Abstract
Base Pair is an ongoing (1992-present) collaboration between University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) faculty mentors and Mississippi high school students and teachers. UMMC faculty and Base Pair teachers designed a course which has allowed curriculum innovations by teachers. The student component engages 15 trainees annually in laboratory experiences under direct faculty mentorship while receiving high school graduation credit. Students have a 100% high school graduation rate (vs. ~88% nationally) and 99% college entrance. These students have co-authored/ presented over 450 times in UMMC, state or national venues. Of 220 graduates, roughly 63% are in/have completed post-baccalaureate training. Of these, at least 49 have gained a terminal degree in science or law, while another 35 students have attained a Master’s degree. Over 100 teachers have been mentored in grant-writing exercises and curriculum development, resulting in over 158 applications for external funding of inquiry-based classroom activities of which 78% were funded. Teachers have also implemented several innovative STEM curricula, reaching thousands more students. These include a student team-based competition that fuses citizen science and molecular biology to assess insect infection with Wolbachia bacteria. Base Pair bolsters student engagement, promotes STEM/health career advancement for students, and enhances teacher job satisfaction.
Highlights
The need to prepare students for and guide them into the national STEM career workforce remains critical (National Science Board, 2015)
A significant result of Base Pair interactions has been the creation of an informal community of health learners in which public and private high school teachers communicate and interact with one another, with University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) faculty, and increasingly with faculty from other Mississippi institutions of higher learning, notably the University of Mississippi and the University of Southern Mississippi
Competence can be defined as an individual feeling confident that she/he has the knowledge necessary to understand science concepts; performance as confidence in the ability to showcase science skills in public settings; and recognition as perception that others within the scientific community validate that competence and performance (McDonald et al, 2019)
Summary
The need to prepare students for and guide them into the national STEM career workforce remains critical (National Science Board, 2015). An institutional STEM pipeline program, Base Pair, was implemented to use individual mentorship at the high school level as the vehicle to advance entry of students into biomedical science/health care professions, enhance teacher professional development, and stimulate innovative curriculum development. Base Pair encompasses teacher professional development, with high school teachers engaging in mentored research and curriculum development activities during summer periods.
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