Biomedical workforce near-peer mentees support public education and participation in research

项目总结 在华盛顿特区举行的第七届美国科学与工程节(USASEF)有望吸引 2020年4月，35万人参加这个为期2.5天的免费节日。电影节的目的是提高公众的兴趣。 在科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)中使用互动展品。美国国立卫生研究院 Health(NIH)之前在2010、2012和2018年的USASEF上举办了展台，以提高公众 了解生物医学研究。这些努力是与美国国立卫生研究院科学教育合作进行的 来自俄勒冈州和西弗吉尼亚州的合作伙伴奖(SEPA)获奖者，他们带来了一项合作研究 专门为翻译NIH资助的研究而设计的展览，供公众理解和欣赏。这 计划书要求提供4个月的行政补充，以延长我们之前开发的协作 利用我们独立的环保总局项目。具体地说，我们建议提供生活方式公众教育 解释DNA如何通过塑造我们健康行为的蛋白质的表达影响我们的健康行为的展览 我们身体的运作方式(例如，从味觉到保护细胞免受阳光伤害的皮肤黑色素 损坏)。USASEF的与会者将能够匿名参与由美国国立卫生研究院资助的互动研究 这项研究让他们了解自己的健康和生物医学研究的过程，同时贡献他们的 将匿名信息发送到国家人口数据库，使学生和科学家能够研究 健康因素之间的关系。我们展览的一个新特点是展示由NIGMS资助的 不同教育水平(即高中、本科生、研究生)的生物医学研究实习生，谁将 在研究展览期间以及在与学生互动时提供近乎同行的相互指导 展览的参观者，他们构成了USASEF参会者的最大比例。最终，这一协作 展览旨在提高公众对NIH资助的生物医学研究及其培训机会的认识 一种互动和引人入胜的方式。

PROJECT SUMMARY The 7th Annual USA Science and Engineering Festival (USASEF) in Washington D.C. is expecting to draw 350,000 people to the free, 2.5 day festival in April, 2020. The goal of the festival is to increase public interest in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) using interactive exhibits. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) previously hosted exhibit booths at the 2010, 2012, and 2018 USASEFs to enhance public understanding of biomedical research. These efforts were in collaboration with NIH Science Education Partnership Award (SEPA) grantees from Oregon and West Virginia, who brought a collaborative research exhibit specifically designed to translate NIH-funded research for the public to understand and enjoy. This proposal requests a 4-month administrative supplement to extend our previously developed collaboration that leverages our independent SEPA projects. Specifically, we propose to provide a lifestyle public education exhibit that explains how DNA influences our health behaviors through the expression of proteins that shape the ways our bodies function (e.g., ranging from taste perception to skin melanin that protects cells from sun damage). USASEF attendees will be able to anonymously participate in an interactive NIH-funded research study that informs them about their own health and the process of biomedical research while contributing their anonymous information to a national population database, enabling students and scientists to study relationships between health factors. A new feature of our exhibit will be showcasing NIGMS-funded biomedical research trainees across levels of schooling (i.e., high school, undergraduate, graduate), who will offer near-peer mentorship of each other during the research exhibit as well as when interacting with student attendees of the exhibit, who comprise the largest fraction of USASEF attendees. Ultimately, this collaborative exhibit aims to increase public awareness of NIH-funded biomedical research and its training opportunities in an interactive and engaging way.