High School Students and Teachers Become Researchers
in
UA Summer Institute on Medical Ignorance
Programs
Contact:
Jean Spinelli or George Humphrey, (520)
626-7301
MEDICAL
WRITERS/ASSIGNMENT EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: Participants
in these programs and their mentors are available for interviews (several are
fluent in Spanish, including former participant Angela Noon, a graduate of
Nogales High School, who has returned as a mentor; to make arrangements, please
contact Jean Spinelli or George Humphrey, AHSC Public Affairs, (520)
626-7301.
“It is the mountain of the unknown that spurs scientific process...,” Nobel
Laureate Thomas Weller once observed. This summer, a select group of high
school students and science teachers will seek to ascend this “mountain” with
research activities that may lead to the medical breakthroughs of
tomorrow.
The 2005 Summer Institute on Medical
Ignorance (SIMI) Research Programs for High School Students and K-12 Science
Teachers at The University of
Arizona College of Medicine in Tucson includes 28 financially,
socially or educationally disadvantaged high school students and eight K-12
science teachers who are being paid to work full-time on current biomedical
research projects with distinguished UA College of Medicine researchers in their
laboratories and medical offices.
The SIMI Research Apprentice Program for
high school students is being held for seven weeks and the K-12 Science
Teacher SIMI Research Program for three weeks, through July
22.
“The programs also encourage the students, teachers, researchers, professors and
practitioners to maintain contact throughout the year,” says Marlys Witte, MD, UA professor of
surgery. Dr. Witte directs both programs, which are funded by the National
Institutes of Health (NIH) Science
Education Partnership Award.
In addition to research work, all participants attend seminars in an innovative
seminar series, directed by Dr. Witte. “This program encourages
participants to question established medical knowledge,” she notes. “They
learn that inquiry is what makes research creative and exciting, and that
finishing a course of study with more and better unanswered questions is healthy
and desirable.”
All participants also attend an “Introduction to Molecular Medicine” mini-course
that offers a clinical context to hands-on, state-of-the-art laboratory
sessions, including DNA preparation and polymerase chain reaction (PCR), a
technique used in molecular biology laboratories to amplify
DNA.
Internet tools for exploration and
collaboration
This summer, the SIMI program will introduce the students to new technologies
currently under development. The Medical Ignorance Exploratorium (MIEx) is
similar to a computer game but it provides access to specialized medical
information, including videos and multimedia applications for student research.
Part of the MIEx, the Collaboratory Space, enables small groups of students to
work together on a project via the Internet at any time and wherever they are
located. A webcam on each student's computer allows the team to see and
speak with each other while they discuss a project, edit documents together and
share Internet resources. It also enables students to present questions to
noted researchers around the country. The project is being developed by
the The University of Arizona Health Sciences Center's Division of Biomedical
Communications under the guidance of Peter
Crown, PhD, multimedia collaboratory producer in the UA College of
Medicine Department of Surgery.
High School Student SIMI Research
Apprentice Program
Each student in the Summer Institute on Medical Ignorance Research Apprentice
Program works with a researcher and often with medical students, as well.
“Our goal is to give these students a positive research experience that will
stimulate inquiry and collaboration and also encourage them to go on to college,
where some will continue their research and ultimately enter medical school and
other health fields,” Dr. Witte says.
More than 375 students have participated in the program since it first was
offered at the UA in 1987.
Phoenix-area students
participating in this year's program include:
From Casa
Grande:
T'Kane Reid (mentor: Linda Meade-Tollin,
PhD, research assistant professor, surgery)
From Laveen:
Aîmée
Uwimana (mentor:
Todd Vanderah,
MD, assistant professor,
pharmacology)
K-12 Science Teacher SIMI Research Program
The K-12 Science Teacher Summer Institute on Medical Ignorance Research Program
provides K-12 science teachers -- who are disadvantaged themselves or who teach
a significant number of financially, socially or educationally disadvantaged
students -- opportunities to update their knowledge and skills in modern
research techniques through hands-on experience with UA researchers and medical
students.
“The teachers return to their classrooms with slides, specimens and other
materials, and with a sense of the excitement of research, which helps stimulate
their students to pursue scientific careers,” Dr. Witte says. “During the
past 14 years, we also have assisted them in enlivening their own science
classes and units with questioning activities.”
The teachers' experience enables them to advise their students about a variety
of health careers. Their summer research colleagues also visit their
classes as guest speakers.
Since the program was introduced at the UA in 1991, 124 teachers have
participated in the program.
For more information about the UA Summer Institute on Medical Ignorance (SIMI)
Research Programs for High School Students and K-12 Science Teachers, visit the
website, http://www.medicine.arizona.edu/ignorance/simi.html.
Senior Public Affairs
Coordinator
sguthrie@email.arizona.edu