BioEYES is an international curriculum where trained BioEYES educators bring live zebrafish into elementary school classrooms to engage students in a small group, hands-on experiment where they breed a zebrafish pair, collect the embryos, and follow their development over the course of an entire week, observing them under the microscope as they hatch into larvae. The program is free for all participating public schools. In Fall 2023, with the support of a BETHA grant, BioEYES was converted from a volunteer experience into a service-learning course to engage Ohio State undergraduates in outreach. Because BioEYES brings college students into classrooms, elementary school students get to see firsthand that aspiring scientists are real people from all backgrounds and walks of life. After completing the BioEYES program in the fall, elementary students visit Ohio State in the spring for a BioEYES Festival field trip to tour the zebrafish facility and engage in additional hands-on science activities. Since 2019, BioEYES has reached over 700 students in five Columbus public schools.
This program is also the Winner of the 2024 Office of Academic Affairs Community Engaged Scholar Award.