Public Education and Outreach

The UAMS Partners in Health Sciences program is a statewide PreK-14 educational outreach program in the health sciences. It has been directed since its inception in 1991 by Dr. Bob Burns in the Department of Neurobiology and Developmental Sciences.

As of Feb. 2004 15,922 teachers, students, school nurses, museum and county extension service educators, other school personnel and parents have consumed 60,086 hrs of continuing education, in 99 different health science topics taught by 182 different UAMS faculty from all UAMS colleges.

The two major components of the program are professional development workshops for teachers with 96% of Arkansas counties represented and live interactive television (ITV) teaching sessions between UAMS faculty and grade 7-12 students with 67% of Arkansas counties represented.

Included in the ITV component have been students from MT, WV, FL, CA, LA, NY and Kaoshiung, Taiwan. The program was funded ($1.5 million) from 1997-2004 by a Science Education Partnership Award from the National Center for Research Resources of the National Institutes of Health. Other funding for the PIHS program has been received from The Kellogg Foundation, the Arkansas Department of Higher Education, the Arkansas Prostate Cancer Foundation, the Arkansas Cancer Coalition, the Arkansas Health Department, the UAMS Chancellor, the Dean of the College Medicine, and others.