The Great Diseases: Connecting Science Practice to STEM Career

Awareness

Stephanie Tammen & Berri Jacque

The STEM gap problem

9 out of 10 bioscience jobs are in health!

16%

21%

Bioscience/health

Scientific and health literacy needs are shifting

Scie

ntific

Ski

lls/

Lite

racy

Scientific & Health Literacy

Mid Skill Level Jobs

Workforce preparation

High Skill Level Jobs

Workforce Preparation

Bringing scientists and teachers together to solve this problem

Biomedical ScientistsNovel content knowledge, evidence-based reasoning, authentic scientific practice

“know-how”

Workforce Preparation Health LiteracyIncreased Student

Engagement &Performance

TeachersPedagogical content

knowledge, assessments, direct relationship with

students

Life-relevant curricula

CTSE projects

• The Great Diseases: Designing engaging, rigorous, real- world, health-focused life science curricula for 10th – 12th grade students

• Modeling for Fidelity: Providing extensive support for teachers

• BioScann: Bridging the STEM Gap

Infectious Disease:

Curriculum development and dissemination

July 2009 July 2012July 2010 July 2011 July 2013 July 2014 July 2015

Metabolic Disease:

Neurological Disorders:

Cancer:

Dissemination

Dissemination

Dissemination

Dissemination

45,601 people from 42 US states and 41 different countries have accessed the curriculum

Students: 90 100 175 480 600+

Students: 120 120+

Students: 60 150 220 315+

Students: 80 180 270+

CTSE projects

• The Great Diseases: Designing engaging, rigorous, real- world, health-focused life science curricula for 10th – 12th grade students

• Modeling for Fidelity: Providing extensive support for teachers

• BioScann: Bridging the STEM Gap

Bridging the bioscience STEM gap: challenges

• Providing cross-disciplinary analytical and problem-solving skills using 21st century bioscience content.

• Using teamwork and critical thinking in the context of bioscience learning.

• Supporting students in formulating questions, designing experiments, and interpreting data.

Problem Based Learning (PBL) providing cross-disciplinary analytical and problem

solving skills

Create teams and assignroles of actual bioscience careers.

Each team then participates in a drug design project that spans:

Pick a Disease

Select a Drug Compound for Cholera

Test Efficacy & Toxicity

Phase 1 Clinical Trial

Phase 2 & 3 Clinical Trials

Roles

Animal Biologist Regulatory Specialist

Research ScientistClinical Trial Nurse

Toxicologist Clinical Research Associate

Supporting students in designing experiments and interpreting

data: QMDCExperimental Design Communication

Question What question do you want to address?

What question does the experiment address?

Method What method(s) can you use? What method(s) are used?

Data Predict what your data will look like.

Describe the data.

Conclusion What conclusions can you draw from your predictions?

What conclusions can you draw from the data?

Using teamwork and critical thinking

Using teamwork and critical thinking

Student responses to the question: What did you like best about the

BioScann Activities?

“I liked that we acted as certain positions and careers; this was a good way to learn about different health science careers that I might want to pursue in the future. I also liked that we completely designed each experiment; I think it was as close to the real experience of working in a pharmaceutical company as it could have been.”

“I think it was a great way to learn about what goes on in a pharmaceutical company and having different pieces of information also gave us more opportunities to work together and communicate.”

“I thought QMDC was a good way to assess what was going on in each figure and what the data meant for the project. Often in science experiments things can get confusing so it was a good way to really break down information.”

These students did not change their thoughts about science or careers

Is taking science or health courses an important part of your education?

Would you like to eventually find work in a science or health-related job?

Is taking science or health courses an important part of your education?

Would you like to eventually find work in a science or health-related job?

Likert Scale (6 Points Total)

After

Be

fore

How can we make career awareness more accessible?

Bringing career awareness to classrooms

• BioScann– bioscann.org

Questions and thoughts?

http://sites.tufts.edu/greatdiseases/

bioscann.org

Acknowledgments