• Requests for research interactions between high school students and university staff have increased. Many of the sponsors of these students are teachers who have worked with one of our pre-college programs.
• Program alumni are informing their local schools' administration about the IUSM pre-college programs. These staff members are recommending the programs to other students based on the alumni expressing satisfaction with program experiences.
• Increased numbers of applicants to the pre-college programs have been derived from rural counties in Indiana. There is also a similar trend in applications from inner city underserved youth. Three of four rural youth, who have matriculated at IU School of Medicine during fall, 2001 were alumni of the HHMI-sponsored precollege programs. The HHMI summer programs have been a feeder mechanism for the Rural Health BA/MD Program, a joint partnership between Indiana University School of Medicine and Indiana State University. A similar program in urban medicine has been developed at the Northwest Center for Medical Education in Gary, IN for underserved youth in that region. However, loss of HHMI funding for 2002 programs may jeopardize the future viability of this feeder mechanism.

• The requests from high school teachers for placement of students into research labs have increased significantly. This type of interaction requires an enormous commitment from the university. ECME has a proposal and screening method in which members from the university and the precollege instructional site collaborate in developing budgets and expectations. This method allows a team to work together to decide which projects are reasonable and achievable. However, the mechanism is not expected to be self-sustaining without external funding.
• The increased number of applicants to the middle school programs has made it difficult to screen for inclusion. It is difficult to determine interest based on student statements, and difficult to gather information of 'relative ranking' for these applicants. Parents' requests are usually the motivation behind teacher recommendations, and may not accurately describe a student's ability. We are currently investigating a partnership with ISU administrators for the Educational Talent Search Program. This program is federally funded and seeks to place talented youth into laboratory-based activities for underserved youth. It is anticipated that such a partnership would facilitate the identification of youth whose interest level and academic profile more closely match Precollege Science Education Program goals.
• The outreach to inner city underserved resulting in students from a Gary, IN inner-city school to participate in the programs in Terre Haute over the last three years. While the THCME could facilitate this request for local housing during their time of participation, most other CME sites cannot provide resident accommodations. The dormitory stay for these students also created a need for additional camp counselors to monitor students during the hours students were not in class. Camp counselors were hired from a pool of undergraduate students who were already involved with THCME science education programs (BA/MD scholars and pre-medical undergraduate students mentioned above).

• Active learning is promoted by using core inquiry-based laboratory modules at THCME and FWCME summer programs for youth in grades 6 - 12. These modules are appropriate for many educational levels. The modules encourage students to collect data, plot values using graphing software, and interpret graphical representation of those values. Many of these modules have been converted to HTML and have been deployed on the web. Funding has also been secured for publishing some of these modules in CD-ROM form. Module Website: http://iumeded.med.iupui.edu/eLabs/start.htm
• Participants in the summer programs at the THCME are required to research and develop a summary on a Health Career. Over the life of the programs a thorough catalog of health care occupations has been established. These summaries include earning potential as well as work environment for physicians, physician assistant, sports medicine specialist, pediatrics specialist, nurses, researchers and many others. These summaries are a good resource for students in grades 4 - 8. WEB SITE: http://web.indstate.edu/thcme/honors/careers.html
• The FWCME launched web pages developed by student participants to demonstrate experimental results and student enthusiasm in hands-on learning settings. Student Example: http://histo.ipfw.edu/hhughes2/Abigail/Main%20Page.htm

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