A comprehensive eight-week summer program of research and career enhancement activities has been designed for eight minority high school students and for two preservice and inservice teachers. Student Program: Selection criteria will include academic background, interest in biological sciences, and extracurricular activities. Students will be assigned to a research laboratory and will learn a variety of experimental laboratory and data analysis techniques. Twice a week students will attend a one-hour Career Information Seminar given by faculty members who will provide information about their area of expertise. Each student will host the other participants for a visit to their laboratory and describe activities of that laboratory. Students will also attend Medicine Grand Rounds and have the opportunity to meet with the speaker after the presentation to ask questions. At the end of the program, each student will give a brief oral presentation to faculty, parents, family, and friends. Teacher program: Selection criteria will include appropriate science teaching experience, interest in enhancing science knowledge, desire to improve science teaching, and a commitment to continue interaction during the academic year. The preservice or inservice teachers will have four 2-week rotations in laboratories of faculty associated with the Oklahoma Center for Neurosciences, a research organization on the campus that has wide-ranging research interests addressing many basic and applied issues in the neurosciences. Teachers will participate in experimental work, but their primary task will be to enhance their understanding of neuroscience and to develop ideas that will improve their ability to present this material. In consultation with the faculty mentor they will develop lesson plans, outlines, demonstrations and discovery-orientated educational strategies. Teachers will also attend the Career Information Seminars to enhance their ability to provide effective and accurate counseling, and will attend a Grand Rounds presentation once a week to broaden their range of knowledge of health-related research. Teachers will be provided with a personal computer and the software and instruction necessary to learn how to develop computer-assisted instruction modules.
