Professional Development for PreK-12 Teachers in Health Science Content Using a “Train and Equip” Approach: 28 Years’ Experience

E Robert Burns

doi:10.15695/jstem/v3i3.01

Abstract

From 1991-2019 at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), 202 different faculty individuals, from each of the five UAMS colleges, volunteered to offer 120 different workshops in health science content to 22,731 PreK-12 teachers and some school nurses in the Partners in Health Science (PIHS) program. Participants consumed 83,488 hrs. of professional development. Workshops were held at UAMS or in 39 communities in the state. Workshops provided each participant with a “take home” Resource Kit (RK) containing topic-appropriate materials, supplies and/or items of equipment, used in the workshop, intended to foster replication of workshop experiences in the teacher’s home classroom. Short-term, i.e. same day evaluations indicated a high degree of satisfaction with the workshops. Long-term (6 months or longer after a workshop) evaluations covering a 10-year time span (1991-2001) discovered that a large number of the participants who attended more than one PIHS workshop performed new experiments/demonstrations for their students – a strong sustainability factor because it could last for a participant’s entire teaching career. Pre vs. posttest data recorded a gain in knowledge from 1737 participants in several workshops ranging from 14.8% correct to 29.8%. Extramural funding was consistent, but varied over the duration of the program.

Highlights

This STEM outreach program, the Partners in Health Sciences (PIHS) program, lasted from 1991-2019 at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), the only academic medical center in the state of Arkansas
During the early years of Phase II the Arkansas Cancer Coalition funded a workshop on “Healthy Skin” targeting grade K-12 teachers and CCECE funded pilot projects to see if health science professional development (PD), such as healthy hearts and lungs would be applicable PD for PreK teachers and their students
Workshops held at UAMS targeted grade 7-12 teachers targeted one health science topic and usually involved a laboratory session

Summary

Introduction

This STEM outreach program, the Partners in Health Sciences (PIHS) program, lasted from 1991-2019 at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), the only academic medical center in the state of Arkansas. During that time 202 different faculty individuals in the different UAMS colleges (Medicine, Pharmacy, Nursing, Public Health, Allied Health Professions) volunteered to teach 120 different 1-, 2-, or 3-day (6 hours/day) workshops/mini-courses to 22,731 PreK-12 teachers, and some school nurses, who earned 83,488 hours of professional development (PD) approved by the Arkansas Department of Education and/or the Arkansas Professional Development Registry. In mid-1990 the concept and goal for the PIHS program originated from the Dean of the College of Medicine “to get UAMS involved in increasing health science education statewide in the PreK-12 arena so that teachers will be better informed and motivated so more of their students would consider careers in the biomedical field”. At that point in time ERB was: 1) the course director of a major freshman level anatomy course (Microscopic Anatomy/Medical Embryology) and 2) a funded basic scientist working in experimental oncology, i.e. the use of biological time to improve cancer chemotherapy

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Results

Conclusion