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© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.

Abstract

Simple Summary

Lyme disease is a common tickborne illness endemic to many countries, including the United States. Scientists have a role to play in disseminating public health knowledge to decrease the prevalence of tickborne disease, which can include encouraging preventive behaviors and recognizing the early signs of the disease. Middle-school students are at significant risk of developing Lyme disease and an ideal population to engage in community-based science, since these experiences provide valuable opportunities for career explorations and to extend the students’ understanding of science. Our work shows that the students can meaningfully contribute to research by generating samples that can be used to test whether the ticks contain pathogens.

Abstract

Studies of tickborne illness have benefited from interactions between scientists and community members. Most participants in community science projects are well-educated adults, but there are anticipated benefits from engaging younger students in research. We evaluated whether an outreach experience for rural middle-school students promoted student interest in science and resulted in the generation of samples that could be used for tick testing to assess disease risk. Middle-school students from 78 Wisconsin communities developed interdisciplinary hypotheses about the spread of Lyme disease, identified ticks, and extracted DNA from ticks to assess the prevalence of pathogens Borrelia burgdorferi, Anaplasma phagocytophillium, and Babesia microti. As a result of this intervention, students were able to successfully complete the research protocol and explain the rationale for completing the experiment. Of student participants, 84.7% reported no difficulty completing the protocol, 66% of the student samples gave reliable PCR results, and 76% of students reported interest in participating in similar experiments. Our study shows that tick outreach programs that incorporate community-based science promote knowledge about Lyme disease, facilitate engagement between students and scientists, and generate samples that can be successfully utilized for pathogen testing.

Details

Title
Middle-School Student Engagement in a Tick Testing Community Science Project
Author
Prunuske, Amy 1 ; Fisher, Cole 2 ; Molden, Jhomary 3   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Brar, Amarpreet 3 ; Ragland, Ryan 4 ; vanWestrienen, Jesse 4 

 Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Medical College of Wisconsin-Central Wisconsin, Wausau, WI 54401, USA 
 Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Minnesota Duluth, Duluth, MN 55812, USA; [email protected] 
 Department of Biology, University of Wisconsin Stevens Point, Stevens Point, WI 54481, USA; [email protected] (J.M.); [email protected] (A.B.) 
 Biomeme, Philadelphia, PA 19107, USA; [email protected] (R.R.); [email protected] (J.v.) 
First page
1136
Publication year
2021
Publication date
2021
Publisher
MDPI AG
e-ISSN
20754450
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2612800081
Copyright
© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.