Science in the Summer

It is no secret that American high school students are falling behind their peers from other nations in scientific achievement and mastery. One survey showed that they ranked 29th out of 56 countries.

The Yale School of Public Health has responded to this challenge with the creation of the Yale Center for Analytical Sciences Young Scholars Program. Every day for two weeks this summer, eight teenagers participated in an intensive introduction to biostatistics with Yale clinical faculty. After the morning’s lecture, they learned the statistical modeling program “R” in the computer lab. At lunch, they “toured” different aspects of public health with talented doctoral students and established Yale research scientists. Speakers included Albert I. Ko, M.D., chair of the Department of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases, who discussed the diseases of the urban poor in Brazil; Roy S. Herbst, M.D., Ph.D., chief oncologist at the Yale Cancer Center; and Beth A. Jones, Ph.D., YSPH research scientist and lecturer, who discussed social inequity in breast cancer screening.

“What I like about this program,” said Noelle Shipley, a science educator at Wilbur Cross High School in New Haven and part of the YCAS High School Science Advisory Committee, “is that it can open the students’ eyes to new areas and new opportunities they may have never imagined before.”

A panel of high school science teachers in conjunction with the educators and statistical scientists from the Center for Analytical Sciences designed the Young Scholars Program. Now in its third year, the program has doubled in size and expanded to include students statewide. This summer’s program ended July 20.