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University of Southern Maine Programs Put a New Spin on High School and Undergraduate Toxicology Research Training
By John Pierce Wise
Ever find yourself frustrated with workplace politics? Worn out by ever decreasing grant funding rates and the woes of a worsening economy? Wondering why you decided to go into science in the first place? Well, one of the best and most refreshing ways to energize is at your fingertips—engage in learning with high school and undergraduate students and rediscover the joys of science and why you chose it as a career. Engaged student learning is a salve for the science soul and a great way to help with our country's and profession's future.
It's now well-accepted that the United States is facing a shortage of students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. The challenge before us as toxicologists and scientists is how to reverse this trend and engage more students in STEM majors and careers. You can help with this problem without too much difficulty. One excellent approach is to engage students early and often in the wonders of the STEM disciplines by involving them in active projects and through this engagement sharing with them the thrill of discovery and the pride in the accomplishment of a job well done.
There is no better way to refresh your own scientific soul than by sharing the excitement and joy exhibited by a high school or undergraduate student when they are given the chance to join in on actual projects and discover that they too can do it. They can become scientists! It's a more technical version of the old adage—Give a person a fish and you feed them for a day, but teach them to fish and you feed them for life-modified to say—Give a science presentation to a student and you make them a scientist for a day, but engage a student in research and you will make them a scientist for life. We, too, have experienced the frustrations of our times, but found a new spirit in our newer students.
The following stories are some examples of what we have done with undergraduate and high school students working for the first time in toxicology. Their joy at discovery has reenergized and reinforced our own passions for science and research, while also generating useful and important data. We think this approach can be used by many to both reenergize their research teams and conduct important research, and at the same time help engage more students in STEM disciplines. To learn more about opportunities such as these, go to the Education Outreach section of the SOT Web site.
University of Southern Maine Practices Engaged Learning
The University of Southern Maine (USM) is a regional comprehensive university dedicated to engaged student learning as one of its core values. As stated by USM's president, Dr. Selma Botman, "Engaged learning is critically connected to motivating students to take full advantage of the transformative potential of higher education. If a professor can introduce them to the joy of learning, and then help them make the connection between learning and a career, students are thereby empowered to follow their hearts toward a satisfying and productive future."
Perhaps nowhere is this effort more evident at USM than in the School of Applied Science, Engineering and Technology (ASET). For example, ASET houses the Maine Center for Toxicology and Environmental Health (MCTEH). MCTEH is the focus of USM's biomedical research and the hub of toxicology and environmental health research for the entire statewide University of Maine system. It is also a haven for engaged student learning.
Examples of this student engagement occur in the Wise Laboratory of Environmental and Genetic Toxicology. This lab is focused on understanding the genotoxic and carcinogenic mechanisms of environmental agents such as chromium, arsenic, depleted uranium, and nanoparticles. Members of the Wise Lab now span from high school students through emeritus professors. All are actively engaged in research, some of which was presented at this year's Society of Toxicology (SOT) Annual Meeting. As noted by Dr. John R. Wright, ASET Dean, "The Wise Laboratory at USM is a unique learning community focused on the excitement of science and the day-to-day mentorship of future scientific researchers."
High School Student Program
Our formal high school program started as a partnership between the Wise Laboratory and Windham High School in Windham, Maine. USM is in Portland, Maine, about a 20 minute drive from Windham. It emerged in a most unexpected way, through conversations at youth soccer games between me and Mrs. Marni Bickford, a Windham high science teacher and USM graduate.
As we watched our sons play, Mrs. Bickford and I started discussing how to engage her high school science students with my doctoral students. From these conversations, a pilot internship program was created where four students in the introductory high school biology class (sophomores and juniors) received school credit for working in the Wise Laboratory. These high school students were then trained by graduate students in the Wise Laboratory in laboratory safety and protocol, and how to analyze metaphase cells treated with chemicals for chromosome damage.
Each high school student worked 4 hours a week in the late afternoons and evenings at the microscopes in the Wise Laboratory. In addition, each student analyzed a portion of the experiment with the trained graduate student scoring the other half as a quality control. All participants were blinded to the identity of the slides and each experiment included a positive control. A project was chosen that was of significant scientific interest (measure the genotoxicity of chromium in endangered bowhead whale cells) and one that could evolve at a pace that would allow the students to have a full year to complete the analyses (including at least three replicate experiments).
During the summer, each student was provided with a small stipend and increased their time and effort to 20 hours a week in the Lab. They were trained how to do cell culture and perform the experimental aspects of the chromosome aberration test under the watchful eyes of their graduate student partners and their teacher Mrs. Bickford, who also spent the summer working in the Lab. These efforts led to a poster at this year's SOT Annual Meeting (the students themselves were unable to attend), and the data are now being written into a scientific publication by me with the help of those students.
The experience proved to be a huge success and we entered year two of the program. Three of the four students have continued on into the second year (the one who didn't has remained in biology, choosing instead to work in the high school greenhouse). This year these students will learn confocal microscopy and how to measure DNA double strand breaks in cells by counting phosphorylated H2A.X foci. In addition, we have enrolled another five students. Like the first cohort, they will spend their first year working on chromosome damage with two students continuing the whale project and three studying the genotoxicity of Moon and Mars dusts.
It should be noted that these are not our only high school students. We have others who have come in more through serendipity than planning. These students were curious about science and made initial contact with the Lab to fulfill other student obligations (such as a class report or a job shadowing experience). Of course they were nervous when they made initial contact, but we have found that a warm welcome and talking to them about each others' passion for science (like talking about how cool it is when an experiment works), breaks down the barriers and brings them back.
