This application is the response of three existing Summer Research Programs for Science Teachers at Columbia University, Stanford University, the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, and the nascent Summer Research Program at National Jewish Medical and Research Center-University of Colorado to NIAID's request for outreach programs that further advance its responsibilities to promote research, education, service, and public awareness of immunology, microbiology and infectious diseases. In its first four years, this program will elevate knowledge and understanding of 24 high school life science teachers, and through them, the interest, achievement and awareness of ~1600 under-represented and majority high school students in New York, Denver, the San Francisco Bay area, and Dallas of opportunities for intellectually challenging, humanly rewarding, and personally remunerative careers in these disciplines. It accomplishes these goals by providing in-service high school life sciences teachers with special conceptual and practical expertise in immunology, microbiology and infectious diseases and by preparing them to better communicate the dynamism and relevance of contemporary immunology, microbiology and infectious diseases research and clinical service to advancement of human health. The application documents that providing inner-city high school science teachers with opportunities to do hands-on immunology research for two consecutive summers under the mentorship of university faculty and to receive professional development that enables them to transfer to their classrooms and laboratories the concepts and skills acquired in these experiences increases student interest and achievement in science. The teachers will be required to develop an educational transfer plan which directly links their immunology research experience to local standards-based curriculum, including the development of new lab lessons. By increasing student acquaintance and knowledge in immunology, microbiology and infectious disease this program is likely to interest students in careers in these disciplines.
