High school students exposed to early mentorship opportunities and targeted development of critical thinking skills are better prepared for success in higher education. Rural high school students can face barriers that limit access to content experts and scholastic growth. Here we demonstrate the use of a virtual reality (VR) curriculum as a novel method of instruction, fostering mentorship and the development of critical thinking skills. Graduate mentors remotely connected with high school students to facilitate learning using a virtual, dissectible cadaver and volumized medical imaging (CT and MRI). The curriculum features weekly case-based learning exercises, providing students an opportunity to develop problem solving, critical thinking and oral presentation skills. We hypothesized that VR is an effective method of connecting high school students to graduate mentors and novel STEM learning opportunities, while the VR case-based curriculum enhances critical thinking skill and helps prepare students to succeed in higher education. Qualitative data assessed critical thinking, problem-solving skills, student motivation, mentorship engagement, and satisfaction utilizing the VR program as compared to 2D methods. Quantitative data assessed progression of student spatial abilities during the semester. Preliminary findings suggest an improvement in student interest and engagement while promoting intellectual engagement with graduate mentors. Research on the implementation of virtual reality in education is in its early stages, but there is a growing need to investigate the effectiveness of technology in overcoming barriers to learning among high school students. This course is an early exploration of how VR can enhance STEM teaching, improve student learning, and prepare students for success in higher education.

University-led K-12 outreach programs are designed to expose students to a variety of fields and career choices, but the benefits and outcomes of these have not been well documented. Existing programs often range from short presentations to more extensive residential summer programs. Nationally, there are only a few university-led high school human anatomy camps, with no current publications focusing on a formal evaluation of their goals. Described herein is a week-long human anatomy summer camp at Colorado State University (CSU) designed to inspire high school students to attend college and attract them to STEM majors and careers. The camp schedule includes lectures presented by CSU’s faculty, hands-on activities including learn from human cadavers and animal organs, as well as mentorship opportunities. Success of the program is measured by qualitative feedback and a follow-up survey to measure if the goals of the camp were well received. The data shows that all 28 of the senior high school students who attended camp have applied to college and are considering a STEM career after college. Camp counselors have reported continued mentor/mentee relationships with the students after camp. INTRODUCTION Many public and charter schools lack formal hands-on science laboratories which could be largely be attributed to the decrease in funding for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematic (STEM) programs (Gonzales, 2012; Executive Office of the President, 2010). Additionally, there is an increased curricular focus on standardized testing, which ultimately decreases students’ opportunities to explore all aspects of STEM, including exposure to college majors and career choices (Strauss, 2012; Hammack et al., 2015). In a recent study, high school and college students expressed that the most important factor influencing their career choice is the information provided by teachers, school counselors, and their parents (Hall et al., 2011). Information regarding STEM college majors and career choices is limited to the knowledge of faculty and staff, and by the funding and resources available to each school. In order to increase college enrollments in STEM majors, extracurricular outreach activities are needed to give students access to more information regarding their choices in college and beyond. Universities are in a unique position to facilitate this endeavor by widening students’ interest in STEM through valuable experiences on a college campus where resources and expertise are abundant. Following is a description of reported summer camps focusing on engaging and recruiting high school students into STEM. At the University of Rhode Island Kingston campus, Levine and colleagues created a weeklong chemistry camp for middle school students filled with hands-on experiments, field trips, and interaction with female scientists (2015). One key goal of camp was to encourage the girls’ interest in STEM disciplines and STEM careers. Survey results showed success in changing attitudes towards applicability of science and interest in pursuing a STEM-related career. Similarly, Adventures in Chemistry Camp is a week-long University-Led Summer Anatomy Camp Heise Vol. 3, Issue 1, December 2020 Journal of STEM Outreach 2 program during which students lived in college residence halls at the University of Nebraska Kearney and participated in daily hands-on chemistry experiments (Exstrom et al., 2000). The intent was to facilitate their first college experience. The small faculty-to-student ratio and the open-ended laboratory projects conducted in a research setting were important components of this camp compared to other chemistry camps currently offered. Results indicated that overall, the camp was well perceived by the students. In their exit survey, students indicated that they enjoyed staying in the dorms and conducting research with their advisor. To increase interest and knowledge about STEM, Hammack and colleagues (2015) measured the effects of a weeklong engineering summer camp on middle school students. School teachers and one engineering professor from a local university facilitated the camp at their school and measured how participating in a weeklong engineering summer camp affected middle school students’ attitudes towards engineering. Findings indicated that the students improved their understanding of technology and attitudes towards engineering. Likewise, Yilmaz and colleagues (2010) created a camp called YESTexas (Young Engineers of South Texas) with the goal to expose high school students to STEM concepts through a set of hands-on engineering projects. Results demonstrated that 24 out of 30 (80%) of the high school students had an increased interest in engineering disciplines after attending camp. Overall, the camp provided an opportunity to promote critical thinking, teamwork, writing, and leadership skills. “Girls on the Go: The Mobile Computing College Experience” is a summer camp designed for high school girls (Burge et al., 2013). This camp was created to encourage the students to