The Information Dissemination Core C004 proposes three interrelated specific aims designed to advance NIAAA's mission of translating and disseminating research findings to health care providers, researchers, policymakers and the public. All of the Core's activities are targeted especially to under-represented and/or disadvantaged groups.
Specific Aim 1 : K-12 Education & Outreach. The principal goal is to provide K-12th grade students and their teachers with information about alcohol, the brain, and neuroscience. We propose age-appropriate activities that present information about how the brain works and how alcohol can affect it. The activities promote keeping one's brain safe, making informed choices, meeting male and female neuroscientist role models, and pursuing careers in neuroscience and alcohol research in particular.
Aim 1 focuses especially on adolescent vulnerability to alcohol abuse by utilizing material from the NIAAA curriculum, Understanding Alcohol: Investigations into Biology and Behavior, and from other sources. New for the renewal we propose to prepare high school students to make presentations in their school's respective feeder middle schools. The high school near-peers integrate the changing adolescent brain, neuroscience of alcohol and drugs, decision- making, and how to transition successfully to high school. We will partner with the On Track OHSU! program which begins long-term mentoring in middle schools in order to bring more diverse and disadvantaged students into health science research and clinical practice. We propose to continue a novel neuroscience and safety curriculum developed by this PARC Core for Kindergarten-3rd graders, with more advanced activities to be added for 4th and 5th graders. At the high school level we continue a Genetics and Alcohol seminar that is adaptable from lab visits to in-school classroom visits to auditorium talks. Two new proposed high school activities include: a PARC-created drunk driving simulator used to teach experimental methods, and an interactive sports team seminar focusing on the effects of alcohol on athletic training, performance, and recovery.
Specific Aim 2 : Training in Alcohol Research. Here, we propose to provide training and laboratory experience in alcohol research to high school, undergraduate, graduate, and post-doctoral students. Training the next generations of alcohol researchers has been a major commitment of many PARC investigators, some for over 30 years.
Specific Aim 3 : Dissemination and Translational Interface. In this Aim we propose to coordinate and share the findings of the Center, and alcohol research results in general, through a variety of well-established mechanisms with scientific colleagues, policymakers, and diverse communities.
Aim 3 proposes activities and resources including: professional and lay publications; the Center website for professionals and the general public; the PARC Library; inclusion of PARC investigators in the University's speakers and scientific experts bureau; dissemination of PARC findings to the media; professional conferences; and outcome review of the education and outreach activities of the Core.
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