Creating critical thinkers
By David Harry
Staff Writer
One tick bite plus five questions equals $150,000.
That is roughly the equation leading to a new course of study created in town and advanced by a federal grant last week.
Dr. Walter Allan of the Foundation for Blood Research on Route 1 said the foundation has received a $150,000 grant as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act – commonly called the stimulus act.
Allan, the director of clinical services and neuroimmunology at the foundation, said the grant from the National Institutes of Health will help more teachers learn to instruct a course that teacher Judy Stanhope introduced to about 60 Scarborough High School students last month.
The curriculum allows students to determine the treatment for a patient suffering from medical conditions, including a tick bite, by accessing and using clinical studies.
Students view videos featuring resident and attendant physicians from Maine Medical Center discussing the case. Using “the five As,” students learn how to ask, acquire, appraise, apply and assess a condition while learning how clinical studies are created.
“I feel like a first year teacher again,” Stanhope said. “I told them ‘bear with me, I am new to this.’”
Stanhope, who has taught for 30 years, said she spends her summers “trying to re-educate myself.”
Last summer, she spent a week at Southern Maine Community College learning the curriculum developed by Allan, who worked with Jeri Erickson, the foundation director of outreach and education; local physicians and teachers from about six Maine high schools.
Last week, some sophomore students praised Stanhope and the new way of looking at science.
“This was very thorough,” Adam Cohen said. “I feel like I could go in and set up a clinical trial.”
Learning from clinical trials is the basis of building critical thinking skills, a difficult thing to teach, Stanhope said.
Student Jamie Rowe agreed.
“It was a fun activity,” she said. “Even if you don’t plan on going into med school, it gets you thinking about what you are doing.”
Kellen Smith said the curriculum makes science more relevant and interesting to him.
Evidence-based medicine first caught the notice of Allan when he practiced pediatric neurology and trained residents at Maine Medical Center.
Training residents to refer to clinical studies as they consider cases and treatment is a departure from what Allan called “using authority as a way of practicing.”
But less reliance on the experience of other doctors in favor of referring to research has its merits, he said.
“Even if you are very good, you can’t know everything,” Allan said.
In 2006, Allan said collaboration with local educational organizations and Colorado-based textbook publisher Biological Sciences Curriculum Study earned a five-year, $1.2 million grant from the National Center for Research Resources to introduce elements of the evidence-based training at hospitals to high school students. The National Center for Research Resources is a component of the National Institutes of Health.
The local organizations include Science Works for Maine and the Maine Mathematics and Science Alliance and Maine Medical Center.
The curriculum is gaining a toehold in schools and the U.S. Department of Education Upward Bound program, Allan said.
The stimulus grant will provide stipends and training for Upward Bound representatives to help expand the program nationally.
The training at SMCC in the summer drew 14 teachers from Maine, Maryland and Texas. The course also has been introduced to schools in the West Lebanon, N.H. area in collaboration with the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, and in summer at an Upward Bound program in Seattle for minority students, Allan said.
Allan said the course is best suited for upper-level grades in high school.
“You can’t get it all in the beginning,” he said.
Scarborough sophomore Alex Goodwin said learning the steps and elements that make clinical trials valid also reassured him about what is on the market.
“I feel better about buying medicine and taking it, I know there is backing to the claims,” he said.
Stanhope said the curriculum has taught her a lot as well.
“I never knew how a physician does this,” she said.
Staff writer David Harry can be reached at 282-4337, ext. 219
Staff Writer
One tick bite plus five questions equals $150,000.
That is roughly the equation leading to a new course of study created in town and advanced by a federal grant last week.
Dr. Walter Allan of the Foundation for Blood Research on Route 1 said the foundation has received a $150,000 grant as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act – commonly called the stimulus act.
Allan, the director of clinical services and neuroimmunology at the foundation, said the grant from the National Institutes of Health will help more teachers learn to instruct a course that teacher Judy Stanhope introduced to about 60 Scarborough High School students last month.
The curriculum allows students to determine the treatment for a patient suffering from medical conditions, including a tick bite, by accessing and using clinical studies.
Students view videos featuring resident and attendant physicians from Maine Medical Center discussing the case. Using “the five As,” students learn how to ask, acquire, appraise, apply and assess a condition while learning how clinical studies are created.
“I feel like a first year teacher again,” Stanhope said. “I told them ‘bear with me, I am new to this.’”
Stanhope, who has taught for 30 years, said she spends her summers “trying to re-educate myself.”
Last summer, she spent a week at Southern Maine Community College learning the curriculum developed by Allan, who worked with Jeri Erickson, the foundation director of outreach and education; local physicians and teachers from about six Maine high schools.
Last week, some sophomore students praised Stanhope and the new way of looking at science.
“This was very thorough,” Adam Cohen said. “I feel like I could go in and set up a clinical trial.”
Learning from clinical trials is the basis of building critical thinking skills, a difficult thing to teach, Stanhope said.
Student Jamie Rowe agreed.
“It was a fun activity,” she said. “Even if you don’t plan on going into med school, it gets you thinking about what you are doing.”
Kellen Smith said the curriculum makes science more relevant and interesting to him.
Evidence-based medicine first caught the notice of Allan when he practiced pediatric neurology and trained residents at Maine Medical Center.
Training residents to refer to clinical studies as they consider cases and treatment is a departure from what Allan called “using authority as a way of practicing.”
But less reliance on the experience of other doctors in favor of referring to research has its merits, he said.
“Even if you are very good, you can’t know everything,” Allan said.
In 2006, Allan said collaboration with local educational organizations and Colorado-based textbook publisher Biological Sciences Curriculum Study earned a five-year, $1.2 million grant from the National Center for Research Resources to introduce elements of the evidence-based training at hospitals to high school students. The National Center for Research Resources is a component of the National Institutes of Health.
The local organizations include Science Works for Maine and the Maine Mathematics and Science Alliance and Maine Medical Center.
The curriculum is gaining a toehold in schools and the U.S. Department of Education Upward Bound program, Allan said.
The stimulus grant will provide stipends and training for Upward Bound representatives to help expand the program nationally.
The training at SMCC in the summer drew 14 teachers from Maine, Maryland and Texas. The course also has been introduced to schools in the West Lebanon, N.H. area in collaboration with the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, and in summer at an Upward Bound program in Seattle for minority students, Allan said.
Allan said the course is best suited for upper-level grades in high school.
“You can’t get it all in the beginning,” he said.
Scarborough sophomore Alex Goodwin said learning the steps and elements that make clinical trials valid also reassured him about what is on the market.
“I feel better about buying medicine and taking it, I know there is backing to the claims,” he said.
Stanhope said the curriculum has taught her a lot as well.
“I never knew how a physician does this,” she said.
Staff writer David Harry can be reached at 282-4337, ext. 219
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