attend college and to interest them in computer science as a possible career option. This camp was free of charge, held at Miami University in Florida, and focused on technical, informational, and social activities to give the students an idea of a balanced college experience. A comparison of preand post-surveys on 28 students suggested that the girls’ confidence in computer science and their understanding of careers in computer science increased. Furthermore, ten out of 25 students volunteered to continue working on the design for a computer application started during camp. In addition to laying a foundation of STEM knowledge and experience, residential camps create mentorship opportunities. University mentors provide more information about college majors, share their college experiences, and offer encouragement (Castleman, 2014). Mentors have an opportunity to shift student perception of social norms regarding choices regarding college majors and activities. It is not uncommon for first-year college students to struggle with a sense of belonging, which could be addressed by having mentors present on campus before or during their Freshman year (Walton and Cohen, 2011; Stephens et al., 2014). In 2014, Castleman created a peer-mentor intervention through which college students and advisors conducted outreach to support high school graduates in their college transition. Text and/or peer mentor interactions composed of in-person meetings and follow-up phone conversations took place in urban school districts in Boston, Lawrence, and Springfield (MA), Dallas (TX), and Philadelphia (PA). College enrollment varied across study sites ranging from 14 to 53% (Castleman, 2014). Castleman proposed that this method provided a “low-cost behavioral nudge” helping students reduce the complexity associated with navigating college and financial aid information. It also increased parents’ awareness of required pre-matriculation tasks. However, these interventions were only designed to help with applying to college and did not include continuous mentorship. To date, only a few university-led summer high school camps focusing on human anatomy have been documented, such as the Clinical Anatomy Summer Program at Stanford (Stanford Medicine, n.d.), the One-Week Summer Medicine Program at Boston Leadership Institute (Boston Leadership Institute, n.d.), and the Anatomy & Physiology Camp at the Appalachian State University Beaver College of Health Sciences (Appalachian State University, 2020). All of the aforementioned programs focus on using hands-on anatomy exercises to expose students to a variety of career options. However, there is a lack of a detailed evaluation of the goals and outcomes of these camps. The field would benefit from more research on how to successfully implement and assess the impact of these outreach endeavors. To simultaneously address the issues of exposing students to a variety of career options within STEM, especially the medical field, facilitate their first college experience, and create a long-term mentorship program, we developed a week-long human anatomy camp for high school students at Colorado State University. METHODS The main goals of the camp were to (1) expose high school students to various activities involving anatomy and introduce them to a variety of STEM major and career options, especially within the medical field, (2) facilitate their first college experience and (3) enable mentorships. Reported herein is the development, implementation, and evaluation of this summer anatomy camp, as well as implications for future outreach efforts (Figure 1). Camp Application and Student Cohort. Colorado State University’s annual Anatomy Camp was launched in summer of 2016 and takes place at the Fort Collins campus. High school students are accepted to camp based on several factors including year in school, interest in science, leadership potential, and written essay responses. Students need to have completed two years of high school to be eligible University-Led Summer Anatomy Camp Heise Vol. 3, Issue 1, December 2020 Journal of STEM Outreach 3 to apply. Applications are accepted until camp is full; once camp is full, applications are accepted for the waitlist. Tuition for anatomy camp is $1,850 per student and includes six nights of lodging in a residence hall, meals, a laboratory manual written by CSU’s Biomedical Sciences faculty, supplies, extracurricular camp activities, and a set of scrubs. Three scholarships are available to campers seeking financial support: The diversity scholarship aims to recognize and support students with diverse cultural, socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds. The overcoming adversity scholarship provides support for students that have demonstrated strength in the face of adversity. Finally, the leadership award recognizes incoming campers that display leadership qualities and is funded by donations fro

Using cadaveric instruction in a graduate-level anatomy course is an expensive and time-consuming undertaking. While this is a worthwhile endeavor, most first-year medical students and students in the health fields struggle with the independent, self-directed learning approach in the cadaveric laboratory, and going beyond rote memorization of the material. As such, effective assessment tools that maximize student learning in the cadaveric laboratory are critical, especially if no lecture component is present. Dissection quality often reflects student attention to detail and therefore may be tied to overall performance in the course. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between weekly table quizzes and the overall student outcomes in a graduate biomedical human dissection class as well as examining the benefits and implications of this approach. In this course, a uniquely structured weekly quiz assessed dissection quality and probed student understanding in human anatomy. Student data compiled from 5 years of dissection courses were analyzed to evaluate the relationship between performance in the weekly assessment and on the unit examinations. The results showed a statistically significant relationship between the weekly quizzes and the student examinations at the end of each dissection block in 2013, 2015, 2016, and 2017. The data suggest a potential correlation between performance on weekly quizzes and on unit examinations. The unique nature of the table quizzes provides the students with the opportunity to practice the retrieval of their knowledge, feel more guided throughout their dissection, and receive immediate feedback on their performance. This assessment tool also provides a way to predict student outcomes and an opportunity for early intervention to help at-risk students. The analysis of this research study contributes to the need for more data on the usage of assessment tools in a graduate human dissection class.

