Pitt Organizes Day of Scientific Discovery for a Novel Federal Outreach Partnership That Will Bring Research to Middle School Classrooms

PITTSBURGH—Middle school students most likely won't be called upon to contain a viral epidemic or figure out why a strain of bacteria causing ear infections across a school district isn't responding to antibiotics. But more than 120 students from 12 area middle schools will get an idea of how to solve these and other microbial mysteries April 21 at Dorseyville Middle School, 3732 Saxonburg Blvd. in Pittsburgh, during a University of Pittsburgh-organized event for a novel federal educational outreach partnership that will bring medical research and college-level biology into middle schools.

Pitt organized the daylong event with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to complement National DNA Day, which takes place four days later and is meant to educate students, teachers, and the public about genetics and genomics. But the activities also mark the first joint education outreach event between the Science Education Partnership Award (SEPA) and Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) federal grant programs, both under the NIH's National Center for Research Resources (NCRR), said Alison Slinskey Legg, educational outreach director for Pitt's Department of Biological Sciences in the School of Arts and Sciences. Legg orchestrated the event with Pitt biological sciences professor Lewis Jacobson.

The NCRR aims to combine the resources of SEPA—which specializes in K-12 education outreach—and CTSA—which promotes the transfer of medical research from the lab to the patient care setting—into a comprehensive outreach partnership. Pittsburgh is an ideal testing ground for the outreach cooperative because the city hosts institutions participating in both programs, Legg said. Pitt, Duquesne University, and the Pittsburgh Tissue Engineering Initiative, Inc. (PTEI), all support SEPA programs. Furthermore, Pitt's Clinical and Translational Science Institute is one of only 24 (of a planned 60) CTSA-funded programs in the country; Pitt was among the first 12 CTSA institutions, receiving an $83.5 million grant in 2006.

All of these Pittsburgh institutions will take part in the Dorseyville event.

"Our goal is to see how a research university such as Pitt can help educate children in science and biology," Legg said. "Through cooperation, the university-based outreach programs and the medical centers can link the latest scientific research with the lessons being taught in the classroom."

The activities begin at 8:45 a.m. The students will begin the research activities around 10 a.m., including the Outbreak! Program in Pitt's mobile lab, in which students are presented with the scenario of a potential viral outbreak. The students will attempt to determine the extent of the infection, the source, and the best method for containment. Researchers from Duquesne and PTEI will host two 90-minute sessions on tissue regeneration that include hands-on activities. Boston University also is contributing for the day its mobile City Lab, a 40-foot state-of-the-art traveling lab designed for students and teachers to participate in hands-on investigations.

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4/18/08/amm