Stanford Summer Community College Pre-Medical Program

Self directed research class

About the Program

This program was piloted this year to increase the diversity of students entering a health profession by focusing on community college students in the San Francisco Bay Area. This project was designed to address challenges faced by many low-income, minority, and other students attending a community college such as being first in family or first-generation college student, and working while attending college.

The goal of Self directed Research class was to promote active learning process through research. This class also aimed to prepare students to manage rigorous project based coursework after they transition to 4-year college. In an effort to reduce health disparities, this class also intended to educate students to become better informed about their health.

For this course, we partnered with Stanford University’s Office of the Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning's iPads for Learning project. iPads enabled students to engage in medical literature based research on topics of their choice. This class gave them the opportunity to connect with physicians, scientists and health care professionals working in the field of their research topic area.  This dynamic approach to learning enhanced their interests in medical research. To improve their communications skills students gave oral presentations of their research topics.

We anticipate that the learning experience gained through this course would motivate students to consider careers in medical research, as they are severely under-represented in the biomedical workforce. The research topics –

 

1. Can a flu shot cause Narcolepsy?
2. How much water do you drink?
3. Guacamole - A Possible Cancer Cure
4. Can Social Networking Affect Your Mental Well-Being?         
5. Immunotherapy: A new hope for Melanoma
6. Physical Fitness and ADHD
7. Probiotics and weight loss   
8. HPV Vaccine: Long Lasting Protection

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