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Emory
faculty, including those from the RSPH, will provide that training in
collaboration with the students’ teachers. All want to transform
the students’ perception of science from a mysterious “black
box” into a powerful and accessible process that can address issues
affecting students and their communities. They also want to model to these
students about what it means to be a scientist and encourage them to consider
science as a career.
The program is part of a $900,000 grant
to Emory from the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation’s Pathways to
Success. Spread over 2 1/2 years, the grant will help raise student achievement
at the New Schools at Carver. The “old” George Washington
Carver High School was one of Atlanta’s lowest performing secondary
schools. The “New” Schools at Carver is designed to change
that with small, personalized environments; rigorous college-prep curricula;
and strong community partnerships that include Emory and other Atlanta-area
universities.
The Blank Foundation grant to Emory calls
for mentoring, tutoring, and postsecondary preparation for students and
professional developmental support for teachers in various disciplines
at Carver. It also includes the creation of specialized career readiness
opportunities in Health Sciences and Research (HSR), one of the five schools
at Carver.
Interdisciplinary by design, the Carver
initiative is led by Pat Marsteller, director of the Emory College Center
for Science Education and the Howard Hughes Undergraduate Science Initiative.
Serving with her are faculty and graduate students in the College, the
Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School
of Nursing, and the RSPH. Carey Drews-Botsch and Fleda Jackson of the
RSPH, Madge Donnellan of the School of Nursing, and Michelle Lampl of
the Department of Anthropology are collaborating with HSR faculty and
students at Carver.
“Whatever our research specialization,
we are joined by our commitment to engaging the broadest community possible
in how good science works,” says Marsteller.
Learning
about science
Although much of the research to be done by Carver students is yet to
be determined, the groundwork is now being laid. Twelve 9th and 10th graders
recently began orientation at Emory, with a longer summer enrichment program
scheduled for May. Many of their teachers are involved in Emory-led courses
in problem-based learning and are working with Emory faculty and graduate
students to develop science curricula and study materials for their students.
Lampl is designing a practicum experience for Emory graduate students
and a new course in science in action for undergraduates. Additionally,
Lampl, Drews-Botsch, Jackson, and Donnellan will work with Emory students
and HSR teachers to integrate individual and community health into the
science and math curriculum at Carver.
Their goal is to teach Carver students how
to apply thinking skills to science instead of learning seemingly unrelated
facts. This spring, approximately 200 HSR students participated in a health
risk appraisal, administered by Donnellan and using questions from the
CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey. Each student received a report
on his or her own risk profile and compared it to national data from the
CDC and to aggregated data for HSR students. The data, minus the students’
names, will be used to design the science curriculum around problem-based
learning.
“This kind of problem-based learning,
built on their own data, should make information very real to the students,”
says Donnellan. “For example, information gathered from the group
about eating behavior, exercise, and weight may give new significance
to the study of metabolism in biology class. If members of the class already
have risk factors for high blood pressure, knowing that will add new punch
to the study of factors influencing blood pressure.”
Sound
research, sound ethics
Carver students will use what they learn to help design community-based
research. This type of research is a negotiated process between investigator
and community in terms of what is studied and how it is examined, notes
Jackson, who studies how stresses related to race and gender affect health,
especially among African American girls and women. The Carver initiative
is “a wonderful opportunity for students to become involved in determining
the questions they want to ask—questions imbedded in their lives
and the lives of their families—and then learning the tools they
will need to ask those questions in a scientific way,” she says.
“These questions will allow us to acquaint students with issues
around health equity as well as health disparity, a concept that helps
us move from a deficit approach to a more activist approach.”
The health risk appraisal will serve as
a solid springboard for explaining how epidemiology is used to determine
health risk. Its 60-plus questions are often highly personal, not only
asking about the individual student’s diet and weight, but also
about drug use, weapon use, experience with violence, sexual behavior,
and mental health. Given its content, the health risk appraisal makes
an equally strong springboard for discussing the importance of research
ethics and the protection of human subjects. Public health and nursing
faculty and students will provide training in research ethics principles
and methodology. Carver teachers and students will undergo the same research
ethics and methodology certification process as Emory faculty and students.
After completing their training, Carver
students and teachers will partner with Emory faculty to design their
own research program to study health and health disparities in their communities.
As the program matures over the next four years, and as Carver adds 11th-
and 12th-graders, the program will integrate research into classes for
1,100 students.
With time, says Marsteller, the New Schools
at Carver will have more teachers with more experience in research and
strategies, such as inquiry- and problem-based learning, which have proven
to be effective in increasing student performance. Students should have
better skills in math and science, making them more eligible for HOPE
scholarships and college admission. With more students engaged, fewer
will drop out of high school. Some will follow their Emory faculty and
student mentors into science careers.
Drews-Botsch, director of the epidemiology
doctoral program at the RSPH, has an additional goal. The Young Epidemiology
Scholars Program offers college scholarships to U.S. students who conduct
epidemiology research. She will pair doctoral students with up to four
Carver students to develop projects with the goal of winning a scholarship.
In her view, the New Schools at Carver initiative
is a win-win for everyone. “Working with Carver,” she says,
“will give us all a different perspective on the power of science
to create change.”
Sylvia Wrobel
is former associate vice president for health sciences communications
at Emory.
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