Authentic residential research experiences form a cornerstone of NeuroLab, an informal science education (ISE) project that bridges developmental neuroscience and comparative genomics, and provides novel opportunities for high school students to identify new molecular genetic tools to study nervous system connectivity. These advanced ISE experiences unfold during residential summer institutes hosted at our biosciences laboratory with small cohorts of predominantly female students. The proposed effort is intended to scale the positive educational impacts of the NeuroLab pilot project by connecting significantly larger numbers of high school students, particularly those from traditionally underserved groups, to successful elements of this advanced learning experience. To this end, the project places high school teachers at the center of three highly collaborative work aims involving an exceptionally diverse group of science professionals. In the earliest phase of the project, teachers will work with neuroscientists, curriculum experts, and NGSS specialists on curriculum revisions that conform to evidence-based best practices. Curriculum strategies and products that emerge from this phase will be used to support in-depth professional development (PD) instruction. PD is aimed at promoting subject mastery, technical proficiency, and transformative changes in teaching practices that translate into positive learning outcomes during enactment of an authentic, course-based research experience for high school students.
/Public Health Relevance The NeuroLab research education program will create novel and exciting opportunities for high school teachers and students to explore the interrelationships among scientific models, model organisms and model systems and their relevance to important health science advances that emerge from NIH-funded research. Conceptual emphasis will be placed upon a primary research underlying current models of nervous system assembly and connectivity, and how defects in these basic biological processes relate to spinal cord injury, neuromuscular disorders, learning and memory deficits, and even certain types of cancer. Additional emphasis will be placed on the burgeoning field of comparative functional genomics and its ability to create new tools for scientists to explore basic biology phenomena with extremely important health implications. Importantly, through their participation in the project, students will generate, annotate, and disseminate authentic scientific data that will directly benefit biomedical research and studies of nervous system development during embryogenesis.
