It’s Aliiiive!! The Medical STEM Program (MSP) Expands into five classrooms in LAUSD
Originally Published December 3, 2019
As part of the ongoing effort to educate children about topics of medical interest, including cancer education, we expanded the Medical STEM Program (MSP) into five second-grade classrooms across three different schools. Students’ ability to grow and expand their knowledge base is not too dissimilar to the cell cycle process, and the Medical STEM Program (MSP) that is part of the Cancer-STEM program — sponsored by the USC/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center– seeks to provide the specific “nutrients” and valuable resources (in this case, the curriculum, materials and learning environment) to enrich students’ understanding of the biological sciences, particularly in the context of human health. In the Fall of 2019, the Medical STEM Program (MSP) expanded to five classrooms across 3 LAUSD schools (Lenicia B. Weemes Elementary School, Vermont Avenue Elementary, and the Dr. Theodore Alexander Science Center School). The teachers participating this semester are: Stacey Finnin, Daniel Nakama, Elizabeth Ramirez, Sonia Robles, and Dr. Carmen Lopez. Six trained undergraduate teaching assistants served as the instructors for this semester’s program: Emma Case, Stephanie Davis, Angelina Crittenden, Eduardo Lopez, Jasmin Sanchez, and Yvonne Hernandez.
The curriculum this semester focused on oncology, nutrition, genetics, and biotechnology through the framework of cancer. Dr. Carmen Lopez from the Dr. Theodore T. Alexander Science Center School says “The Medical Stem Program offers a great interactive curriculum for my students. The content and vocabulary they are exposed to is made accessible through appropriate read-alouds and meaningful hands-on experiences. My students are always excited to interact with science through this program”. Sonia Robles at the Vermont Avenue Elementary School extended the cancer education curriculum beyond the instruction hours of our teaching assistants by making a poster with pictures for all the lessons with our staff, emphasizing key words from each of the lesson modules. Stacey Finnon at Weemes Elementary thanked MSP TA Angelina Crittenden for inspiring her students to dream big and incorporate scientific pursuits into their everyday lives.
The medical STEM program also brought in speakers to talk about being a STEM professional in the medical field. The guest speakers this semester were: Dr. Martin Kast, Anupam Singh, Dr. Joey Skeate and Stephanie Davis. Dr. Martin Kast spoke about his research in cervical cancer while having students feel for tumors in ice packs and had students create models of the human papillomavirus. Dr. Joey Skeate taught about virus identification. Anupam Singh spoke to the students about her work in leukemia and created a blood cell activity with her students at Vermont. Stephanie works at the Los Angeles Children’s Hospital researching heart regeneration in a zebrafish model. As a guest speaker with the Medical STEM Program she shared her experience working in cardiology, and guided students in a hands-on activity to model how the heart pumps blood through the atria and ventricles, and throughout the rest of the body.