The present proposal is submitted to continue a program developed between the University of Southern California Center for Craniofacial Molecular Biology and the Los Angeles Unified School District's Francisco Bravo Medical Magnet High School. The present program has been underway for more than four years and provides a year-round experience in basic biomedical research for the high school students at Bravo High School. The current program has two phases; one phase is a full-time laboratory research experience for three months in the summer and the second phase is a Biomedical Research Class in Bravo High School that places students in research laboratories to conduct research five afternoons a week throughout the school year. The full-time summer phase has been supported by a NIH Minority High School Student Research Apprentice Program and will be supported in the future by the present proposal. The part-time academic year program is a portion of each student's high school curriculum. We have coordinated the two phases so that students have a concentrated research experience during the summer to learn the necessary research procedures and approaches so that during their high school Biomedical Research curriculum they can accomplish a productive research project and experience the excitement of completing an original research experiment. This coordination has permitted several students to continue their research projects for several years and the data that has been accumulated has been included in publications abstracts and presentations. The participating students have been tracked during their college education and many have returned to continue their research in CCMB during summer vacations The present proposal will continue to track students both during the summer and academic year and following graduation from high school. Students who have conducted research in the CCMB have enrolled in excellent universities and entered major in the sciences. We believe that the current proposal will continue to increase the numbers of minority students majoring in the sciences and selecting a science-based career.
