MARC U-STAR PROGRAM AT WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY IN ST. LOUIS

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Summary of Proposed Supplement: This supplement builds on two major areas of focus of the parent grant – scientific communication and explicit discussions on the intersection of race and science. Through the creation, implementation, and evaluation of new, innovative training modules, students will learn how to communicate complex science concepts clearly to the public by creating science videos, develop a personal narrative that uses storytelling to address the intersection of race and science in each student's scientific journey, and give back to the local underserved community via an ongoing collaboration with The Sophia Project, a local girls club for talented but at-risk St. Louis City middle and high school students. Guided by experts on vaccines, epidemiology, and storytelling, MARC students will create one ASAP Science video on vaccine development and design or epidemiology as they relate to SARS-CoV-2, a Tik Tok video on a hands-on science experiment, and a personal narrative that reflects on their scientific journey and incorporates the impact of race on it. We will share these videos on The Sophia Project website, our website, and appropriate social media platforms to promote their broad dissemination, and hopefully as local health officials allow, we will incorporate the videos in our weekly in-person tutoring and science demo sessions with The Sophia Project. Critically, the proposed curriculum is adaptable to both remote, in-person, or hybrid learning models and will provide students with a creative, communal outlet during what is sure to be a challenging year. The key measurable objectives of the proposed training modules are as follows: 1) to increase students' knowledge of vaccines and epidemiology; 2) to enhance students' ability and confidence in effective scientific communication to the public and team-based science; and, 3) to amplify students' voices and sense of belonging in science through teamwork, storytelling, and outreach. We will conduct pre-/post-test surveys with all students to track their perspectives via quantitative and qualitative questions on each objective to assess if our training achieves its goals. As the MARC program director will help oversee all aspects of the creation and implementation of the learning modules, he will be perfectly positioned to integrate these activities in the MARC seminar in the future with greatly reduced external support, ensuring sustainability of all proposed activities.