Night @ The Lab

Night @ The Lab is an exciting new project from the KU Medical Center Area Health Education Center  that will take place at 6 p.m. on April 11, 2013 at Garden City High School in Garden City, Kan. This project has been created to provide an opportunity for high school students to (a) explore the connections between health and science and (b) showcase their knowledge to the community.

This project is being piloted in the Garden City High School Health Sciences Academy. Garden City was selected for several reasons, the unique academy-style organization of the high school, a great relationship between the AHEC and Health Sciences Academy teacher Jane Schneider, and the diverse community.

The students are put into groups of three and each group is assigned a research topic. Each topic falls under the categories of cardiovascular or respiratory health. The students are being challenged to find evidence-based research on which to build their presentation. Each group is given a list of acceptable online resources to get started but students are encouraged to expand their search with the help of their classroom teacher.

The students will have five weeks to research their topic and put together a 3-5 minute oral presentation with a visual display which will be presented at the Night @ The Lab event on April 11. Through a partnership with the Garden City High School Health Sciences Academy, the students have class time to complete their research.

A panel of five volunteer community members will judge all the presentations on the night of the event. Each group will be judged on four different areas: overall presentation, professionalism, creativity, and group participation. The top three groups will be rewarded with an overnight trip to the KU Medical Center where they will get a behind-the-scenes tour of the facilities (including KU Hospital) and have the opportunity to give their presentation to medical experts.