• Establishment of the BioSciences Studies Institute infrastructure. The most outstanding achievement has been the building of the BioScience Studies Institute (BSSI) a year round after school and summer program that has become a resource for students, teachers and administrators of the Queens Gateway to Health Sciences Secondary School. BSSI connects through curricula and program development the high school with the Queens Hospital Center and the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. The Institute brings instructional resources in the form of course for students during school in 5 week Queens Hospital Center Rotation Modules, new curriculum with biomedical and career exploration emphasis after school, teacher internships at MSSM and QHC, special events like Young Scientists Day, and policies and procedures for application, instruction, assessment and follow up. BSSI is being established in two new schools that are affiliated with MSSM, the Life Science Secondary School, and Martin Luther King, Jr., High School. The BSSI concept is a powerful one because is provides and extension of the school with a formal program and administration - those working in the schools share the administration, but they get to function differently when working in BSSI.
• Training of teachers and administrators in biomedical science. One of the challenges for BSSI was to infuse a "health sciences consciousness" into the school Queens Gateway to Health Sciences Secondary School. The school with a small staff of 27 teachers and administrators had 6 science teachers. It was clear that to train only the science teachers in inquiry instructional methods and to enhance their appreciation and understanding of modern biomedical science was to have missed the point - all teachers at this health science secondary school needed to have ample knowledge and appreciation for the school's central theme: "health sciences". This goal was accomplished through biomedical workshops, internships and teaching in BSSI. A program of health science training workshops was developed around the staff's health interest. All high school disciplines were represented in the workshops, as were the principal and assistant principal and the school secretaries. In addition to the 6 workshops per academic year 6 teacher/administrator internships were offered to the school each summer. All participants were required to maintain a logbook and complete a paper on a theme that they developed over the summer. The Director of BSSI led the summer weekly seminars. The seminar is where the BSSI Teacher Fellows would summarize their experience clinical experience and discuss the theme they selected for their paper.
• Six brand new curriculum modules. We set out to develop biomedical curricula that were at the cutting edge of biomedical science yet were firmly ground in the interest of the community. Biomedical science as a discipline may not spark the interest of students and teachers but couched in a recognizable illness the science become compelling. Our new courses have received a great response from students and teacher in BSSI. The new courses developed under this grant were: HIV-TB, Neurobiology and Cocaine; Sickle Cell Syndrome; Alcohol-Tobacco; Fruit Fly Genomic; and Microbiology. These course were developed in collaboration that began with curriculum content outlining. Each course was lead by an advisory group of 6 MSSM faculty meeting with teachers (3) to focus on the most important concepts to foster current understanding of the science and its impact on individuals and communities. Pre/post tests were developed; instruction sequences decided, activities and assessments were designed for each course and remain as works in progress for each new offering and its teacher/s to add their own brand to it. These curricula were seen from the outset as "organic" in nature. Organic in the sense that the teacher, their interest and institutional resources would be used in a novel way to achieve the leaning set forth in the content outline which was incorporated into the pre/post test for each of the curricula offered in BSSI

• Working within the New York City school culture. The culture of the NYC schools mitigates against innovation and fosters instruction in which the teacher tells the student what is to be learned in the most conventional manner - chalk,talk, handouts,audio/visuals all of which are used in a prescriptive manner which in the end turns out to actually follow the textbook arrangement or knowledge. Teachers new and tenured rarely veer off this course. BSSI trained teachers under its BSSI program to lead instruction that was set by inquiry framework in which students working in dyads carried out activities that were focused on the spectific curriculum content and process objectives. Student performances on written, oral and pre/post test gave accurate and convincing evidence of major gains in learning as well as conceptual learning marked by the student's ability to connect knowledge across disciplines, advanced use of written and verbal communication of biomedical knowledge, with general knowledge. Even after having clear evidence of the power, and a sense of self heretofore not readily discernable. Regardless of training and positive outcomes using an inquiry approach to learning, the teacher's continued to use the rhetorical or telling modality, as if they had not ever experienced the positive effects of learning by inquiry teaching when teaching their regular classes in the school. The solution is to establish at the outset a mandate for inquiry instruction and hire only teachers with interest in this approach to learning.
• One of the biggest problems was identifying a staff of the school who was motivated and hard working to serve as the on-site coordinator of the BioScience Studies Institute. This position must be recruited for by the principal, superintendent and given an annual suppliment with the expectation of working after school and six weeks during the summer. Ideally, the school (superintendent) should provide one teacher unit (1 FTU) to staff BSSI with grant funds through MSSM providing added support. The coordinator of BSSI reports to the Principal and the Director of BSSI, a MSSM employee.
• Another challenge is finding sustained interest from teachers in the BioScience Studies Institute. Teachers every where are pressed for time. They also need to supplement their salary with other work, usually outside of the school building. A theme school such as the Queens Gateway to Health Sciences Secondary School should recruit teachers on the basis of demonatrated interest in the thematic organization of the school, a requirement that they must seek first extra employment opportunties within the school and the school should develop the funding resources to supplement each teacher at a minimum of $10,000 to $15,000 over base salary for after school and six weeks summer involvement in BSSI enrichment programs.

• Four curriculum modules: HIV-TB; Neurobiology and Cocaine; Alcohol-Tobacco; Sickel Cell Syndrome. Each module focuses on basic biomedical science, molecular biology and genetics, and impact on individual/family, communit and population. These modules contain pre/post test, activities and content outline, and assessments, references and Websites.
• A strategy for establishing a BioScience Studies Institute as an expansion of a school - after school and summer - offering interdisciplinary learing in mathematics, science, social studies and language arts in subject matter that carries extremely high interest among students, teachers and the community-at-large.

Back to Mount Sinai School of Medicine