Over the past 10 years, DrosoPHILA has been dedicated to enhancing student engagement and understanding of biology through hands-on scientific exploration. Guided by a commitment to serving students in the Philadelphia area, the DrosoPHILA team has refined its various learning experiences, which use fruit flies to engage students with key concepts in neuroscience. By working with educators, researchers, and students alike, the program equips the facilitators with new methods of engaging students. Since the program has been active in schools, our data indicates consistent improvement in student understanding and comfort with the covered topics, as well as improvement in their attitudes towards science as a whole. Through a dynamic and interactive approach, DrosoPHILA is enriching the educational experience of hundreds of Philadelphia students, inspiring the next generation of scientists. With your help, we can raise that number to the thousands.

We invite you to join us in celebrating the growth and impact of our educational mission. By providing the experience of working with live animals, students are energized with a curiosity to experiment and test their unique hypotheses, cementing a scientific experience in their memories that will not soon be forgotten. DrosoPHILA aims to teach in alignment with the students' curriculum in order to enrich the educational experience, even despite a lack of science resources in our most underfunded schools. DrosoPHILA's full curriculum includes two multi-day lesson modules which build upon each other. The first module, titled "Flies on Ice", introduces the concepts of model organisms and the nervous system, giving the students the chance to practice with experimental design and data analysis. The second module, "Roundabout", is focused on genetics and mutation, and introduces concepts in the development of the nervous system, while reinforcing basic genetic principles, experimental design, data collection and interpretation.

Students are given the opportunity to:

-Gain experience as a researcher where the lab comes to them
-Become scientists in their own right and perform their research
-Use real scientific tools such as research organisms and microscopes
-Discover STEM pathways and potential careers
-Build the skills needed to pursue science, such as critical thinking and data analysis

The core topics of these lessons revolve around neuroscience and developmental biology. Since 2014, we have adapted the program based on feedback from teachers, students, and volunteers from our community. This is why DrosoPHILA is such an effective, evolving, and educational tool.