This story was written by Lia Salvatierra, our new Education Reporter. Find more of Lia’s reporting here. Do you have an NKY education story? Email lsalvatierra@linknky.com.
Beechwood senior Ruby Given was chatting with some of her male friends when she realized just how much they didn’t know about reproductive health.
“People don’t either have access to the knowledge that they need to know about their bodies, or they aren’t absorbing the knowledge that they have,” she said.
And when she started looking into the issue, she realized that there’s essentially no research on reproductive health education in Kentucky, especially compared with other states like California.
“That was daunting. Kentucky matters,” the 17-year-old aspiring gynecologist said.
In her final year at Beechwood High School, Given has the chance to dig into that research gap by interviewing fellow high schoolers using college-level research methods.
At the end of the yearlong course, Given and her classmates in Beechwood’s new Advanced Placement Research course will publish their findings in a student research journal. Earlier this month, the school released its inaugural edition, featuring work from last year’s seniors who, the first to participate in the new course.
When Beechwood decided to offer an opportunity for student research, the district wanted to level up from the baseline AP Research course taught at other high schools. Beechwood Superintendent Justin Kaiser said the district wanted to give students an experience up to par with what they would see in college.
“We wanted to give them an advantage,” Kaiser said.
The class also adds to Beechwood’s menu of capstone options for seniors including pursing internships, dual-credit courses or attending college classes. Capstones serve as the culmination of student’s “minors” or the area of interest they identify and pursue through elective courses throughout high school, Kaiser said.
To create the new capstone course, Assistant Superintendent Sarah Schobel assembled a team of Beechwood teachers who’d conducted their own research to design curriculum of college caliber. They planned a course where students work with an expert mentor in their field of research to help guide their work throughout the year, like Given who is receiving guidance from the gynecologist at St. Elizabeth Healthcare. The district also asked the Northern Kentucky University’s Institutional Review Board — which are independent ethics committees responsible for screening people-based research projects at universities — to review students’ research plans before they moved forward.
Given sent off her survey questions and materials to solicit participants to the Institutional Review Board last week. Now she’s awaiting feedback before she’ll begin collecting data from students at dozens of schools across Kentucky.
Given was most surprised to learn how much thought goes into the careful wording of survey questions to avoid bias.
Her classmate Winter Wyant, an aspiring orthodontist, agreed. Wyant is researching the impact that orthodontic braces, clear aligners or natural teeth, impacts high schoolers’ confidence, eager for the chance to blend career aspirations with an interest in psychology.
Last year, Beechwood’s seniors researched topics ranging from the correlation between area-median income and soil health, to a look at how news coverage impacts foreign aid, using the Sudanese Civil War as a case study. Beechwood’s AP Research Teacher Codi Malott said student’s ability to pull off such sophisticated work reflects the high expectations Beechwood instills in students throughout their academic career.
“By the time they get to their senior year, they are so well equipped by all teachers here at Beechwood to even be able to come up with these questions and have the professionalism to see them through,” Malott said.
“It really is a great way for them to end here at Beechwood,” she said.
