It's Contagious! Promoting the Biomedical Workforce Pipeline through Infectious Diseases

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Our Country’s biomedical workforce needs more professionals. In particular there is a grave need to promote diversity within this population. Interventions, from elementary to college, to address this need aim to educate students about opportunities in biomedicine. However, it’s important to note the educators of our future biomedical workforce are often not included in these interventions. The lack of engagement of teachers results in a growing gap in knowledge about the biomedical workforce pipeline and contemporary biomedical research topics which must be remedied. Innovative interventions are needed to expand student exposure to biomedical careers as well as enhance teacher professional development in biomedical research areas. Further, when teachers are provided the tools to apply data literacy to their teaching practices, they are then empowered to maximally engage their students in these novel interventions. The proposed SEPA program, “It’s Contagious! Promoting the Biomedical Workforce Pipeline through Infectious Diseases”, will feature the current science issue of infectious diseases. Using data from infectious disease research and interactions with biomedical researchers the Teachers as Researchers (TaR) program will (Aim 1), engage secondary teachers to create and integrate Classroom To Career Connections (C2C2) activities and supplemental narratives into their classroom instruction (Aim 2). The TaR program will provide data literacy professional development for teachers as they will collect data from the C2C2 activities. TaR cohorts will participate in a Community of Practice (CoP) (Aim 3) where they will apply data literacy skills to evaluate C2C2 activities assessing student knowledge of infectious diseases and apply data outcomes to inform teaching practices. Within the CoP Teachers will engage in discourse with CoP colleagues as they evaluate student data and present data outcomes. Participants will reflect upon how data outcomes from student activities inform decisions regarding their own teaching practices galvanizing data literacy skills that teachers will apply throughout their career. Through these aims, “It’s Contagious! Promoting the Biomedical Workforce Pipeline through Infectious Diseases” will support teachers in their mission as they inspire the next generation of biomedical scientists.