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Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine
Award Year: 1994

Report Year:

Outcomes, Challenges, and Resources


Outcomes
  • One of the goals of the 2000-01 Teaching Teams was to integrate the teaching team curriculum into the curriculum already being taught in the SLPHS classrooms. To accomplish this, the outline of the curriculum being taught in the SLPHS classrooms was evaluated and teams were scheduled to visit at an appropriate time. It is the hope that as a result of the effort to coordinate teaching team visits and classroom content that student learning was enhanced. It is evident from the program assessments that students are learning from the interactive hands on teaching team demonstrations, in addition to having fun learning about science.
  • The goal of the SRCE program is to provide SLPHS teachers with an opportunity to experience scientific investigation in a laboratory setting, and to develop a curriculum project that will convey scientific information in a more hands-on manner. During the SRCE program participating teachers generated detailed curriculum projects covering a range of topics from gel electrophoresis of protein samples to growth and observation of the butterfly life cycle. The curriculum projects were designed so that other teachers could successfully teach the curriculum based on the information provided. Each curriculum project includes a lecture outline, a set of laboratory instructions, a laboratory supply list, and an assessment tool. In addition, a list of resources is also included. The write ups of these projects were duplicated and distributed to each of the participating teachers and copies of the projects will be maintained by YSP.
  • The impact of the 2001 Summer Focus(SF) program was assessed via written evaluation from students, tutors, and mentors. Overall the response from all individuals involved was very positive. Many of the students expressed a great deal of satisfaction with their work and the scientific procedures they were undertaking. There were many positive comments about the clinical seminar/tour series and the Journal Club. Each of the eight students indicated that their participation in this program would benefit them as they approached college admission, and more immediately the experience would "help them design and develop needed science projects" in the upcoming school year. In addition to the educational outcomes our students experience, they also develop more confidence in their ability to think critically. The students also experience many positive social interactions with their peers and professional scientists in the Washington University community. The mentors expressed satisfaction in their student's understanding of the research being conducted and offered several suggestions on how to improve SF. For everyone involved in the SF program it is always a learning experience.
Challenges
  • Two components of the YSP, SF and SRCE, require participation of supportive faculty members. For both of these programs either a student or a teacher will be placed in a lab to conduct research for a period of time during the summer. It is the experience of the YSP that not all the faculty that are asked to host students/teachers are able to, although they recognize the opportunity YSP provides. First to increase program visibility our faculty advisor, Dr. Thomas Woolsey, makes an initial contact with perspective host labs. The challenge of mentoring a student is shared between the faculty member and members of the host's lab. Graduate students and post doctoral fellows are recruited for mentorship positions at various functions during the year.
  • The Young Scientist Program is a voluntary program that is almost uniquely and exclusively staffed and run by graduate and medical students. A particular effort is made to encourage volunteers to take a more senior role in program leadership. The YSP coordinator provides continuity in the program and assures a smooth transition as student leadership changes.
  • The Summer of 2001 was the first year that the SRCE program was run. Since this was a new program for YSP and because we were interested in maximizing the opportunities provided for the teachers are biggest challenge was the organization of the summer program. To address this problem, we have decided to expand the 2002 program from six weeks to eight weeks. This will provide the teachers with additional time to work on their research projects and to research and develop their individual curriculum projects.
Resources
  • YSP maintains two functions on the SSEN website, both of which provide exceptional resources for scientific education. First, the Young Scientist Program Website (http://medicine.wustl.edu/~ysp) provides details about the various components of the program. In addition, this site contains numerous links to other internet-accessible educational resources. Most recently, this site has been completely updated with curriculum units from all of our Teaching Teams. These units are optimally designed to be easily utilized within the classroom setting.
  • Second, the Young Scientist Program maintains the Mad Scientist Network Website (http://madsci.wustl.edu). This "Ask A Scientist" interface permits the user to ask a scientific question in any number of topic areas, submit the question online, and receive an answer from a scientist in the field. Also contained on this site is an archive documenting thousands of question and answer pairs, which have been accumulated over the years. Both of these Web sites have provided the Young Scientist Program with the ability to impact scientific education outside of our immediate geographical area.
  • Third, The Young Scientist Program will maintain a library of SRCE participant curriculum projects to share with incoming SRCE participants and other teachers in the SLPHS


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