More than 100 of Jamie Ritchey's biology and chemistry students at East Central, 12150 E. 11th St., are participating in the program sponsored by the National Institute of Health. Ritchey is one of 50 teachers chosen internationally to try out the curriculum.

"I was just proud to be selected," she said.

Students are in the middle of the first module -- steroid use among athletes -- and will examine three or four more topics before the end of the semester, she said.

The program has made science more relevant and intriguing to the students, Ritchey said.

"I've seen them go from lethargic to passionate, and that is what I appreciate," she said.

Each module begins with examining case studies as an introduction to the topic. Students study both sides of the issue and are assigned one position to research and debate.

"My kids love to argue, anyway," she said.

Several students have gone into the lessons with particular mind-sets and found that there are more aspects to the issues. They were surprised to learn that steroids are used to treat some diseases and began to see more gray area on the subject of performance enhancing drugs in athletics, Ritchey said.

"I've seen a lot of changed hearts."

Ritchey will fill out a survey evaluating the curriculum and will send some of the students' coursework back to the National Institute of Health. Their feedback will be used to improve the program, which could become a regular part of high school education, Ritchey said.

Students in the Advanced Placement biology class are taking the curriculum a step further and doing their own research on mice and fruit flies. Students will submit work to the National Institute of Health for possible inclusion.

Seniors Julia Barraza and Guadalupe Herrera are spearheading the mice research, which involves giving animals food additives commonly used in restaurants and recording how the mice react.

Barraza said she has enjoyed the bioethics curriculum because it allows the class to explore different sides of science.

"These are questions that we're going to have to deal with in the future," she said.

Herrera said the instruction was hands-on and less boring than traditional coursework.

"We get to see how it is applied in real life," she said.

Ritchey said this aspect of making science relevant to everyday life is key to the curriculum's success.

"That's what my young kids today are begging for," she said.