W.C. Cupe Community Outreach Project

IBGP Students Take Love of Science to Middle Schools

Students at W.C. Cupe Middle School are among the first to benefit from a program to promote science in the underserved schools in Columbus, Ohio.

For the past two quarters, graduate students in Ohio State’s Integrated Biomedical Sciences Student Organization (IBSO) have been visiting classrooms in the eastside charter school with creative, hands-on lessons in science.

“We wanted to let students know that science is more than people in white coats who work in laboratories -- that it can be a very exciting and rewarding career,” reports Arthur Pope IBSO secretary and a creator of the project. “Our lessons emphasized that science is all around us in our everyday lives.”

With the help of faculty advisor Robert Stephens, PhD, the IBSO members designed the outreach project to highlight various key areas of the scientific field. One week the students learned about DNA and took their own DNA samples. Another week, they explored the nervous system using a real human brain for demonstration purposes.

Some of the other topics discussed throughout the year included microbiology, immunology, mystery contaminant and boating adventures. Next year, the group would like to get more biomedical science students involved in the project and to expand their outreach within the Columbus public school system.

“By sharing our knowledge we are not only helping to prepare budding scientists, but we are also gaining a better understanding of the material,” Pope said. “Overall, I think every student who has been involved with this program has really enjoyed it, and we hope that this will continue for many years.”

-Beth Bohlander