# HSTA Citizen Science: Adolescents engaged in citizen science with early childcare facilities to address childhood obesity

> **NIH NIH R25** · WEST VIRGINIA UNIVERSITY · 2021 · $1

## Abstract

Project Summary
The goals of this proposal are: 1) to provide opportunities for underrepresented students to consider careers in
basic or clinical research by exciting them through an educational Citizen Science research project; 2) to
provide teachers with professional development in science content and teaching skills using research projects
as the infrastructure; and 3) to improve the environments and behaviors in early childcare and education
settings related to healthy lifestyles across the state through HSTA students Citizen Science projects. The
project will complement or enhance the training of a workforce to meet the nation's biomedical, behavioral and
clinical research needs. It will encourage interactive partnerships between biomedical and clinical researchers,
in-service teachers and early childcare and education facilities to prevent obesity.
Specific Aim I is the Biomedical Summer Institute for Teachers led by university faculty. This component is
a one week university based component. The focus is to enhance teacher knowledge of biomedical
characteristics and problems associated with childhood obesity, simple statistics, ethics and HIPAA
compliance, and the principles of Citizen Science using Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR).
The teachers together with the university faculty and staff will develop the curriculum and activities for Specific
Aim II.
Specific Aim II is the Biomedical Summer Institute for Students, led by HSTA teachers guided by
university faculty. This experience will expose 11th grade HSTA students to the biomedical characteristics and
problems associated with obesity with a focus on early childhood. Students will be trained on Key 2 a Healthy
Start which aims to improve nutrition and physical activity best practices, policies and environments in West
Virginia’s early child care and education programs. The students will develop a meaningful project related to
childhood obesity and an aspect of its prevention so that the summer institute bridges seamlessly into Specific
Aim III.
Specific Aim III is the Community-Based After School Club Experiences. The students and teachers from
the summer experience will lead additional interested 9th -12th grade students in their clubs to examine their
communities and to engage community members in conducting public health intervention research in topics
surrounding childhood obesity prevention through Citizen Science. Students and teachers will work
collaboratively with the Key 2 a Healthy Start team on community projects that will be focused on providing on-
going technical assistance that will ultimately move the early childcare settings towards achieving best
practices related to nutrition and physical activity in young children.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10256824
- **Project number:** 5R25GM129230-05
- **Recipient organization:** WEST VIRGINIA UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Mary Catherine Morton
- **Activity code:** R25 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $1
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-09-06 → 2023-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10256824

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10256824, HSTA Citizen Science: Adolescents engaged in citizen science with early childcare facilities to address childhood obesity (5R25GM129230-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10256824. Licensed CC0.

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