Both research and practical experience in education support the use of case studies in the classroom to engage students and develop critical thinking skills. In particular, working through case studies in scientific disciplines encourages students to incorporate knowledge from a variety of backgrounds and apply a breadth of information. While it is recognized that critical thinking is important for student success in professional school and future careers, a specific strategy to tackle a novel problem is lacking in student training. We have developed a four-step systematic approach to solving case studies that improves student confidence and provides them with a definitive road map that is useful when solving any novel problem, both in and out of the classroom. This approach encourages students to define unfamiliar terms, create a timeline, describe the systems involved, and identify any unique features. This method allows students to solve complex problems by organizing and applying information in a logical progression. We have incorporated case studies in anatomy and neuroanatomy courses and are confident that this systematic approach will translate well to courses in various scientific disciplines.

One of the most difficult tasks for students in functional neuroanatomy is visualizing the routes of neuronal signaling through circuits and complete systems in 3 dimensions (3D). During class, instructors present 2 dimensional line diagrams and cross‐sections to help students visualize this anatomy on their own. Students are tasked to interpret these two‐dimensional images into 3D in order to understand a complete and functional system. This type of visualization and interpretation is necessary when applying pathologies and anticipating a resulting patient presentation. By using virtual reality (VR), students have the ability to build, visualize, and interact with an entire neuronal system. Here we describe a custom neuroanatomy VR program used by undergraduate students at Colorado State University (CSU). Virtual reality is a computer‐generated, 3D, artificial environment that allows users to interact in a simulated experience. We implemented the virtual reality software in the neuroanatomy laboratory where students had the option of interacting with the program. Students were asked to complete a survey that indicated their opinions about virtual reality in an educational setting. In addition, we collected data through faculty observations on the student's ability to solve novel neuroanatomical problems involving lesions and patient presentations. Results from opportunity sampling method, in conjunction with student surveys and faculty observations, suggested that students appreciated the introduction of VR into their curriculum and reported that VR helped them visualize and interpret the structure and function of the nervous system. Students also reported that the VR program reinforced anatomical structures and neuronal connections that are not visible on a gross specimen with the naked eye. In addition, students' ability to recognize the outcomes of neuroanatomical lesions increased. The implementation of a VR program created an authentic environment that enhanced student engagement and application of functional neuroanatomy. We believe that thoughtful deployment of virtual reality programming can improve student satisfaction and learning outcomes in neuroanatomy.This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.

IntroductionUsing case-based learning (CBL) in classrooms is becoming increasing popular on college campuses across the country. Even professional schools such as Harvard Medical School are changing large portions of their curriculum to casebased learning in order to emphasize learning to learn, rather than rote memorizations (Shaw, 2015). Using case studies as a means to solve novel problems allows students to apply their knowledge of the subject in a way that forces thinking beyond what they are able to memorize from notes and textbook. In addition to giving students more experience with the subject matter, case studies bridge the gap between theory and practice and between the academy and the workplace (Barkley, Cross, and Major, 2005). One of the benefits of case based learning from a pedagogical perspective is that solving case studies pushes students into almost every level of Bloom's taxonomy. In addition, this method is learner-centered and involves intense interaction between the participants. CBL focuses on the building of knowledge and process of solving problems, and the group works together to examine the case. The instructor's role is that of a facilitator, and the students collaboratively address problems from a perspective that requires analysis (Queen's University, 2011). Teaching students an approach to solving novel problems will not only help them retain subject-matter information more effectively, but it will also give students an approach by which to solve novel problems in other academic venues as well as real-life scenarios. Novel problems are sometimes so complex that a student's usual approach of simply using recall is not effective.However, as educators we know that there are many learning tools that are implemented with varied success depending on the strength of the facilitator. Case-based learning is no different. In order for case studies to be effective in the classroom, the facilitator must carefully select and prepare cases that lead students to ask themselves more questions and to think critically in a sequence of 4 steps:1. Define the unknown2. What