Senior Course: Biomedical Innovation
In this capstone course, students apply their knowledge and skills to answer questions or solve problems related to the biomedical sciences. Students design innovative solutions for the health challenges of the 21st century as they work through progressively challenging open-ended problems, addressing topics such as clinical medicine, physiology, biomedical engineering, and public health. They have the opportunity to work on an independent project and may work with a mentor or advisor from a university, hospital, physician’s office, or industry. Throughout the course, students are expected to present their work to an adult audience that may include representatives from the local business and healthcare community.
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Examples of Potential Problems
1. Design of an Effective Emergency Room: In this problem, students apply their knowledge of emergency medical careers, diagnostic testing and patient evaluation, human body systems, and medical interventions to analyze the workings of an emergency room and discuss inefficiencies that may hinder appropriate clinical care. Student teams will work collaboratively to design a more efficient emergency medicine delivery system. As students work through their designs, they will review research methods, practice effective presentation skills, and learn project management techniques.
2. Exploring Human Physiology: In this problem, students build upon what they know about the research process in order to design, conduct, and analyze an experimental study. Students will choose a question relating to one or more body systems that they are interested in studying and will work with a team to investigate and answer that question. As students work through the experimental process, they will review and expand what they know about experimental design, collection of data, statistical analysis of data, and the presentation of data.
3. Design of a Medical Innovation: In this problem, students review the diseases and disorders as well as the corresponding medical interventions they have investigated in the previous courses and propose a new or better medical device, pharmaceutical, surgical procedure, or genetic intervention. Students will work with a team to build a prototype, model, or schematic of the intervention as well as develop a marketing plan for the product. As students work through this problem, they will review the design process, complete a literature review, and further practice effective presentation skills.
4. Environmental Health: In this problem, students will explore how substances or chemicals in the environment impact human health. Students will investigate a disease cluster in a fictional family and assess the activities of the individuals for environmental risks. Students will test water samples for the presence of contaminants that could be detrimental to human health and use molecular biology techniques to identify specific microorganisms. Students will also design an experiment to test the effects of a particular chemical and doses of that chemical on plant growth. Students will then compile a comprehensive environmental health profile for their local area. They will use publicly available databases, as well as personal contacts and visits, to uncover possible sources of environmental contamination in the community and to assess risk and level of exposure to people, wildlife, and environmental resources. Students will use their compiled information to design an action plan to increase awareness, monitor resources or individuals in the community, improve conditions, and ensure a clean and safe environment.
5. Combating a Public Health Issue: In this problem, students draw on information they have learned in the previous courses about public health, epidemiology, and disease diagnosis to work through one of two epidemiology studies. In each study, students will analyze data to define the outbreak, generate a hypothesis by diagnosing the patients’ symptoms and identifying the disease pathogen, design and analyze an epidemiological study to test the hypothesis, and outline a plan for initiating control and prevention measures. Students will then identify a local, national, or global public health crisis and write a mini-grant proposal, based on the National Institutes of Health grant structure, outlining a plan with intervention strategies. As students work through this problem, they will review evidence analysis, the design process, methodology, and analyze study data to evaluate risk.
6. Molecular Biology in Action: In this problem, students will complete a multi-step, long-term molecular biology experiment. Students will design and work through a protocol to construct and clone recombinant DNA. They will perform DNA ligation and transformation, as well as restriction analysis of the completed plasmid. Alternatively, students will work through a more in-depth DNA cloning and sequencing project. This laboratory investigation provides students with the opportunity to isolate plant DNA, perform a ligation and transformation, purify a plasmid, submit DNA for sequencing, and present all work to GenBank, the NIH genetic sequence database, for publication. As students work through either of these problems, they will learn new laboratory skills, practice laboratory troubleshooting techniques, as well as review proper protocol for research notebook documentation.
7. Forensic Autopsy: In this problem, students will work as medical experts to work through mysterious deaths. First, as forensic pathologists, students will examine a fetal pig using the same protocol as a human autopsy, including examination of the tissues, organs, systems, and body fluids, and note any abnormalities. Second, students will draw on information they have learned in the previous courses about human body systems to design a fictional death. Students will showcase the clues left behind in the body and tell the story of how the person died through documents including an autopsy report, and medical history forms. Students will finally be tasked with solving another group’s mystery.
