Health&Biomedical Science for a Diverse Community

OVERVIEW

Health and Biomedical Science for a Diverse Community is a Science Education Partnership Award (SEPA) project funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Center for Research Resources (NCRR), and implemented by the Hall of Health Museum and Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute (CHORI).

Fun Curriculum

The primary project activity is the development of a novel, interactive biomedical science curriculum for 4th and 5th grade students in low socioeconomic environments. In addition to classroom activities, the project includes teacher workshops, family events, field trips to the Hall of Health, and a new exhibit at the Hall of Health on social and genetic factors in health.

The curriculum—which specifically addresses minority health issues such as asthma, obesity, diabetes, and heart disease—includes four five-lesson instructional units for 4th grade, and four five-lesson instructional units for 5th grade.

Teacher Workshops

The project involves clinical as well as basic science investigators, patients and families, and high school and college students. It draws on the talents of teachers and health educators from the Oakland Unified School District; directors of past and current SEPA projects at the Exploratorium in San Francisco, Lawrence Hall of Science in Berkeley, and The Tech Museum in San Jose; faculty at San Francisco State University and the University of California at Berkeley; and employees of LeapFrog, Inc., a company located in Emeryville, California, that makes interactive educational products.

The ultimate goals of the project are to make science interesting and relevant to children who come from ethnically diverse, low socio-economic environments, to help them and their parents understand the relationship between science and health, to foster their interest in science so that they may consider future opportunities in careers related to biomedical science, and to give them information and tools to help them live healthier lives.

The project is currently being piloted at two elementary schools in Oakland, California: Fruitvale Elementary School and Hoover Elementary School.

All project activities undergo front-end, formative, and summative evaluation.