The Young Scientist Program
2008-2009 Year in Review
Teaching Teams
- 53 outings for 08-09
- Demonstrations/visits with 25 different schools and 26 teacher classrooms
- Approximately 150 volunteers participated in teaching teams
- We logged approximately 1380 minutes/130 hours of classroom time this year
Fieldtrips
YSP hosted 12 fieldtrips to WUSM.
1. Women in Science Day (Nov. 5th) – Over 100 Students from Gateway, CVPA, Vashon, Roosevelt,
McKinley, Metro, Career Academy
2. Alton High School
3. Marion High School - Marion, IL
4. Mattoon High School – Mattoon, IL, Fall 08
5. Mattoon High School – Mattoon, IL, Spring 09
6. Parkway North High School, Fall 08
7. Parkway North High School, Spring 09
8. Gateway High school, Feb 09
9. Gateway High school, Mar 09
10. CorJesu HS
11. Homeschoolers group
12. YTEC program
Fieldtrips consisted of: GSC tours, Neuro imaging Lab Tours, Anatomy Lab Tours, Goldfarb Nursing
school, Histology core, Teaching Team demonstrations, & presentations on careers in science
Summer Focus
- As of 2008, we have had 192 summer focus students.
- We received 26 City applications and 29 County applications – Total 55
- We interviewed 27 students and selected 14 students.
- The 2009 Summer Focus students represent 11 different schools. Schools include: Parkway Central,
Parkway West, St. Charles, Visitation, Washington, Gateway, Metro, Career Academy, Roosevelt,
Carnahan, E. St. Louis.
- Three 08 students returning to work in labs this summer.
- One 07 SF student has been accepted to WU BiomedRap program
Summary of 08 students:
Not everyone has responded, so we will highlight those that we know about:
Innocent Akujuobi – Howard, Received the Capstone Scholarship
Victoria Brooks – MO State in Springfield
Stephanie Carson – UMSL
Allysha Gray – Vanderbilt, Received Chancellor’s Scholar – full tuition scholarship and up to $5,000 for
summer travel/research.
Thoa Khuu – Most likely SLU. Valedictorian of her class at Metro. Finalist for the Asian and Pacific
Islander American Scholarship Fund
Sunita Manu – Franklin College, Received full tuition scholarship.
Lesley Rankin – Webster U, Received $120,000 in scholarship money from schools she was accepted
to.
Michelle Spears – Howard, Received private scholarships equaling $13,500 from The MO Business
Foundation, Stacy Smith Foundation, & UNCF
Kelsey Stager – Meramec CC
Mollie Wasserman – Wash U, Received a Scholarship and was named an Eliot Scholar
TRP
Mission is to promote the teaching of science in new and effective ways by providing teachers in the
St. Louis public schools with the opportunity to work with fellow teachers and in collaboration with a
Washington University research partner to translate laboratory research into active learning for
students. For 2009, we have 6 teacher/research pairs.
Teachers represent: Metro, Vashon, CVPA, Soldan, and Roosevelt.
Nano Medical School
In collaboration with Cynthia Wichelman, MD, Director of the Mini-Medical School, the Nano-Medical
School invites the families and peers of Summer Scholars to attend and evening event to hear about
cutting edge research at Washington University. This event provided dinner and a speaker for those
attending.
April 13 – Dr. Michael DeBaun – Sickle Cell Disease
May 4 – Dr. Angela Brown – Hypertension
Both were well attended and the feedback was very positive. We have several topics suggested for
future events.
YSP Science Colloquium
YSP with the assistance of Dr. Granger organized regular University-wide discussions based
on issues related to classroom and informal teaching, school organization, student and parent concerns
and potential avenues for community influence in the future. This semester we held several sessions:
Mentoring in the Classroom
THE GREAT DEBATE: The Failure of School Reform–Whose fault is it, anyway??
Expanding the Science Teacher Pipeline – An Audio conference
The Promises and Challenges of Urban Education in America with Dr. Lynn Beckwith
Teachers’ Observations on What is Needed to be
Effective
Local and National Outreach
1. YSP Volunteer and Neuroscience team head, Gerry Kress attended the Society for Neuroscience
Meeting in Washington D.C. in November and presented a poster: “Neuroscience doctoral
candidates take brain awareness to native american, hispanic and other high school students”
2. YSP Volunteer and Chemistry team head, Abby Buchwalter, presented an YSP poster and lead a
presentation about the Young Scientist Program at the annual American Society for Cell Biology
(ASCB) meeting in San Francisco in December 2008.
3. YSP Volunteer and Anatomy team head, Matt MacEwan, presented an YSP poster and poster on
our Family Med Program collaboration with the St. Louis Science Center at the American Medical
Student Association conference in Washington, DC in March.
4. Dr. Woolsey and Neuro Team Volunteers, Gerry Kress and Ariel Lyons Warren attended the 09
Spring Brain Conference in Palm Springs, CA and then provided neuro team demonstrations at Palm
Springs High School (3 classes) and Dessert Hot Springs High School (1 class), March 15-19.
5. Family Med Program with the St. Louis Science Center - Due to the popularity of the Fall 07
Family Med Program, YSP once again teamed up with the St. Louis Science Center to offer 4
hands-on medical training sessions for children, 5th grade and older and their families during Fall
08. Participants of the Family Med Program learned about human anatomy & physiology as well as
disease through demonstrations provided by the YSP Anatomy team.
6. How the Body Works – YSP, SLU, SLSC partnership on April 21.