Partners in Health: Teachers, Students, Public — Phase I

Abstract

The long-term goals are to use the faculty and the facilities of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) the state’s only health science educational institution which includes the Colleges of Medicine Pharmacy Nursing and Health Related Professions and the Graduate School to: a) assist the Arkansas Department of Higher Education attain its goal of retraining all of the state’s science teachers; b) provide modern health science education to all K-14 students private and public in the state; and c) provide science and health education for the general public. The specific ways in which these goals will be met involve: a) expansion of the current Partners Health Sciences (PIHS) summer program for K-14 teachers held on campus at UAMS. PIHS includes.tee development of new curricular materials for each topic covered and the gift of kits of appropriate supplies materials and some equipment to participating teachers; b) expand the PIHS program to include moving some of the more mobile mini-courses to local college campuses in a geographical locations in the state for better accessibility to the state’s science teachers; c) expansion of the current interaction between UAMS faculty and K-14 teachers and students over interactive television (ITV) to more frequent teleconferences thereby covering a wider range of topics; d) offer faculty-development training to selected K-14 teacher/alumni of PIHS in a workshop to become proficient in teaching using ITV technology; e) offer faculty development training to selected K-14 teacher/alumni of PIHS in a workshop to become proficient in authoring their own grade appropriate computer assisted instructional (CAI) modules; f) place the best CAI modules produced in activity “e” above on a server at UAMS and connect it to the expanding Arkansas Public School Computer Network thereby establishing the Virtual K-14 Educational Center at UAMS with 24 hour access by all schools all teachers and all students in the state and g) continue ‘and expand the existing community health education program for the public which uses ITV technology. In this public health education outreach program UAMS faculty present to and discuss with the lay public relevant health and health science issues at 14 distant sites throughout the state ie. the Area Health Education Centers and the Rural Hospitals which are connected electronically to UAMS and used for residency training of future Family & Community Medicine physicians.