HSLS has a long history of working with the University of Pittsburgh’s Health Career Scholars Academy (UPHCSA). The program began as the Pennsylvania Governor’s School for Health Care in 1991 and became Scholars Academy in 2009. HSLS has participated in the program since its inception. The UPHCSA is a four week summer program that brings together high school students from throughout the United States and Canada who are interested in pursuing careers in the health sciences, particularly medicine. This year brought 198 students to Pitt’s campus.
Each student focuses on one area of health care: global health, geriatric medicine, behavioral health, or public health. In addition to daily lectures and other activities, students visit local health facilities and observe professionals at work. As a part of the program, students are required to complete a research project, which is presented at the end of the program in a poster format.
HSLS librarians were involved on June 25 and July 2. On June 25, the very first day of the UPHCSA, six 1.5 hour class sessions were held. Research & Instruction Librarians taught the students how to use several resources by using a combination of media. The session started with a PowerPoint presentation orienting the students to the library. The students then watched four short videos instructing them on how to: (1) develop a research question; (2) search the PubMed database; (3) search PITTCat, Pitt’s online catalog; and (4) search the National Library of Medicine’s MedlinePlus website. Students worked on practice exercises after viewing the PubMed, PITTCat, and MedlinePlus videos. At the end of the session, team Jeopardy was played to determine how much the students had retained from the class. Students particularly enjoyed playing Jeopardy.
On July 2, four 1.5 hour research sessions were provided to the students. For each session, a Research & Instruction Librarian was available to help students find resources on their topics.
The staff at HSLS always looks forward to our participation in the UPHCSA.
~Jill Foust