Medical STEM Program – Fall 2022
The Medical STEM Program (MSP) had a wonderful Fall 2022 semester. This on-going program is a part of the Cancer STEM Education Partnership Program and is funded by the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center. This Fall fully transitioned back to in-person teaching! With this transition we were so thrilled to hear that more teachers wanted to be involved in the MSP. Our partner teachers for Fall 2022 were Ms. Robles and Mr. Nakama from Vermont Elementary; Ms. Finnin from Weemes Elementary; and Ms. Aldana and Ms. Staine from Alexander Science Center School. We are so grateful to have such amazing and supportive teachers involved with the program.
Mr. Nakama shared his experience with MSP with the following quote:
“MSP has been an incredible and eye opening experience for me as a teacher. I have learned that when there are no borders or filters students can let go and ask so many thought provoking questions which leads to increased student interest in science. I think that the program led by young enthusiastic science oriented students has inspired elementary students to try science in middle school and high school. I have had a parent text me and tell me that his kid was excited because it was science day. The opportunity to learn science content and do an activity with a young college student is an opportunity that all young students want and desire.”
Our team for the Fall ‘22-Spring ‘23 term consists of three Teaching Assistants: Krisilda Atieh, Eduardo Lopez, and Yvonne Hernandez. We would like to highlight that Krisilda took on three classes for this semester. She has done a phenomenal job at showing up with so much energy and enthusiasm. Our wonderful teaching assistant, Eduardo Lopez, reminded us of their gratitude to the Medical STEM Program with this quote:
Deciding to become a MSP TA in Fall of 2019 was a decision I am still grateful for making. MSP has provided me the opportunity to use my privilege to increase exposure in STEM education across South Central. I hope to use my experience with MSP to become an amazing medical health professional.
The fall semester consisted of three units, including Oncology, Nutrition and Genetics. We know that these topics affect the South Central Community because of systemic issues at play. In order to be more mindful of those systemic issues throughout our teaching, the MSP staff decided to add a reflective component to our program. Every week, we came together as a team to discuss topics that connect to our service-learning experiences with MSP. Some of the discussions we have had so far are about representation, food deserts and cancer disparities (that is, some communities being statistically at greater risk than others for certain types of cancers). Our team has been able to deeply reflect on how all of these issues affect the South Central Community and how we can be more mindful of how we inform our students about topics like cancer, nutrition, and so forth.
To make sure that our students are retaining the information we teach them, we give them Pre and Post tests to track their improvement. These tests range from fill-in-the-blank, to short answers, to circle-all-that-apply questions. When we wrapped up our Oncology unit, we were happy to see that scores increased dramatically. We went from our Pre Test averaging to 0.98 out of 5 to our Post Test averaging to 3.44 out of 5. That was a 2.46 point increase from all of our partnered classes!
This semester we were delighted to welcome returning and new guest speakers into our classrooms for our final week of instruction for the fall. Our speakers come from many different backgrounds and professions within the healthcare field. The speakers for this semester were Fatou Jaiteh, Dr. Marisa Perdomo, DJ Fernandez, and Dr. Josh Neman-Ebrahim. Fatou Jaiteh is an oncology nurse at USC’s Norris Cancer Center. Dr. Marisa Perdomo is a USC Physical Therapist who focuses on cancer patients. DJ Fernandez is a PhD student in the University of Southern California’s Department of Medical Biology, and Dr. Josh Neman-Ebrahim is Assistant Professor of Neurological Surgery, Physiology & Neuroscience at the Keck School of Medicine of University of Southern California. We were thrilled to invite each of our speakers to our classes where they shared their experiences with the students.