Using place-based education to engage Bronx high schoolers and teachers in health disparity research

Project Summary/Abstract A critical mass of health researchers is needed to reduce health disparities affecting minority and underserved communities. Bronx residents’ experience health disparities with special attention on diabetes, mental health, STDs, asthma, sleep disorders, and injury. COVID-19 exacerbated Bronx’s health disparities. Lehman College has a long-standing mission to educate students from diverse backgrounds and is uniquely poised to address health disparities. This current project will enhance Lehman’s Science and Technology Entry Program – STEP and will target Bronx High School Marie Curie School for Medicine, Nursing, and Health Professions (Marie Curie). The overall goal of this community health training modules using a place-based approach (PBE) for Marie Curie’s high school teachers on health disparities research-related topics of importance to the Bronx. The focus is to design professional development modules on the principles of community health and health disparities research. One cohort of teachers will receive training on health disparities topics and theories and incorporate these topics into Unit Plans using place-based education approaches. These plans will be implemented through the Lehman STEP program for Cohort 1 of students in Year 2. In the summer Year 2 modules will be revised and adjusted based on teacher’s and student’s feedback and re-piloted in cohort 2 in Year 3.Phase 2 has two aims: Specific Aim 2: Create a high school-to-college pathway for Bronx high schoolers by providing in-classroom training and summer practicum research experiences with a near-peer college student to motivate studies in biomedical, behavioral and data science careers; and Specific Aim 3: Create community health forums with public health and health services practitioners and scientists to identify successful career pathways, challenges and career transition nodes of the ‘biomedical workforce in the Bronx and New York City. The focus of Phase 2 is to foster research methods with a health disparities perspective and an intersectionality approach to data among two cohorts of high schoolers. Students will collaborate with a near-peer Lehman college student as a tutor. Participants will receive in-class education in tailored quantitative reasoning and analyses and English composition college level courses combined with summer research practicum boosters. Student and teachers will also participate in health forums with public health and health services practitioners to learn about biomedical careers and pathways. This project is relevant to NIH’s mission to enhance health and reduce the burden of illness by providing scientific training and mentorship to high schools that have large populations of underrepresented minorities and underprivileged students.