The Student and Teacher Biomedical Research Internship at Washington University School of Medicine will play an important role in the university's service to the St. Louis community. The proposed project seeks to provide disadvantaged high school students with a meaningful summer research experience in order to stimulate and continue their interest in scientific and medical careers. The program also provides research opportunities for high school science teachers who teach a significant number of disadvantaged students. This experience for the teachers is designed to develop a sense of the excitement there is in scientific research and to update their working knowledge of science. Additional components of the program include a weekly seminar meeting which will provide important career information, and a half-day human anatomy laboratory. This latter component is meant to capitalize of the student's innate interest in medicine and it has served as an excellent recruiting tool in the past. To maximize the impact of this program on the participants and their schools, applications from a team composed of a science teacher and two students will be given priority in the review process. The teams will play a vital role in achieving the outreach goals during the academic year. Each team of teacher and two students, along with additional student participants from nearby schools, will propose a plan to increase the awareness of the scientific discovery process among their schoolmates or among younger students in feeder elementary or middle schools. Projects might include helping the teacher introduce a new module into the laboratory component of a course, serving as a formal resource for younger students working on science fair projects, using educational modules to increase hands-on learning in the classroom, or developing a short workshop on a topic where the science behind a current biomedical policy issue could be easily demonstrated and explained. The outreach component of this project will greatly increase the number of students to benefit from this summer research experience. The students will also serve as important role models for younger students and their peers through their involvement in the outreach program.
