K - 12 Outreach

Together with campus-wide volunteers (ranging from faculty-to-student), CDIB faculty offer an outreach program to pupils in Birmingham schools and surrounding areas. We target K- 6 grade students, validating the importance of beginning Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) education during the earliest ages. Targeting our primary goal, promoting an interest in science, we provide a hands-on experience focused on cardiopulmonary physiology. After this brief interactive physiology lesson,  we rotate students through various stations in which they perform an experiment to measure their own lung volumes, examine both anatomical models as well as real organs, examine tissue under a microscope, and play with stethoscopes, pulse oxygen meters and wrist blood pressure cuffs, as well as perform ECGs. Targeting our secondary goal, promoting healthy living choices, we highlight the increasing incidence of childhood obesity and the dangers of smoking. We promote an open discussion on how the students can be proactive in making healthy food choices and educate them on the life-long dangers of smoking cigarettes.

UAB Center for Community Outreach and Development (CORD)

CDIB faculty member, Dr. Mike Wyss, directs UAB’s CORD program . CORD provides summer programs for K-12 students, as well as year-round academic enhancement activities for their teachers through the Alabama Math, Science, and Technology Initiative (AMSTI), Alabama Hands-on Activity Science Program (ALAHASP), and Bioteach programs. All STEM-related subjects are covered including Chemistry, Physics and Engineering, as well as Life Sciences. 

Service Learning

CDIB faculty participate in the Donaldson Lecture Series, an innovative collaboration between UAB and the Alabama Dept. of Corrections, to expose prisoners to novel and current topics and ideas. Lectures take place at the Donaldson Correctional Facility in Jefferson County.