8. Independent Project: In this problem, students will work independently to determine an area of interest in the biomedical sciences and outline milestones in a long-term open-ended problem. Students will use skills learned in the previous courses as well as the previous problems to help them complete their project. Student work will include completing a literature review, writing and carrying out the methodology for their project, analyzing the results, making adjustments as needed, and finally presenting the results of their work to an adult audience. Students may work with mentors or advisors from a university, hospital, physician’s office, or industry partner to help guide them as they complete their work.
1. Design of an Effective Emergency Room: In this problem, students apply their knowledge of emergency medical careers, diagnostic testing and patient evaluation, human body systems, and medical interventions to analyze the workings of an emergency room and discuss inefficiencies that may hinder appropriate clinical care. Student teams will work collaboratively to design a more efficient emergency medicine delivery system. As students work through their designs, they will review research methods, practice effective presentation skills, and learn project management techniques.
2. Exploring Human Physiology: In this problem, students build upon what they know about the research process in order to design, conduct, and analyze an experimental study. Students will choose a question relating to one or more body systems that they are interested in studying and will work with a team to investigate and answer that question. As students work through the experimental process, they will review and expand what they know about experimental design, collection of data, statistical analysis of data, and the presentation of data.
3. Design of a Medical Innovation: In this problem, students review the diseases and disorders as well as the corresponding medical interventions they have investigated in the previous courses and propose a new or better medical device, pharmaceutical, surgical procedure, or genetic intervention. Students will work with a team to build a prototype, model, or schematic of the intervention as well as develop a marketing plan for the product. As students work through this problem, they will review the design process, complete a literature review, and further practice effective presentation skills.
4. Environmental Health: In this problem, students will explore how substances or chemicals in the environment impact human health. Students will investigate a disease cluster in a fictional family and assess the activities of the individuals for environmental risks. Students will test water samples for the presence of contaminants that could be detrimental to human health and use molecular biology techniques to identify specific microorganisms. Students will also design an experiment to test the effects of a particular chemical and doses of that chemical on plant growth. Students will then compile a comprehensive environmental health profile for their local area. They will use publicly available databases, as well as personal contacts and visits, to uncover possible sources of environmental contamination in the community and to assess risk and level of exposure to people, wildlife, and environmental resources. Students will use their compiled information to design an action plan to increase awareness, monitor resources or individuals in the community, improve conditions, and ensure a clean and safe environment.
5. Combating a Public Health Issue: In this problem, students draw on information they have learned in the previous courses about public health, epidemiology, and disease diagnosis to work through one of two epidemiology studies. In each study, students will analyze data to define the outbreak, generate a hypothesis by diagnosing the patients’ symptoms and identifying the disease pathogen, design and analyze an epidemiological study to test the hypothesis, and outline a plan for initiating control and prevention measures. Students will then identify a local, national, or global public health crisis and write a mini-grant proposal, based on the National Institutes of Health grant structure, outlining a plan with intervention strategies. As students work through this problem, they will review evidence analysis, the design process, methodology, and analyze study data to evaluate risk.
6. Molecular Biology in Action: In this problem, students will complete a multi-step, long-term molecular biology experiment. Students will design and work through a protocol to construct and clone recombinant DNA. They will perform DNA ligation and transformation, as well as restriction analysis of the completed plasmid. Alternatively, students will work through a more in-depth DNA cloning and sequencing project. This laboratory investigation provides students with the opportunity to isolate plant DNA, perform a ligation and transformation, purify a plasmid, submit DNA for sequencing, and present all work to GenBank, the NIH genetic sequence database, for publication. As students work through either of these problems, they will learn new laboratory skills, practice laboratory troubleshooting techniques, as well as review proper protocol for research notebook documentation.
7. Forensic Autopsy: In this problem, students will work as medical experts to work through mysterious deaths. First, as forensic pathologists, students will examine a fetal pig using the same protocol as a human autopsy, including examination of the tissues, organs, systems, and body fluids, and note any abnormalities. Second, students will draw on information they have learned in the previous courses about human body systems to design a fictional death. Students will showcase the clues left behind in the body and tell the story of how the person died through documents including an autopsy report, and medical history forms. Students will finally be tasked with solving another group’s mystery.
8. Independent Project: In this problem, students will work independently to determine an area of interest in the biomedical sciences and outline milestones in a long-term open-ended problem. Students will use skills learned in the previous courses as well as the previous problems to help them complete their project. Student work will include completing a literature review, writing and carrying out the methodology for their project, analyzing the results, making adjustments as needed, and finally presenting the results of their work to an adult audience. Students may work with mentors or advisors from a university, hospital, physician’s office, or industry partner to help guide them as they complete their work.