University of South Carolina
Leadership
Problems & Goals
Even though we are in the age of information, increased enrollment in schools, and access to the internet, the United States is lagging behind in scientific-literacy. During an international survey conducted in 2015, American students only ranked 24th out of the 71 countries being surveyed leaving the question: what are we doing wrong? There has also been a decreased interest in pursuing scientific careers in the younger generations that poses as a risk for the succeeding workforce in the United States. Not only that, but the staggering drop of confidence that the American public has in its physicians (going from 77% in 1964 to 24% in 2015) means that a disconnect has developed between patients and their physicians.
I propose that disciplinary education is the way to approach these issues; not every student learns the same way and not everyone can communicate the same way either. For example, observe all the different forms of social media available at our fingertips; almost everyone has a preferred platform that they use to connect with the outside world just as we should provide different platforms of scientific education to the public. STEM education is the way of the future; the more science advances the more we will need to have a public with better scientific-literacy to compete not just with job demands but also with other countries as well. This is especially so as the United States is a democratic government where the people play a large role in electing and voting on different policies. As advances in science are made, such as those in genetic engineering, it is important that the public has a grasp on what these concepts are in order to make their own informed decisions when voting.
Proposed Solution
My goal is to create a collaborative program with medical school students at the USC-COM Greenville Hospital System School of Medicine and partner with educational institutes (such as the Children’s Museum of the Upstate) to use art as a form of teaching children about the medical sciences. To create a long-lasting plan, all parties involved should be fully invested and to do so I have devised a plan where all parties involved benefit: This program would create good role models for children in the upstate and as the target age group would be 4-5th graders (9-10 year olds) the hands-on activities would help the information stick with them better and keep them interested longer. This program would also coincide with GHS Medical School lifestyle medicine track as it would help increase public health education in the upstate. I feel as if I am qualified to propose this plan as my own past experiences of creating an interdisciplinary project through the Artist in Residence Program have proven to be successful forms of communication. I would hope that creating this program could also encourage other interest groups to reach out the public in other ways.
Detailed Plan
During my time at Museums and Advocacy Day, I learned how important it is to incorporate a chimeric form of education in the U.S. Science and advocacy are important. That is why I believe the first step would be to recruit the medical students at GHS; as they learn material, finding ways to apply it can only help to enhance the retention of information. Art is also a good form of therapy and stress management and learning healthy coping mechanisms for stress early on in their careers will only benefit them as physicians in the future. Furthermore, medical students who learn how to translate the complex topics that they are learning into layman’s terms will only become more competent communicators with their patients in the future. The students at USC-COM would also serve as a perfect pilot group as the school recruits those who are interested in their lifestyle medicine track that specifically focuses on increasing public health education in the Upstate.
The next important step of this project would be a partnership within the local community as well as funding. As I learned from my Museums and Advocacy class, museums are always eager to become more involved in their communities, especially when educating the younger generation. That is why I would propose to work with the Children’s Museum of the Upstate as they not only have roots within the community, but they are already involved in planning programs for local children. One source of funding could be through the National Science Foundation (NSF) as they provide finances to scientific educational programs that are specifically geared towards increasing STEM literacy in the general public as well as preparing a new generation in the STEM workforce. Specifically, the AISL program through the NSF also funds informal STEM learning environments that coincides perfectly with the description of this program. STEMeX Open Research Grants would also be another potential source of money as they fund STEM role models (such as the medical students) to help garner interest in STEM in the public.
Finally, how would the medical students serve as educators? As it may become difficult to get medical students involved during the school year, I propose that this could be an optional, one-week event for them to participate in during the summer. This way, children would be out of school and more likely to attend and medical students would be able to devote time to the program outside of their studies. Each day would be organized around one topic and through funding we could provide the children with art supplies, food, and more hands-on activities to conceptualize the information. For each event held by this program I would want to accomplish three goals: presenting a medical topic, teaching that topic through hands on learning, and then getting the children to apply what they have learned through a hands-on activity. The medical students interested in certain topics (such as cancer, immunizations, etc.) could choose to present the topics on those days. Participating in the one-week program would be an optional activity for the medical students from any year to participate in. Throughout the year, a club would be formed to help prepare for the event and collaborating with the Children’s Museum of the Upstate.
Success
To evaluate the efficacy of the cross-disciplinary education, the children participating could take a short evaluation of the topics covered by the medical students before the program begins. At the end of the program, the children could take a similar evaluation to note of any progress that might have been made on the topics being taught to them. I believe that it would be important as well to not only evaluate how the children retain information but also how they perceive science and art (individually) before and after the program. The method of evaluating the children would be through a short true or false quiz on the scientific topics and a yes or no response required for the questions regarding how the feel towards art and science. I would consider this project a success if the children being taught showed any sort of improvement in the scores on the science section of their evaluation as well as a more positive affinity towards the sciences. If this method of education proves to be effective then the program could become a yearly summer project and it could also be copied elsewhere aside from the Upstate. My ultimate goal for this project would be that it could be implemented in areas of South Carolina such as the “Corridor of Shame” and other areas where scientific-literacy is low in the general population. Overall, I hope that this project would help provide a more solid foundation for the sciences in South Carolina, keep children interested in these topics throughout the school year, and provide them with positive role models in the field. The future is built on the children of today and I believe that by educating these children the scientific-literacy of the general population in South Carolina can rise.