Investing in the Future: Collaborative Research Experiences for Students and Teac

描述（由申请人提供）：拟议的学生和教师合作研究经验（CREST）计划解决了克服吸引年轻学生进入科学领域的问题所需的系统性变革，随后他们预期进入研究和医疗保健职业。CREST计划将重点放在哈里斯堡（宾夕法尼亚州首府）地区的高中，那里有大量少数民族学生，目前，这些学生在研究和医疗保健领域的代表性不足。该项目将为精心挑选的九年级学生（5年共100人）提供连续三年高中教育期间的暑期研究经验。前两个暑期课程（9年级和10年级以及10年级和11年级）将作为探究式生物医学科学的介绍，并将在11年级和12年级之间在宾夕法尼亚州立医学院的研究实验室进行监督研究项目。这些学生将由医学院的研究导师指导，与来自附近的林肯大学（一所历史悠久的黑人大学）和医学院已经建立的两个暑期本科生研究项目的本科生助教合作。这些助教将进一步成为高中生参与者的榜样。拟议的CREST计划将通过暑期科学学院提供专业发展计划，将高中学生和科学教师（后者共20人，为期5年）同等关注，教师将把实验室经验纳入他们的日常教学计划，并获得研究生学分。学生、他们的高中老师和研究导师之间的大学关系将在整个学年通过研讨会、基于参与CREST学生和老师的综合经验的高中新颖的实验室练习以及哈里斯堡市中心惠特克科学与艺术中心的项目来维持。惠特克中心的项目旨在庆祝学生和他们的老师的成就，并告知公众科学的进步和临床试验的关键作用。外部评估人员将比较CREST学生与未参加CREST项目的学生的结果。该项目代表了宾夕法尼亚州中南部学区、宾夕法尼亚州立大学医学院（实验室表演场地）、宾夕法尼亚州立大学哈里斯堡资本学院（以教师为中心的发展场地）、林肯大学和几个社区组织（包括惠特克中心）之间的持续合作，这些组织关注科学教育的质量。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The proposed Collaborative Research Experiences for Students and Teachers (CREST) program addresses systemic changes needed to overcome the problem of attracting young students to science, followed by their anticipated entry into research and healthcare careers. The CREST program will focus on Harrisburg (Pennsylvania state capital) area high schools with large populations of minority students who, at present, are underrepresented in the research and healthcare arenas. The program will provide carefully selected 9th grade students (a total of 100 for the 5 years) with summer research experiences during three consecutive years of their high school education. The first two summer sessions (between the 9th and 10th and the 10th and 11th grades) will serve as an introduction to inquiry-based biomedical science and will lead to the performance of a supervised research project within research laboratories at the Penn State College of Medicine between the 11th and 12th grades. These students will be guided by College of Medicine faculty research mentors working in collaboration with undergraduate student teaching assistants from both nearby Lincoln University (a Historically Black University) and from two already established summer undergraduate research programs at the College of Medicine. These teaching assistants will further serve as role models for the high school student participants. The proposed CREST program will focus equally on high school students and science teachers (total of 20 of the latter for the 5 year period) by providing professional development programs through Summer Science Academies in which the teachers will incorporate laboratory experiences into their everyday teaching programs and earn graduate credit. The collegial relationships among the students, their high school teachers, and the research mentors will be sustained throughout the academic year by seminars, novel laboratory exercises in the high schools based on the combined experiences of the participating CREST students and teachers, and programs at the Whitaker Center for Science and the Arts in downtown Harrisburg. The Whitaker Center programs will be designed to celebrate the achievements of the students and their teachers, and to inform the public of advances in science and the critical role of clinical trials. External evaluators will compare outcome measures of the CREST students with those of students not participating in the CREST program. This program represents a continuing collaboration among school districts in southcentral Pennsylvania, the Penn State College of Medicine (the laboratory performance site), Penn State Harrisburg Capital College (the teacher-focused development site), Lincoln University, and several community-based organizations, including the Whitaker Center, concerned about the quality of science education. The CREST program is designed to stimulate the interest and capacity of high school students, especially those from underrepresented groups, to pursue careers in science. The program provides opportunity for science teachers to improve science teaching by updating content and pedagogy. The public will be informed of advances in biomedical and clinical research, including the concern for research ethics and protection of human participants in clinical research.