Taking a Look at the Heath Sciences and Technology Academy (HSTA):Student-Research Partnership Increases Survey Size, Hands-on STEM Learning, and Research-Community Connections

Abstract

This paper explores the dynamics of a research partnership between a practicing clinician/research and 34 West Virginia high school students participating in a precollege STEM intervention program. The collaboration provided a more diverse study sample to the clinician for examining attitudes about knee osteoarthritis in adults over 40. It provided students the opportunity to collect data from adults in their community within a highly structured research project and explore a range of research questions using the resulting cross-state data set. Data collection far surpassed the researcher's expectations of 100 surveys; student researchers collected 1,129 unique surveys over nine months from difficult to reach Appalachian communities. This project illustrates the intervention program's ability to support partner research efforts while opening the STEM pipeline to under-served youth by introducing aspects of community-based participatory research (CBPR) pathways to them in their formative years. An Opportunity for Collaboration. Dr. Zbehlik was interested in finding ways to improve outcomes of OA care through increased activity and weight loss. Knee OA is a leading cause of mobility impairment in the United States, and its associated costs are staggering. In 2011, they reached $14.8 billion dollars, making OA the second-most expensive hospital-treated condition that year (Stranges et al., 2008). Our nation's aging population and rising obesity rates contribute to the increasing prevalence of knee OA, the disabling variant of arthritis examined in Dr. Zbehlik's research. Many adults with knee OA do not exercise, although data strongly supports exercise for pain relief in this population (Messier et al., 2013). Weight loss also decreases pain significantly and can prevent progression of disease (Felson et al., 1997). However, there is a perceived gap in understand

The Health Sciences and Technology Academy (HSTA): Providing 26 Years of Academic and Social Support to Appalachian Youth in West Virginia

“…HSTA's organizational structure is community leadership, local out of school time clubs led by local teachers, implementation of personally relevant research requirements led by CRAs (Rye and Chester, 1999), multiple summer camps, and a four-year requirement for completion. This infrastructure is effective in four ways: 1) increasing educational attainment of participants (McKendall et al, 2000); 2) increasing recruitment of underserved students into the STEM workforce (Griffith, 2019;McKendall et al, 2014); 3) increasing health literacy and healthy behaviors among participants and their families (Chester et al, 2018); and 4) increasing scientists' access to under-served populations through the ability of students to partner in substantial ways with active research scientists (Siciliano et al, 2018).…”

“…Although HSTA does not suffer anymore from this, dismantling this belief took a decade inside the WVU institution through successful partnerships with faculty. HSTA students have worked with researchers at the University of Pittsburgh (Bardwell et al, 2009;Branch and Chester, 2009;Branch et al, 2011;Branch et al, 2014) and Dartmouth (Siciliano et al, 2018).…”

“…They receive visits from HSTA alumni and other guests who teach content, conduct hands-on activities, provide encourage-ment, and model success. Most importantly, they engage in year-long community based participatory research projects designed to positively impact their communities (Bardwell et al, 2009;Siciliano et al, 2018;Tompkins et al, 2005;Zizzi et al, 2009).…”

Teachers' Perceptions of Using Health Disparities Content to Engage High School Students in Urban Communities

“…The literature has demonstrated that community-university partnerships, service-learning, and experiential activities are critical in successful programming. Other researchers have also effectively engaged with high school students directly to address health disparities (Siciliano et al, 2018;Sprague Martinez et al, 2016). While there are curricula available for high school teachers to use to integrate health disparities content in their teaching, these curricula have not been evaluated in the peer-reviewed literature (Teaching Tolerance, 2019; University of Maryland, 2018).…”

Building a Culture of Youth as Co-Researchers: A Framework for a STEM Pipeline Program

“…In addition to benefitting participating youth, HSTA's CBPR projects have also demonstrated improved research quality. In one project investigating knee osteoarthritis, high school students exceeded expectations of 100 surveys to collect over 1000 in hard to reach Appalachian communities (Siciliano et al, 2018). As a model, HSTA clearly documents the feasibility and potential impact of STEM pipeline programs that use CBPR to engage high school students to conduct research addressing issues in their local community.…”