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HIGH SCHOOLERS AND TEMPLE UNIVERSITY UNDERGRADS GO UNDER THE MICROSCOPE IN LIFE SCIENCES SUMMER PROGRAM
For Tasniima Malik, who will graduate from Edison-Fareira High School next year, it is a chance to develop some self-esteem and independence. For Velonza Frederick, a recent graduate of Carver High School for Engineering and Science, it has clarified his college and career options.
Most important, for Malik, Frederick, and several of their fellow high school students, the Undergraduate Biological Sciences Education Program at Temple University is providing them with hands-on experience this summer in the burgeoning life sciences field.
Malik, for example, has been learning about DNA and in the process has grown to enjoy the self-sufficiency fostered by life at a university. "There's a lot of support around here," she says, "and a lot of good people."
As for Frederick, his work in molecular biology, chemistry, and biochemistry convinced him to study chemistry, rather than mathematics, when he reaches college. He hopes someday to conduct research in forensics.
"It's given me a career path and some experience," says Frederick, who will attend Dartmouth College in the fall. "And it's been fun. I've enjoyed what I've been learning, so it's made it much better."
The program began in 1994, when the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) awarded a four-year grant to Nina Hillman, a professor of biology at Temple. HHMI renewed the grant last year for an additional four years.
Twenty-four students and four teachers from Carver and Edison are on the University's Main Campus this summer. Students who have completed 10th grade take an advanced chemistry course, while those who have completed 11th grade enroll in a course in biochemistry/molecular biology. The six-week courses are codesigned and co-taught by Temple faculty and high school teachers, and the students are also tutored in language arts, mathematics, and computer science.
"Overall, the outreach component is designed to enmesh the students in laboratory research, provide vigorous tutoring in basic subjects, introduce them to a college environment with concomitant responsibilities, and enhance their self-esteem by enabling them to develop both as individuals and as part of a community of scholars," says Hillman.
The involvement of high school teachers helps ensure continuing student interest and reinforcement during the school year and enables the teachers to bring new technologies into their high school classes and labs.
"The spark of interest that's ignited in students is what's most encouraging," says Lydia Brooks, a Carver science teacher. "They get to learn new techniques we can't do at our schools, and it's exciting to see students use those facilities and engage in those opportunities."
"The great part is watching your students grow and realizing they are capable of not only going to college but succeeding in college, and of doing what they set out to do," adds Edison science teacher Theresa Poole. "The maturity they display and their interactions with their fellow students are also beneficial."
"As an educator, I get the satisfaction of knowing we're doing something to aid these students in math and science," says Hillman. "It's also the first exposure they have to a college setting and to making decisions for themselves. In that aspect, it's completely different from high school."
The University's outreach to high school students, and a handful of their teachers, is just one portion of the program. Besides introducing qualified precollege students to basic research in the life sciences, the program allows Temple undergraduates to work on research teams alongside graduate students and postdoctoral fellows under the guidance of faculty mentors.
University students who have completed their freshman and sophomore years, as well as select incoming Temple freshmen from Carver and Edison, undertake intensive research in the laboratories of biology and chemistry faculty members for 10 weeks during the summer. Juniors and seniors do advanced research in these same labs during the academic year, and in the summer between their junior and senior years. The students present their data at departmental poster sessions, and in the past have presented their posters both locally and nationally.
Both high school and undergraduate students are competitively selected for the HHMI program based on grade point average, letters of recommendation, and a personal essay.
In addition, the HHMI grant is funding equipment upgrades in Temple laboratories where molecular biology, biochemistry, and analytical chemistry are taught. Undergraduates in the sciences use the new equipment, as do the high school participants in the Summer Outreach Program.
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