Summers in Children's Research for Diverse High School Students

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“Summers in Children's Research” (SCR) at The University of Arizona Health Sciences Center, Steele Children's Research Center, and Diamond Children's Medical Center offers annually in this 5-year renewal grant proposal 12 diverse disadvantaged junior/senior high school students and 5 continuing undergraduates from Arizona an immersive educational 8- and 12- week summer experience respectively in “hands on, brain on” basic, translational, and clinical research broadly targeting childhood and human development and associated disorders. The multidisciplinary project leadership duo includes an internationally renowned pediatrician specialized in children's gastrointestinal disorders (molecular mechanisms and clinical management) and an international expert in childhood and developmental lymphatic disorders and genotype-phenotype correlations, diversity pipeline research training, and inquiry curriculum innovation. They will together interact with vibrant research programs impacting children's and maternal health. Based on the College of Medicine's highly successful longstanding federally funded multidisciplinary disadvantaged multilevel student research programs and diversity/URM pipeline continuum drawing large numbers of qualified applicants from around Arizona and also a locally supported Dept. of Pediatrics high school student summer program, SCR for the past 5 years has been stepwise developing a distinctive core curriculum including online components and expanded research experiences in NICHD mission areas. Full-time summer research experiences range from molecular mechanisms of calcium/phosphate absorption in inflammatory bowel disease, microbiomics, and infant diarrheal disorders to genomics- proteomics of Niemann-Pick C disease and lymphedema-angiodysplasia syndromes; congenital heart disease – mechanisms, complications, and management; autism, disabilities and rehabilitation; next generation multimodal imaging; epidemiology of pediatric head trauma and substance abuse, and field work in maternal health and sexually transmitted diseases. SCR involves experienced, enthusiastic faculty and near-peer mentors primarily in Pediatrics but broadly representing basic and clinical research impacting children in NICHD mission areas. The specialized SCR curriculum is incorporated into an innovative face-to-face and online inquiry-based Summer Institute on Medical Ignorance (highlighting Unanswered Questions and Unquestioned Answers and reinforcing core content) for high school students and undergraduates and paralleling our medical student researcher offering. Included are highly interactive features such as our unique Virtual Clinical Research Center/Questionarium, a web-based platform designed to link NIH, CTSAs/GCRCs to the K-12 community, using advanced multimedia technology familiar to teenagers. Peer and near-peer mentoring and communication/surviving/thriving skill sessions are used to develop attitudes, skills, and behaviors of fruitful, curious, and ethical scientists working in collaborative teams along career pathways in concert with their recruiting teachers. Extensive short-term/long-term formative and summative participant and project evaluation documents SCR's success to date and the progress of its diverse, disadvantaged, largely URM participants from resource- poor schools and will be continued to develop replicable models and products to disseminate nationally to other settings.