Human Biology Club's
Outreach
The Outreach program is a student-run mentoring initiative presented by UCI's Human Biology Club. As mentors, our goal is to guide middle and high school students on their academic journeys and inspire them to pursue science! We have 2 programs that any UCI student can get involved in, regardless of year, major, or expertise. Learn more below!
Winter & Spring
Our goal is to expose students from underserved communities to STEM topics (especially biology) in an effort to spark young students' interests in science and health! We accomplish this by doing weekly Zoom presentations with middle schoolers, teaching them complex topics (such as the cardiovascular system, neurobiology, and addiction) in an easy-to-understand way, using analogies, visuals, and relatable examples. As mentors, you DO NOT need an extensive knowledge of these topics- we'll have weekly training meetings so that you feel more comfortable with the material! In addition to our lessons, we also prepare them for their future schooling by doing Q&As about high school, discussing personal experiences and giving advice on the academic transition.
Next Generation Scientists
Next Generation Scientists, or NGS, is a research-based extension of Outreach, running for 5 weeks during the summer. We work with high school students from schools across Southern California via Zoom, teaching different research topics and focusing on a new step of the scientific process each week. In addition to lectures, we simultaneously guide students through their own science project of their choice. The program culminates in an in-person symposium at UCI, where the students will present their posters and share their findings with their peers and community. Similar to Outreach, we will have Q&A sessions about college and our lab/research experiences as well as lab tours to show them what different lab environments look like, what equipment we use, what responsibilities we carry out, and what hypotheses we are exploring. NGS involves a lot more involvement as 1-2 UCI mentors are assigned to each group of 2-3 students, so it's a great way to gain leadership experience.
​
Mentor applications for NGS will be released during Spring Quarter, so stay tuned!
Evelyn Le
Outreach Lesson Plan Coordinator
_heic.png)
Joleen Wardeh
Outreach Logistics Coordinator