Teaching Brain Cancer Research to HS Students: Is it Possible??

Over the last 4 months I have spent about 1 hour per week, working with a high school senior student from Atlanta Georgia. The objective of this mentorship has been to help her develop critical thinking skills in the biological sciences. By examining complex biological and chemical concepts and processes in a specific disease, she has been exposed to some of the core skills, need to understand research in the biological sciences.

The strategy was quite simple, requiring her to select a disease with which she was most interested and then, using a peer reviewed journal, systematically apply web-based bioinformatics tools to gain a hands on understanding of how to,

1. Identify and describe scientific hypothesis under investigation.

2. Identify and analyze genes and proteins in peer reviewed biological research and

3. Compile and present the information obtained by the above processes in the form a short paper and a presentation.

The paper we have been studying together appeared in the Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) in August 2008 and was authored by Alexander H. Stegh and co-workers (1). This paper explored the mechanisms by which the Bcl2L12 (short for B-cell Leukemia/Lymphoma 2- Like 12) gene regulates apoptotic and necrotic events in cell models (in vitro) and mouse models (in vivo) of an aggressive brain cancer called Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM). Although, much of the research conducted in this paper is well beyond the scope of the student (and myself for that matter!), there are a few simple identifiers that we can use to build student confidence in a complex scientific area.

By pointing this student in the direction of the information, through a guided reading approach, the student has built her scientific vocabulary, learnt a few simple ways to read complex scientific material, and applied web-based bioinformatics tools to increase her understanding of the particular research area.

I’m looking forward to her final report and presentation. Hopefully, she will gain a better sense of what’s possible in the world of biological research!

To be continued.....

Dr. Gregory I. Simpson

References

1. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2008 Aug 5;105(31):10703-8. Epub 2008 Jul 31.