Brain Research Apprenticeships in New York at Columbia (BRAINYAC)
Columbia University
Summary
The objective of the BRAINYAC program is to prepare high school students for, and deliver, the experience of working in a neuroscience research laboratory over a summer. Our program goals are to prepare local students from Upper Manhattan and the South Bronx with the skills necessary to enter a working research laboratory over a period of 8 months, and support them in learning key laboratory skills and communicating them to an audience.Our hypothesis is that students' self-reports of scientific effectiveness and science identity will improve over the course of the 8-month long program. Self-reported efficacy measures predict academic performance in science, so an improvement in these self-report measures may indicate a higher likelihood to succeed in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) studies or careers. Likewise, science identity has a positive impact on a student's likelihood of entering a science career, particularly in populations that are under-represented in science.Over a 4-year period we will track students' self-reports of (1) scientific efficacy, including their level of confidence in scientific writing, oral presentation, library and literature search, conducting research and general academic skills, and (2) science identity. We will adopt a mixed-methods approach combining survey data with focus groups and interviews to present a full picture of these changes. We also propose to track students after they leave the program, to measure whether the changes in scientific self-efficacy translate into STEM studies at the level of higher education or career choices. We will also obtain data from scientific mentors in the program to inform us whether we are adequately supporting them in providing the students with training.
Description
This study will utilize a mixed methodological approach integrating quantitative and qualitative data elements. It will employ a one-group, pretest-posttest research design, in order to allow us to determine the effect of participation in the BRAINYAC program (i.e., the intervention) on participating students' STEM development (i.e., efficacy and identity). The study will also include retrospective individual and focus group interviews in order to obtain a fuller understanding of the concepts under study (e.g., scientific identity, readiness to pursue science, etc.) from the students' point of…
Eligibility
- Age range
- 15+ years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Yes
Inclusion Criteria: * All students and mentors in the program will be invited to enroll Exclusion Criteria: * None
Interventions
- BehavioralEducation program
Mentored high school summer research program
Location
- Zuckerman Institute, Columbia UniversityNew York, New York