Would you like to be a scientist? Discover Biomedical Sciences! - Phase I/II

描述(申请者提供)：NCRR科学教育合作伙伴奖，题为“你想成为一名科学家吗？发现生物医学科学！”有两个相互关联的目标。一方面，它寻求让市中心小学的孩子接触生物医学科学，因此，鼓励他们从小就对科学发现和健康事业感到兴奋。另一方面，它寻求培养理科本科生成为科学的良好传播者，让他们参与到将科学--特别是与健康相关的发现--带给公众的过程中。为了实现这些目标，我们提出了以下具体目标：具体目标1：创建一个由生物医学本科生运营的面向四年级学生的科学推广计划。这一外展计划将由两部分组成：a)效仿《儿童评委》的反向科学博览会！我们过去用过的神经科学展会。这项活动将侧重于神经科学概念，并将为儿童提供学习经验，为广泛了解大脑如何工作以及大脑功能如何与行为相关奠定基础。B)四年级学生和生物医学本科生之间的辅导计划，根据该计划，大学生将与小学生一起工作，并作为他们课程中科学部分的资源。 这项申请还解决了在少数群体健康和健康差距领域取得进展的一个关键障碍，有助于增加进入生物医学劳动力队伍的代表不足群体的成员数量。造成这种情况的原因有两个。首先，城市公立学校的少数民族学生往往无法获得从事科学职业所需的必要学术技能。其次，截至目前，少数族裔学生找不到合适的榜样，因为少数族裔在美国医学院全职教师中所占比例低得不成比例(不到4%)，即使在经过多年的教职调整或学术生产率衡量后，他们也不太可能拥有高级学术职位。参与我们的计划不仅有助于增加接触科学内容的机会，并激发人们对儿童的高度兴趣，而且还将来自那些说话和外表都像他们的学生和教职员工，为市中心的四年级学生提供可以产生共鸣的榜样。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This NCRR Science Education Partnership Award titled "Would you like to be a scientist? Discover Biomedical Sciences!" has two interrelated goals. On the one hand, it seeks to expose children from inner city elementary schools to the biomedical sciences, and, as a consequence, encourage them early on with the excitement of scientific discovery and health careers. On the other hand, it seeks to train science undergraduates to become good communicators of their science, involving them in bringing science - particularly health-related discoveries - to the public. To achieve these goals, we propose the following specific aims: Specific Aim 1: To create a science outreach program run by undergraduates in biomedical sciences, directed towards fourth grade students. This outreach program will have two components: A) a "reverse" science fair, modeled after the Kids Judge! Neuroscience Fairs that we have used in the past. This activity will be focused in neuroscience concepts, and will provide children with learning experiences that will establish the foundation for broad understanding of how the brain works and how brain functioning relates to behavior. B) a mentoring program between the 4th graders and the Biomedical Sciences undergraduates, whereby the college students will work with, and serve as a resource for the elementary school children for the science portion of their curriculum. Specific Aim 2: To establish a public outreach activity that will educate the general public on biomedical sciences and other health-related topics, using films with a scientific content, discussed by researcher or clinician chosen among those who can provide not only the best scientific expertise, but also a model to imitate. This application also addresses a critical barrier to progress in the field of minority health and health disparities, by contributing to increase the number of members of underrepresented groups that enter the biomedical workforce. There are two reasons for this. First, minority students in urban public schools often do not acquire essential academic skills necessary to pursue science careers. Second, as of today minority students do not have access to appropriate role models because underrepresented minorities account for a disproportionately low percentage of full time academic faculty (less than 4%) at US medical schools, and are less likely to hold senior academic rank even after adjusting for years as a faculty member or measures of academic productivity. Participation in our program will serve not only to increase access to science content and spur heightened interest in the children, but also this will come from students and faculty that 'talk like them and look like them', providing role models to whom the inner-city 4th graders can relate to.