Crafts and Science

My worlds finally intersected.

At work, we have a grant to teach middle school teachers about biomedical science. We've found that teaching the teachers reaches far more students (and for longer) than if we taught the students themselves. When teachers feel empowered and inspired, we all win.

I was asked to teach the group with us for three weeks this summer about "Data Collection and Sampling". Statistics don't make me nervous. I love them. But teaching the subject to teachers definitely does. Teachers are exceptionally skilled at knowing the pauses. They know that waiting for the student to give the answer brings more returns than telling them the answer. And there were loads of techniques that I don't even know the faintest about. I was in charge of creating a lesson that they would want to learn. About statistics.

I collaborated with a colleague and we created a scenario about a disease combining genetics and environment in a community in Oregon. There was no math. No formulas or specific diseases or enzymes. After we explained the basics -- how qualitative research (surveying the community) got us to understand what may be going on and how it looked like a disease previously reported in Alaska. We explained to diagnose the test, we could do genetic tests for $1500 a piece or do preliminary studies using a blood marker for $100 each. They chose the latter as the starting point. We told them the following:

* Choose a partner and each take a stapled brown paper bag. It has a sticker saying: Clinical study XF8309RHS. CONFIDENTIAL. Blood samples enclosed.
*Inside are slips of paper representing the blood tests of two communities in Oregon.
*Although they had numbers on them, the slips of paper were color-coded: green (represents normal), yellow (on the fence) or red (very bad results)
*Each test costs $100. You have a maximum of 20 tests each.
* With your partner, each pull out a slip of paper and compare them. Keep doing this until you feel confident that the bags are either the same or they are different.

And go.

Using paper bags, some colored slips of paper and stickers, we got them to understand power analysis. It was unbelievable. By the end of our lesson, they verbalized back to us how variability in a population affects how many samples you'd want to test. They explained to us why they stopped testing or kept going. They didn't know the terms or the formulas, but they got it. They pointed out how the study was double-blind. They noticed the coded identifier for the data. And the list went on. Afterwards, we talked about what some of the terms were called that they described.

I was so proud. Several asked me for the lesson so they could take it back to their classes. My boss wants to write it up for dissemination so more teachers can access it via our website.

Paper bags and stickers. Kristen and Gary would be so proud.