Table 2.

Summary of Recommendations with Examples from PREP

Recommendations	PREP Examples
Evaluate your needs, interests, and resources as well as those of the K-12 community you wish to engage.	• Students and teachers wanted opportunities to collect real data of interest to the scientific community.
	• Scientists wanted help characterizing the functions of genes in Arabidopsis.
	• PREP content, as well as the manual dexterity required for growing, observing, and experimenting with Arabidopsis, are most appropriate for high school.
Identify existing curricula, programs, and personnel that can support your efforts.	• Scientists and teachers serve as advisors in ongoing development of the program.
	• An experienced teacher wrote the guidelines for classroom implementation.
	• The project coordinator has been both a classroom teacher and Arabidopsis researcher.
Develop a specific plan involving a finite commitment and clear expectations.	• PREP partners teachers and plant scientists in guiding high school students in designing and conducting their own original investigations to determine how disabling a gene in Arabidopsis affects the plant's ability to respond to environmental stresses.
	• PREP is a mutual learning effort in which scientists gain pedagogical skills and insights as well as potentially informative results from students' work, and students and teachers learn about the culture, content, and process of science.
Develop a strategy to document the impact of your efforts, collaborating with education researchers and evaluators as possible.	• An external evaluator and graduate students in education research collaborate with PREP personnel and education research faculty to investigate the practice and impacts of PREP.
	• Data are gathered from a variety of sources, including classroom observations, student work, and interviews or focus groups with students, teachers, and scientists.
Speak publicly and often to contribute to a change in culture that supports public engagement within the scientific community.	• Program information, outcomes, and impacts are shared with practicing teachers through state and national teacher meetings and with the education and science research communities through national meetings and publications.
	• Letters of support are written for scientists who broaden the impact of their research through PREP participation.
	• Virginia Tech's Biochemistry Department now offers outreach assistantships in addition to teaching assistantships for interested doctoral students.
	• University of Arizona and Virginia Tech have changed their promotion and tenure guidelines to include an expectation of and reward for public engagement.