways to better teach their students through similar pedagogies. It is a terrific, inter-college synergy occurring on the nation’s next great medical sciences campus.