We often tell them that many experiments are like cooking—just follow the recipe! Helping them see that they can do it has brought many back to the Lab outside of their school commitments. Currently, there are three of these students, bringing our total to 11 high school students. We have been pleased that several of these students were so engaged by their experiences that not only did they stay in science, but they came to USM and joined our lab as undergraduates! Imagine undergraduates arriving as freshmen already experienced in cell culture and basic toxicology assays—very cool!
Our undergraduate program is thriving as well. We have 15 undergraduates now in the Lab at all levels. Three started with us as high school students. We are finding, as with the high school students, the engaged learning is causing them to decide to commit to pursuing STEM careers. Some pursue further graduate studies while others seek technical jobs. All are actively engaged in research, presenting their work at meetings and trying to publish their work.
NASA Program Helps Launch Science Team
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Our most remarkable undergraduate student experience occurred last year. We learned of the Reduced Gravity Flight Opportunities Program offered by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) from a collaborator at NASA. This program allows undergraduate students to fly experiments in microgravity on-board NASA's C9 aircraft (more commonly called the "vomit comet"). The program had to be and was student-led and designed. John Wise, Jr., my son, was in his first semester as a freshman at USM, but had worked in the Lab for three years as a high school student. He volunteered to lead and designed a project to test the effects of altered gravity on chromate-induced chromosome damage. His proposal was selected and he won a place for his team in the program. He led a 10-member team (6 undergraduates and 1 graduate student representing 5 different majors, plus 2 faculty mentors and a senior staff member) from both USM and the University of Maine who went to Houston to carry out the project. They were the first team from Maine to fly in zero gravity!
The students were impressed and inspired by NASA and spent 10 grueling days in the wilting Houston heat (it was July and they're from Maine!). The team returned home and spent months analyzing the hundreds of slides they created in the experiments. They also carried out an outreach campaign all year visiting K–12 schools and encouraging them to consider a future in toxicology and science. The data were surprising showing altered gravity did have an effect and were presented at this year's SOT Annual Meeting. Because of their excellent performance and work, John applied again this year and was again accepted. This year the team is expanded to 14 members (4 additional undergrads) and will seek to confirm the previous year's results. They will fly in June.
One of the remarkable things about engaged undergraduates is that they are infectious in their enthusiasm. Our students love to talk about their work and their experiences and draw in more students. Many members of the flight team are engaged in studies to understand the genotoxicity of Moon and Mars dusts. Upon meeting students from the Biology Club from the University of Bridgeport (UB) in Connecticut, our students engaged six UB students in the project, and they now are now part of the team. UB is developing its toxicology efforts under the guidance of SOT member and UB faculty member Dr. Spiros Katsifis. While he works to obtain equipment to establish a cell-culture based toxicology lab at UB, the undergraduates in the Wise Lab conduct the cell culture work and then split the slide analysis with the UB students. Soon the students will begin a regular journal club meeting between the schools via videoconferencing. Our students also engage an increasing number of USM students in discussion and participation in their work.
The interest and enthusiasm of our undergraduates in toxicology is growing such that they are now drafting a proposal to the student government of the University for a Toxicology and Environmental Health club with hopes of attending the SOT Annual Meeting each year. Our high school students are also discussing a similar club for their school as well. Their interest has also caused us to initiate serious discussions with USM's administration about the possibility of adding an undergraduate toxicology major to the curriculum, and we have been met with a warm response. For now, our students can take toxicology courses, but in the context of more traditional majors such as Biology and Chemistry.
Many of our undergraduates started in the Lab as a freshman. Our training approach has them progress from basic cell culture and toxicology experiments through to state-of-the-art molecular biology tools during their years with us. In addition, they progress from learning the importance of following protocols and basic experimental design to eventually designing and testing their own mechanistic hypotheses. Imagine the quality of employee or graduate student that emerges at graduation with 4 years of both hands-on experience and theoretical training. It becomes even more remarkable when you think that some will graduate with multiple years of high school experience too.
Our approach is styled, of course, to our work. But with some creative thinking, we believe a similar approach can be replicated, widely increasing the number of undergraduates and high school students in research and inspiring them to careers in STEM fields while simultaneously bringing a fresh perspective and infectious energy to the home laboratory. The most important steps are to inspire their confidence and to engage them as part of the team. Teach them that even mistakes and failed experiments happen and provide us with useful information.
One of the more remarkable and fun ways we found to engage the whole Lab in each other's work was to conduct a scientific relay race. In this game, the Lab was divided into teams (including the administrative and IT personnel) and listed in a sequence. The rules were simple. Each member of the team had to go to one of two whiteboards in the hall and teach the next member of the team in sequence about their project. Once they did that the baton (a decorated plastic pipette) was passed and then the next person was told about the next project. Thus, member one told member two about member one's project and then member two told member three about member two's project and so on. When they reached the end, they then reversed the order. Then when all had presented their project twice to two different people, they had to gather with the Principal Investigator and each person to talk about what they learned about someone else's project. What emerged were fantastic interactions as students would gather at the whiteboards to learn about all of the projects—even those for members of the other team. By the end, all members at all levels were engaging as a full team and even the frustrating experiments were fun.
The excitement and the engagement these students have brought to our work has been energizing and inspiring. Their constant curiosity makes even the most frustrating tasks rewarding. Plus, there is a real satisfaction in seeing one of your team graduate and move on to seek even greater aspirations and know that you played a meaningful role in their success.
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