Students explore solutions to address vaccine hesitancy during SPARQ Competition
The SPARQ (Synthesizing Proposals for Ambitious Research Questions) competition is a program that charges students to think about potential solutions to challenging scientific research questions. Participating students must delve into primary literature to understand the scope of the question, then devise a hypothesis and means to address the question. Students were required to submit a brief written proposal and present their proposal at the Student Academic Conference. The ImmunoReach organization assessed the proposals and attended the Student Academic Conference to listen to student presentations.
We are excited congratulate the winning team composed of Guzoro Adumah.
ImmunoReach is an organization funded by a National Science Foundation grant that is headed by MSUM Biosciences faculty member Dr. Sumali Pandey. Dr. Pandey said that Guzoro’s proposal was clear and relatable, and demonstrated thoughtful, well-supported plans to address vaccine hesitancy.
The question these students and other teams addressed was: Vaccine hesitancy can be associated with a number of factors. Scientific evidence can influence people’s decision about whether or not to take a vaccine. However, availing or accessing the scientific evidence can present barriers. What are some of the barriers or challenges that exist in your community for accessing scientific evidence related to vaccines? Which of these barriers do you believe to be the most significant and how could this barrier be overcome?
We look forward to partnering with ImmunoReach next year for another SPARQ question. Questions will be announced in September during the fall semester.