is the timeline?3. What systems are involved?4. What is unique?This 4-step approach was derived in an Anatomy classroom at the university level, but has been tested and proven successful with high school students, undergraduates, and graduate students.What makes a great case study?Effective case studies generally have the following elements:* Main character who has a problem that needs to be solved* A description of the problem in context* Supporting data that will lead students to the relevant questions they need to ask in order to solve the problem (this depends on the context you are giving the students but can range from character testimonials to scientific data)* Includes superfluous information that students learn to recognize as not having relevance or importance.Case studies should be simple enough so that students can successfully solve the problem in the allotted time period, yet complex enough to cover the intended learning objectives. According the Herreid, Schiller, Herreid, and Wright from the National Center for Case Study Teaching in Sciences, (2015), a good case study (a) tells a story, (b) focuses on an interest-arousing issue, (c) is set in the past 5 years, (d) creates empathy with the central characters, (e) includes quotations and dialogue, (f) is relevant to the reader, (g) must have pedagogical utility (i.e., it must serve a teaching function), (h) is conflict provoking, (i) is decision forcing, (j) has generality, and (k) is short. There are many resources available in print as well as online with pre-written case studies across multiple disciplines. However, if an appropriate case study does not already exist, following the above criteria will help you craft a case study to fit your specific discipline.How to Implement Case Studies in a ClassroomOne of the common downfalls of teaching case studies is the teacher's desire to point the students to the answer by asking a set of leading questions. …

Abstract Background: Cell lines and direct xenografts (XGs) provide important laboratory models for cancer research. The COG Cell Line & Xenograft Repository (www.COGcell.org) establishes, characterizes, banks, and distributes cell lines and XGs from a wide-range of pediatric cancers. We explored the use of post-mortem (PM) samples, in particular readily-obtainable blood samples with circulating tumor cells, to initiate cell lines in vitro and direct-to-mouse XGs. Methods: Tumor was minced and blood, bone marrow (BM), or pleural fluid mononuclear cells were separated by a ficoll gradient. Cells were cultured in IMDM + 20% FBS + 4mM L-Glutamine + ITS at 37°C in 20% O2 / 5% CO2. A subset of samples was also cultured in BM level hypoxia (5% O2) and/or tumor level hypoxia (2% O2). Another subset of samples was cultured in a serum-free formulation (Neurobasal-A) in addition to the standard IMDM formulation; 15 samples were also injected directly into NOD/SCID, nu/nu, or NSG mice. Neuroblastoma (NB) origin was confirmed by expression (RT-PCR) of tyrosine hydroxylase (TH), Ewings Family of Tumors (EFT) line origin by detection of the EWS-FLI1 translocation, and lymphoma by B-cell markers via flow cytometry. All lines were validated for identity by 16 loci short tandem repeat (STR) analysis (compared to original patient sample) and all tumor lines were tested for the lack of the Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) genome by PCR. Results: We received 33 PM samples (brain tumor = 1, EFT = 1, lymphoma = 3, NB = 26, RMS = 2) and established 24 continuous cell lines: 1 brain tumor, 1 EFT, 3 lymphoma, 17 NB, and 2 RMS; 4/9 from tumor, 15/18 from blood, 4/5 from BM, 1/1 from pleural fluid. Ten direct XGs were established (9 with matching cell lines): 3 lymphoma and 7 neuroblastoma; 8/9 from blood, 1/1 from BM, and 2/3 from tumor). The overall take rate for PM cell lines was 76%. Tumor was the least successful at 44% while PM blood samples were the most successful with an 89% take rate. Cell lines were also established for all 15 samples cultured in hypoxia and 5 of 6 in serum-free media. All cell lines and XGs were validated to original patient tissue or blood using STR analysis. All NB lines expressed TH and the EFT line has a EWS/FLI1 translocation. Blood or marrow mononuclear cells matching 9 cell lines and xenografts were transformed with EBV to generate lymphoblastoid cell lines as a source of germ line DNA. Conclusions: PM samples enable establishing cell lines and xenografts from heavily-treated patients with progressive disease. These PM cell lines and XGs should manifest therapeutic resistance and thus closely reflect the tumor biology of subjects enrolled in early-phase trials. Physicians, patients, and parents should be made aware of the value of obtaining PM samples for research. These cell lines and XGs from PM samples will provide a renewable resource for cancer genomic, biological, and preclinical therapeutic studies of therapy-refractory pediatric cancers. Citation Format: Tito Woodburn, Heather A. Hall, Kerri White, Ruben Calderon, Rachel Blaydes, Ahsan Farooqi, Michael Hogarty, Yael Mosse, John Maris, Anat Erdreich-Epstein, Bradley Miller, C. Patrick Reynolds. Establishing validated pediatric cancer cell lines and direct xenografts from post-mortem samples. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 104th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2013 Apr 6-10; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2013;73(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 2786. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2013-2786