The purpose of the High School Student Research Apprentice Program is to stimulate among disadvantaged high school students an interest in pursuing careers in biomedical research and the health professions. We have been a part of this program since 1981. The students have been mainly recruited from Lawrence High School and they are assigned to Faculty in the School of Pharmacy involved in health-related research who are committed to developing in the high school students both understanding of the research in which they participate and the technical skills involved. The students work in the laboratory full time during the summer for an eight week period. I have worked closely with Linda Allen, a high school counselor at Lawrence High School, in recruiting students for the program. In Fiscal Year 1991, the program was broadened to include high school science teachers. We have has one high school science teacher in the program for the summers of 1991, 1992, and 1993, and this arrangement has established a linkage between the high school science teachers and the biomedical researchers at the University of Kansas. The goal is that the experience should provide teachers with a hands-on research experience, affording them an opportunity to bring back to the classroom a sense of the excitement of research that would stimulate students to pursue scientific careers. Ed Judd, a science teacher at Lawrence High School, has participated in the program the past three summers. The NCRR Initiative will be expanded to include an annual seminar forum at the end of the summer program where students and teachers present their research results. Students and teachers will also be invited back to the University to attend the annual Graduate Honors Seminar Program consisting of oral and poster presentations by graduate students in the School of Pharmacy.
Houston, Christine; Wenzel-Seifert, Katharina; Burckstummer, Tilmann et al. (2002) The human histamine H2-receptor couples more efficiently to Sf9 insect cell Gs-proteins than to insect cell Gq-proteins: limitations of Sf9 cells for the analysis of receptor/Gq-protein coupling. J Neurochem 80:678-96 |