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BIDMC Hosts Students from Boston Area Middle Schools as Part of the Explorations Program
80 students tour BIDMC labs for a first-hand look at the front lines of research.
Date: 12/2/2008
BIDMC Contact: Zineb Marchoudi
Phone: (617) 667-7305
Email: zmarchou@bidmc.harvard.edu
Boston – Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center recently hosted middle school students from Boston area public schools as part of Explorations, a one-day program that provides 6th, 7th and 8th graders with outside-the-classroom experience to enhance their science and mathematics curricula.
The program, organized by Harvard Medical School (HMS) and its affiliated teaching hospitals, allows student to shadow laboratory scientists who are part of HMS faculty. The program enlists approximately 300 students annually and this year BIDMC hosted a record number of 80 students who got a behind-the-scenes look at the clinical and research laboratories at the medical center.
“This is a wonderful program that really helps students get excited about science and gives them an opportunity to see what happens in a real lab,” said Jane Matlaw, Director of Community Relations at BIDMC who organizes the student visits at the medical center.
The students were given tours by BIDMC doctors and researchers who talked about their career path, how they ended up in their present position and what it’s like to work in a laboratory environment. The 80 students were broken up into smaller groups visiting 14 different BIDMC labs including the Carl J. Shapiro Simulation and Skills Center where and had an opportunity to try their hand at some of the computerized learning tools that teach medical students and residents in training.
Explorations is sponsored by the HMS Office for Diversity and Community Partnership, the Center of Excellence in minority Health and Health Disparities, the Minority Faculty Development Program/ K-12 Programs and the Biomedical Science Careers program.
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center is a patient care, teaching and research affiliate of Harvard Medical School, and consistently ranks among the top four in National Institutes of Health funding among independent hospitals nationwide. BIDMC is clinically affiliated with the Joslin Diabetes Center and is a research partner of Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center. BIDMC is the official hospital of the Boston Red Sox. For more information, visit www.bidmc.org .
