A year into the COVID-19 pandemic, the world continues to struggle with the many ways our lives have changed and the uncertainty that remains about the future. Vaccines are being widely administered, but how and when life will return to “normal” remains unknown. During this time, caregivers continue to seek out information to address the questions, worries, and information needs their children have about this unique moment in their lives. Our NSF-funded RAPID research project has helped to uncover some of these questions, worries, and needs by talking to caregivers of listeners of the children
The goals of this proposal are: 1) to provide opportunities for underrepresented students to consider careers in basic or clinical research by exciting them through an educational Citizen Science research project; 2) to provide teachers with professional development in science content and teaching skills using research projects as the infrastructure; and 3) to improve the environments and behaviors in early childcare and education settings related to healthy lifestyles across the state through HSTA students Citizen Science projects. The project will complement or enhance the training of a workforce to meet the nation’s biomedical, behavioral and clinical research needs. It will encourage interactive partnerships between biomedical and clinical researchers,in-service teachers and early childcare and education facilities to prevent obesity.
Specific Aim I is the Biomedical Summer Institute for Teachers led by university faculty. This component is a one week university based component. The focus is to enhance teacher knowledge of biomedical characteristics and problems associated with childhood obesity, simple statistics, ethics and HIPAA compliance, and the principles of Citizen Science using Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR). The teachers, together with the university faculty and staff, will develop the curriculum and activities for Specific Aim II.
Specific Aim II is the Biomedical Summer Institute for Students, led by HSTA teachers guided by university faculty. This experience will expose 11th grade HSTA students to the biomedical characteristics and problems associated with obesity with a focus on early childhood. Students will be trained on Key 2 a Healthy Start, which aims to improve nutrition and physical activity best practices, policies and environments in West Virginia’s early child care and education programs. The students will develop a meaningful project related to childhood obesity and an aspect of its prevention so that the summer institute bridges seamlessly into Specific Aim III.
Specific Aim III is the Community Based After School Club Experiences. The students and teachers from the summer experience will lead additional interested 9th–12th grade students in their clubs to examine their communities and to engage community members in conducting public health intervention research in topics surrounding childhood obesity prevention through Citizen Science. Students and teachers will work collaboratively with the Key 2 a Healthy Start team on community projects that will be focused on providing on-going technical assistance that will ultimately move the early childcare settings towards achieving best practices related to nutrition and physical activity in young children.
With this Phase I funding, the project team will develop and test a prototype of the Toddler App and Cane which is intended to improve functional and adaptive school readiness skills for toddlers with visual impairments. The prototype will include a wearable hardware-based cane that wraps around a child's waist and provides tactile and audio cues to facilitate walking, a curriculum with game activities and walking routes, and an app that provides updates to special education practitioners and parents on their children's progress. In a pilot study with 10 toddlers with visual impairments, and their teachers and parents, the researchers will examine whether the prototype functions as planned, whether toddlers are engaged while using the prototype, and if teachers and parents believe the fully developed intervention will lead to increases in independence and school readiness.
Found in gravesites. Buried in the backyard. Lurking and scaring neighbors at Halloween. The stuff of legendary Hollywood horror films. But, in reality, bones are so much more. They are the living, growing framework of life. Bone Zone, a dynamic traveling exhibit to be developed by the Children's Museum of Indianapolis, will let visitors explore the mystery inside the body so long hidden by skin, fur or other outside covering. By capitalizing on the fact that visitors bring a portion of the exhibit into the gallery with them (their own bones), these visitors will learn that they too have bones and that their bones live and grow along with them. A great need for this type of exhibit exists because most people do not identify the skeleton as one of the body's major functioning systems. The cardiovascular and respiratory systems are most commonly cited. However, the skeletal system provides key functions. Visitors will learn the key functions this system fulfills as well as learn that bones are alive - most youth have the misconception that their bones are dead. The exhibit will showcase myriad human and animal bone scenarios in well-developed contexts that will help visitors understand the information presented. Interactive, hands-on activities will be highlighted in Bone Zone. Visitors will see the skeletons of other animals, and play a game where they learn the difference between bone and pseudo-bones, such as scales. In another area, visitors will observe bone cells in a microscope, see a large-scale depiction of a bone, and watch the bone cells at "work." The exciting and innovative 5,000-square-foot exhibit will be showcased at the museum beginning in 2001. The goals of the Bone Zone project are to (1) Develop an interactive, traveling exhibit about bones to promote an understanding of the skeletal system and bone-related diseases among children and the public; (2) Develop curriculum materials and workshops for teachers; and (3) Stimulate interest in health science careers.