Middle/high school students in the research laboratory: A summer internship program emphasizing the interdisciplinary nature of biology

Abstract

We describe an eight-week summer Young Scientist in Training (YSIT) internship program involving middle and high school students. This program exposed students to current basic research in molecular genetics, while introducing or reinforcing principles of the scientific method and demonstrating the uses of mathematics and chemistry in biology. For the laboratory-based program, selected students from Baltimore City Schools working in groups of three were teamed with undergraduate research assistants at Morgan State University. Teams were assigned a project that was indirectly related to our laboratory research on the characterization of gene expression in Caenorhabditis elegans. At the end of the program, teams prepared posters detailing their accomplishments, and presented their findings to parents and faculty members during a mini-symposium. The posters were also submitted to the respective schools and the interns were offered a presentation of their research at local high school science fairs.

An Academic Ophthalmology Curriculum as a Model for Introducing Preprofessional Students to Careers in Ophthalmology

“…Students had increased their knowledge with the chemical elements, calculating formula weight, making simple solutions, and they were able to present their research data to their peers. 22 In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Lalish et al, developed a novel remote high school program for the 2020-2021 academic school year-the Explorers Virtual Internship, a virtual internship program for 10th to 12th graders in which interns are paired with scientist mentors. Their aims were to provide interns with a meaningful research experience under the mentorship of a scientist, interest them in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers, and give students a sense of belonging in the field of biomedicine.…”

“…This program exposed students to current basic research in molecular genetics, while introducing or reinforcing principles of the scientific method and demonstrating the uses of mathematics and chemistry in biology. 22 At the end of the program, teams prepared posters detailing their accomplishments, and presented their findings to parents and faculty members during a mini symposium. By the end of the eighth week, all interns had significantly increased their confidence in performing basic mathematical calculations.…”

“…Students had increased their knowledge with the chemical elements, calculating formula weight, making simple solutions, and they were able to present their research data to their peers. 22 …”

An idea to explore: Engaging high school students in structure‐function studies of bacterial sortase enzymes and inhibitors ‐ A comprehensive computational experimental pipeline

“…An example, of many, includes the 8-week Young Scientist in Training (YSIT) internship program at Morgan State University. 1 Most of these programs are based in the summer and require an application process; furthermore, they are laboratorybased and require students to be located near the university. However, structure-function studies on proteins and developed protein inhibitors can be largely conducted online and therefore, provide an experimental pipeline for high school students to engage in university-level research with any willing structural biologist at any time.…”

“…Despite this, there exist several opportunities for high school students to gain research experience, amongst these are the American Chemical Society Project SEED program and available supplemental funding for NSF‐grant recipients (NSF 22‐041) in the Mathematical and Physical Sciences directorate, as well as several programs at individual institutions and national labs. An example, of many, includes the 8‐week Young Scientist in Training (YSIT) internship program at Morgan State University 1 . Most of these programs are based in the summer and require an application process; furthermore, they are laboratory‐based and require students to be located near the university.…”