At the Rotary Club of Ann Arbor North Lunch Meeting on December 08, 2022, Dr. Steven Modell talked about the "Flint and Detroit Middle Schools Diabetes and Substance Use Education Project".
Steven started out with his talk with some projects on the projects.
Background:
- Oct 2014 - May 2019, MSU and U of M, under an NIH Science Education Partnership Award (SEPA), engaged 1,271 6th through 8th grade students from Flint, MI in the “Health in Our Hands” genetics educational program, with piloting in Flint and Detroit.
- Enactment schools in Flint (54% African American; 39% European American; 5% multiracial; 4.5% Latino).
- Flint median income $17,086; Detroit median income $18,621.
- Curriculum designed along with education, health, and community-based partners.
- Driving questions:
- “What controls my health?” (diabetes curriculum for 6th graders;
- “How can looking for thrills make me miserable?” (addiction curriculum for 7th and 8th graders).
Next Steven talked about the study
Curriculum
- In Unit 1. What Controls My Health? Students meet Monique, a girl diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, by video. Students explore the biology of diabetes and investigate how lifestyle options for healthy foods and exercise can help prevent the condition.
- Unit 2. How Can Looking for Thrills Make Me Miserable? starts with a video of teens’ testimonials about addiction to vaping (e-cigarettes). Students investigate the brain’s reward system from an evolutionary perspective, and examine its role in addictive behavior.
The curriculum closely adhered to Next Generation Science Standards.
- Phenomena – why they occur - e.g.,
- A. diabetes – explaining how a young person, Monique, found out she had it;
- B. vaping in high school students – explaining how the brain’s reward system evolved and addictive substances and behaviors operate.
- Learning – 3-dimensional - disciplinary core ideas, cross-cutting concepts, scientific practices
- Performance expectations - e.g., Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence for how environmental and genetic factors influence the growth of organisms.
- Coherence - Fit of knowledge and skills together throughout the course.
In class activities they did the following:
- Simulated glucose tolerance testing (“Science Take-Out” hands-on learning kit) to figure out how glucose levels indicate the presence of Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes.
- A sand-rat simulation to model diabetes under different food conditions and genotypes.
- Monkeyflower experiments to observe the effect of saline environments on plant growth.
- A lab to examine how a new drug, “Floratryp,” can hijack the brain’s reward pathway and lead to addictive behavior in mice and humans.
Methods the study used:
- Project impact measured with student and teacher pre/post classroom surveys.
- Presentation event student and adult participant event questionnaires.
- Adult participant (family and community member) interviews.
- Quantitative methods (social sciences statistical package) were used to analyze pre and post classroom surveys.
- Mixed qualitative/quantitative methods were used to analyze event questionnaire and interview data.
Results: Pilot and Field Test
- Occurred in both Detroit and Flint schools.
- Showed that many students and their parents could relate to the diabetes examples used.
- Student teacher: “You can’t see your genes, but now the students are able to see how they form their lifestyles and compare to what they’re learning.”
- Led to simplifying language used in the questionnaires.
- Showed that more effort would be needed to get students to share what they learned with friends and family. As a result, project organizers made revisions to the curriculum, reinforced these in teacher professional learning, and asked partners for feedback on ways to improve connections with families.
- The spring 2018 substance use (SUD) curriculum pilot was instrumental in highlighting the need for further effort to make presentation event participants aware of future career choices. A parent suggestion that “[project] judges should talk about their own profession” was subsequently incorporated.
Results: Adult Findings
- Spring 2017 diabetes presentation event questionnaires displayed a gradation of adult attendee responses:
- 64% strongly and 27% somewhat agreeing with a statement on curricular awareness.
- 9/11 parents/family members and 5/9 community members (school employees, project volunteers, Food Corps) having talked with a student about diabetes.
- 10/11 parents/family members affirming having subsequently discussed food changes within their family.
- Spring 2018 substance use presentation event questionnaires, adult attendee responses:
- 6/11 adults attending the spring 2018 event affirmed discussing the addiction community action research project with a student.
- Majority of adult event participants and half the parents marked “Some” as to whether they discussed making healthy lifestyle decisions with a student.
Results: Means of Informing Adults
- Fall 2018 adult attendees on how they found out about the new science curriculum (9 respondents):
- 1 heard about the new curriculum from their student.
- 1 recalled receiving a notifying letter from the school.
- 7 indicated they heard about it via an e-mail from the curriculum organizers.
- Only 2/3 spring adult attendees, and 4/10 adult attendees had visited the program Facebook and Instagram web pages.
Models in learning:
- 2 major modes of learning – formal (in-classroom) and informal (outside the classroom). Formal learning can be didactic or lesson-based, and participatory. Community action projects took place in informal settings.
- Students demonstrated improvements in self-perceived learning as depicted in the Student Survey results. Factors: complexity of the phenomena discussed, student ability to identify with the models used.
- We learned this lesson in a previous high school genetics curriculum we developed and enacted. Students had trouble coping with the transition between DNA transcription to translation of the messenger RNA code into protein. This is why using Monique as an example for middle school students was so helpful, as were the community projects that represented concrete, active hands-on examples of what the students were learning.
- One parent remarked: “My son didn’t discuss the diabetes, but the food part with Monique. That kids can get diabetes. Monique is his age.” (Spring 2017 Event Participant 6 – Parent, female, Age 39”.
- In the student interviews and event questionnaires, one student found the sand-rat simulations to be a fresh experience, and learned from them. Another “did not like” the flexibility of the simulations.
- During the last year of enactment, students voiced appreciation of each others’ help in presenting models of the brain (in-class projects).
- Teachers (65% to 80%) in both the diabetes and addiction curricula marked “Very true” to the Teacher Survey statement “The community activities outside the classroom are of value to my students.” Students liked conducting the projects and viewing others’. Parents participated in the community action projects, though tallies showed more parents could have gotten involved.
Conclusion
- Multiple related approaches – didactic lessons, modeling, and community research projects – can successfully be used to teach genes and the environment within middle school science classes in underserved communities.
- Involvement of community members is helpful in the educational process; further efforts are needed to engage parents.
- Chronic disease and behavioral conditions can serve as useful biological phenomena anchoring middle school genetics education.
Lastly a note of club information, the Rotary Club of Ann Arbor North Holiday Party is December 22, 2022, Weber's at 3050 Jackson Ave, Ann Arbor, MI 48103. RSVP to Diane Sheffrey by December 16th with yourself and your guests. See flyer click following link: Holiday Event Flyer.
