The current academic year program (TIPS for Students) has evolved out of the Alaska Rural Research Partnership (ARRP), a six-year pilot program that began in 2001. Science excites students when it has real-world applications and ARRP brought these real-world applications to the classroom. For example, George Happ, former Director of Alaska INBRE and ARRP founder, decided to teach students genetics by working on the animals that Native and rural kids eat. The ARRP pilot program involved seven sites and ninety students, representing fourteen villages.

The program appears to be successful. All students involved with the ARRP pilot program graduated from high school (compared to 62% statewide) and 80% attended college within two years of graduation.

The TIPS for Students program provides schools with the tools necessary to integrate a strong molecular biology component into their course offerings. Teachers become trained in the concepts during the TIPS for Teachers program and the school receives a “BEAT” (Biomedical Equipment and Analysis Training) Box containing the supplies and materials needed to teach wet-bench science in the classroom. By teaching students about molecular biology, experimental design and scientific thinking, TIPS for Students prepares students for college and seeks to recruit them to science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) careers. The ARRP pilot project relied solely on the teachers themselves, often causing undue strain on them. Today, BioPREP hopes to work with school administrators and teachers to make molecular biology classes part of rural and Alaska Native schools’ overall science curriculum. This gives teachers an additional tool to teach to Alaska science standards. BioPREP will partner with community health organizations and other educational institutions such as vocational and technical schools and University of Alaska satellite campuses. This partnering exposes students and teachers to additional mentors-university faculty and researchers- and educational resources. These connections may also plant the seeds for future advisor/advisee relationships as high school students are introduced to university faculty researchers and their labs and students.

Four main goals guided the ARRP pilot program and have remained largely unchanged in TIPS for Students:

• Enrich science education in rural schools
• Involve students in scientific research in their villages
• Encourage students to consider science and biomedical careers
• Encourage students to attend and graduate from college