Interactive learning and Community Science Academy.

For the last four years the Hay lab has been pioneering use of the SKIES learning system to enhance student participation in class, to provide new forums for asking questions, and to encourage students to add their own content to genetics lectures, in the form of links to scientific articles, in-class clarifications, in-depth explanations, and flashcards. More recently, a number of other Professors have begun using this system. An important goal going forward is to create links between classes so as to create a more general web of knowledge that students and others can use to explore.

In a second, related activity, the Hay lab hosted the beginnings of The Community Science Academy at Caltech (CSA@Caltech). The goal of CSA, initiated by two Caltech alumni, James Maloney and Julius Su, is to develop curriculum and instrumentation to support low cost but high quality science relevant to community needs CSA is currently hosted by the Caltech Center for Teaching, Learning and Outreach. Prof. Hay also served as PI on a grant from the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation, Special Grant Program in the Chemical Sciences, 2014-2015. The goal of this grant was to foster High School community science and the design of portable custom molecular sensors.