Program Mission
Our STEM Outreach team helps promote careers in the STEM field with the goal of inspiring young students to continue using an analytical mind in all of their endeavors. By working as a small team to develop our lesson plans, STEM Outreach team members have the opportunity to develop their teamwork and leadership skills, as well as learn how to effectively communicate scientific information in order to engage high school students.
What We Do
In STEM Outreach, a small group of BioScholars collaborate to develop a lesson plan for high school students on how to break down, read, and discuss primary scientific literature.
Our program takes place during Spring Quarter. Members of the team have weekly meetings throughout Winter Quarter to prepare lesson plans for the Preuss School UCSD. This program is led by a BioScholars Head Facilitator and their team. Each session consists of explaining how to read a research article to the students and will discuss a different biologically-relevant topic.
Here are some example scientific articles that Team STEM analyzed!
Past Topics
- Spring 2023: The Science of Dreams
- Spring 2022: Fad Diets and Their Effects on the Body & Gene Therapy
- Spring 2021: Effects of Drugs on the Brain & COVID-19 Vaccine Development
- Spring 2020: Vaping & Allergies and Immunity
- Spring 2019: The Effects of Blue Light and Sleep & Genetic Testing
- Spring 2018: Drug and Alcohol & Exercise and the Brain
- Spring 2017: Stress Response & CRISPR-Cas9
- Spring 2016: The Ethics of Clinical Trials & The Controversy of Vaccines
- Spring 2015: Gut Microbiome & Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS)