With the support of an NIH Science Education Partnership Award (SEPA) and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the New Jersey Science Olympiad (SO) held its second Think Like an Epidemiologist Challenge on March 16, 2010.
The goal of the Epi Challenge is to get high school students to learn some basic epidemiologic concepts, actually do an epidemiologic study, and get excited about having done so.
Unlike the first Epi Challenge in 2009 which was a “pilot” event for which no points were awarded, the 2010 event was a “trial” event for which points were awarded at both the regional and state competitions.
High school students, in teams of four, selected a hypothesis, completed portions of the NIH online “Protecting Human Research Participants” training, and participated in the regional SO competition by electronically submitting a proposal for testing their hypothesis epidemiologically to a panel of three judges. (http://www.njscienceolympiad.org/content/events/c/websites/epidemiology/index.html)
If a proposal was accepted for the SO finals, students then tested their hypotheses among high school students from their school district.
On the day of the finals, students presented the results of their studies during a morning poster session to nine epidemiologists who had volunteered to be judges.
Twenty-five teams participated in the regional event and eighteen made it through to the finals. A few examples of hypotheses that were tested using cross-sectional study designs included:
· Students who get a good night’s sleep have high academic performances.
· Students who exercise regularly have higher academic performance.
· Students’ self-esteem correlates with academic performance.
· Students’ knowledge of the effects of the H1N1 virus affects their inclination to be vaccinated.
· Regular exercise increases self-esteem.
· Playing a sport makes you sleep better.
The winning team, West Windsor-Plainsboro HS South, tested the hypothesis that participation in sports improves sleep patterns of high school students.
The developers of the Epi Challenge, epidemiologists Wendy Huebner and Marian Passannante and health educator Mark Kaelin, thank the Epidemiology Section of APHA for allowing us to distribute their Section pins to the student participants in the 2010 Think Like an Epidemiologist Challenge.
The developers are exploring possibilities for holding the 2011 Epi Challenge in other states. If you have any questions about the event or might be interested in creating a similar event in your state, please contact Mark Kaelin at (973) 655-7123 or kaelinm@mail.montclair.edu.