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In 1994 HHMI awarded the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine $175,000 for a three part program targeted at Cincinnati Public School students, primarily 7th and 8th graders. The Howard Hughes programs are an integral part of the College of Medicine's PATHWAYS to Health Careers Programs, a group of outreach and enrichment programs for students from middle school through college. The goal of all of the PATHWAYS programs is to encourage students to remain in the science pipeline and to attain a science-related career.
1) The School-Based Exploration, Enrichment, and Discovery in Science (SEEDS) program matches scientists, graduate and medical students with interested middle school teachers for school-based science activities. The SEEDS program has reached several hundred middle school students during the funding period. The SEEDS transportation fund arranges field trips to the College of Medicine and other local sites of scientific interest for Cincinnati Public School students in grades 7-12. More than 1,000 students and their teachers, who might not otherwise had the opportunity, have benefitted from the SEEDS program transportation fund visiting the College of Medicine, area science museums and centers, and attending special science programming at other schools and the Kings Island Science Day programs. Several students who have benefitted from the SEEDS program have gone on to participate in other PATHWAYS programs.
2) The Saturday Science Academy provides year round, hands-on, laboratory based science enrichment for up to 30 girls and minority and/or disadvantaged seventh- and eighth-grade students and their parents or guardians. The Academy meets 13 times a year, July through May, for age appropriate laboratory activities at the College of Medicine. Saturday sessions on a wide variety of scientific topics are conducted by College of Medicine and visiting scientists with assistance from three College of Medicine teaching assistants. Middle school students are targeted because they are young enough to be able to make informed choices about their future academic careers based on their experiences and exposure to science and scientists at the Academy. Nearly 150 students and their parents/partners have participated in the Academy. Many families have a continuing relationship with the Academy (and the College of Medicine) as younger siblings become interested in participating based on the enthusiastic responses of their older family members. One family has had four children in College programming, including three in the Saturday Science Academy. One of the wonderful side benefits of family participation in this extremely popular "user-friendly" program is greatly increased science literacy among the parents/partners. There has been no problem with student or parent attendance. Often other family members visit just to see what the students are so enthusiastic about. While it is difficult to track such young students, particularly in the Cincinnati Public Schools, every effort is made to maintain contact with the families through birthday and holiday greetings. The students are included the database we maintain for all of our outreach and enrichment programs. We are beginning to see former Saturday Science students in our PATHWAYS programs for high school students. The goal is to retain as many of these students in the science pipeline as possible. The Academy, itself, has become a model for other College of Medicine and University programs and has gained recognition in the broader community.
3) Teachers' Initiative: Program in Biomedical Research is a summer program that places middle and high school teachers in a laboratory setting for eight weeks of research and mentoring. The emphasis is on transferring the knowledge and experience gained in the laboratory to the classroom. Weekly seminars that focus on building lesson plans and teaching science enable the teachers to test their ideas on a group of peers with guidance from the Scientific Director of the Teachers' Initiative and the Program Director. The HHMI has funded 12 teachers during the past four summers as part of a larger program that funds additional teachers from other sources. There have been as many as eight teachers in any given summer. We maintain close contact with many of the teachers who encourage their students to participate in the PATHWAYS progams. Likewise, teachers have come to us because they had students who participated in our programs.
All of our HHMI funded programs have enjoyed tremendous success and popularity in the community, and teachers, students, and families look forward to their continuation.
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