MINORITY HIGH SCHOOL SCIENCE RESEARCH APPRENTICESHIPS

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The objective of this proposal is to establish a program where high school minority students and K-12 teachers (both In-service and Pre- service) will participate in project-centered hands-on laboratory research in the biomedical sciences under the supervision of faculty members at California State University, Los Angeles, an urban minority institution. We propose to involve a cohort of 16 students, four In- service teachers, and four Pre-service teachers in this research endeavor each year. The intent is to provide the participating research apprentices a greater understanding of the biomedical sciences, career awareness, and scientific literacy at an early stage of their academic development. We are particularly interested in exposing the research apprentices to the connection between fundamental biomedical research and the improvement of health. The faculty mentors are all active biomedical researchers and have experience in working with minority students. Indeed, a significant number of the training faculty are members of minority groups or women). Their research is funded by a variety of sources including the NIH, the NSF, and the private sector, and have trained students through the NIH MARC and MBRS programs. The process for achIeving these goals involves placing minority high school students and teachers in the research laboratories of the faculty mentors where they would work alongside the mentor in an individual research project. The research apprentices will be exposed to an active research and academic environment which provides role models (most of the undergraduate and graduate research assistants in the are minority group members, and generally graduates of the same high schools which the apprentices currently attend. As mentioned earlier, many of the faculty mentors are also minority group members) and science enrichment activities which are designed to increase the confidence of the apprentices to pursue careers in the biomedical sciences. The high school students will be better prepared for college studies in biomedically- related science majors. The teachers will be trainees to update their science laboratory teaching skills so that these may be used in their own high school classes. This will include the adaptation of experiments for importation to the high school teaching environment, collaborative high school science projects and continued science partnerships between the high schools and California State University, Los Angeles.