For more than 25 years, eighth-grade students from across Nebraska descended on Omaha in the summer months to participate in fun activities encouraging interest in science and health care.
As participants in UNMC’s Health Science Meet, these students demonstrated creativity in STEM subjects and curiosity in health sciences careers.
First organized by UNMC’s Rural Health Education Network in 1992, the Health Science Meet’s mission was to provide fun and educational experiences to inspire students to pursue a career in the health sciences and to study STEM subjects.
The Rural Health Education Network concentrated on Nebraska’s rural eighth-grade students because they soon would enter high school and make course decisions. The Health Science Meet could help students maximize their high school years by cultivating an interest in health sciences.
Students from more than 30 communities created scientific experiments and library research papers in health, biology, chemistry, physics, veterinary medicine, Earth and space sciences and electronics. Often students completed their entries on their own outside the classroom.
They competed at regional sites across Nebraska, including North Platte, Grand Island, Ainsworth, Scottsbluff, Norfolk, Beatrice, York and Lincoln. Local health and science partners collaborated with schools to establish events through the Nebraska Area Health Education Centers. The best projects qualified to come to UNMC in Omaha during the summer.
At the UNMC Omaha campus, between 60 and 80 students received free lodging, food and entertainment. They attended seminars and participated in hands-on activities to introduce them to education, medical research and patient care. The students sutured bananas, helped with liquid nitrogen experiments, learned about MRIs and hyperbaric oxygen chambers and made an ointment with UNMC College of Pharmacy faculty.
The Health Science Meet allowed the participants to interact with UNMC faculty and students, meet and build relationships with students their age from across the state. Students also visited the Henry Doorly Zoo and the University of Nebraska at Omaha planetarium, participated in a Quiz Bowl and enjoyed team-building activities.
Through the years, the Health Science Meet evolved, becoming the UNMC/AHEC State Science Meet. Organizers asked students to create abstracts and posters. The subjects expanded to include behavioral and social sciences, biochemistry, environmental science, botany, zoology, computers, math and engineering. The meet’s mission came to fruition as past eighth-grade participants became UNMC health profession student volunteers.
The science meet ended with the COVID-19 pandemic. However, regional Area Health Education Centers continue to provide young and aspiring health professionals with assistance in job shadowing, health privacy testing and certificates, and health career clubs. Additionally, the Careers in Health Care Book is shared with state high schools, and support is provided for UNMC’s Rural Health Opportunities Program, the Kearney Health Opportunities Program and the Urban Health Opportunities Program.
Thanks to Lydia Sand, program manager for Nebraska Area Health Education Centers, for her assistance in researching this article.