Teachers and Students for Community-Oriented Research and Education: Linking Industry Partners, Faculty, and Teachers (TSCORE LIFT) - 21st-century changes in healthcare have rapidly outpaced advancements in science education, leaving many high school students without access to high-quality, experiential science learning essential for preparing future health professionals. There is a critical need to strengthen connections between science education and real-world healthcare applications to avoid ongoing gaps in engaging science content and career preparation. For the past five years, we have addressed this issue through a Science Education Partnership Award (SEPA) from the NIH by focusing on teachers as key drivers of change. Our previous SEPA project (2015–2020), Teachers and Students for Community-Oriented Research and Education (TSCORE), supported teachers in Kansas in delivering innovative, health-focused science curricula and developing model instructional units. Through this work, we learned that CTE educators lack the professional development, instructional materials, and content depth required to implement high-quality, NGSS-aligned science instruction. In addition, schools often lack the necessary partnerships with universities or industry to provide students with experiential learning opportunities that connect classroom science to potential careers. These partnerships are critical for developing and delivering STEM education that prepares students for future workforce needs. With these findings in mind, we propose TSCORE LIFT (Linking Industry, Faculty, and Teachers), a continuum of educational strategies integrated within the Kansas Health and Bio Sciences Career Pathway. TSCORE LIFT will: 1) establish partnerships in five Kansas communities involving local health systems, university faculty, and public high school teachers. Each of the five Kansas school districts will include a public high school, a local health system partner, and a K-INBRE university partner. These local teams will work together to develop NGSS-aligned high school biology storylines, a Health Science Academy for career exploration, and a capstone course to provide work-based learning experiences that address local healthcare workforce needs. 2) We will equip teachers to work alongside health system and university partners to co-develop and implement a curricular continuum of NGSS-aligned, localized science education programming. This will be supported through summer professional development aligned with the rollout of the curriculum; an end-of-grant Teacher Summit; and a virtual network site to increase teacher connectivity, enable resource exchange, and support the emergence of a critical mass of practitioners focused on expanding rigorous health science education opportunities for students interested in health science careers.
