[Plsgs] Teaching/Mentoring Opportunity

[Lambert, Georgina M - (glambert)]

On Behalf of Nadja Anderson:
Dear Plant Science/Plant Pathology Graduate Students,

Would you like to share your research with interested, engaged high school students?  Would you like to experience exemplary instruction in one of ten biotechnology classes in Tucson?  Would you like the opportunity to co-instruct lessons to a high level high school class?  This is an opportunity to reach out to the greater Tucson community through high school classrooms/students.  The classes are Advanced Biotechnology (students can receive college credit for this course as MCB 102), mostly a lab class with a requirement of conducting a research project.  In the spring, the students will present their research at the Southern Arizona Regional Science and Engineering Fair (SARSEF).  I am seeking graduate students who would like to share their expertise, and possibly some of their research.  The outreach effort can take one of many different forms ( though not limited to these):

1) You could present your research to one or more Advanced Biotechnology classes  (currently there are eight schools with the Advanced course, two school have two classes the rest only one).
2) You could develop a lesson/activity with the instructor to bring higher scientific learning to these students.
3) You could develop an activity on your own research to  allow the class the opportunity to experience a small part of your research.
4) You could have the students conduct a piece of your research project. This could be some aspect of your project you would like to have many repetitions for statistically significant data, or something that is repetitious, and 20-30 individuals could "help" move the work along.
5) One or two students could work with you on your research project and conduct some of the work at their school and if the equipment is not available at their school, they could come on to campus and work on some of it in your lab.
6) In the spring, students will be preparing to present their poster at SARSEF, you could help out by guiding them in their poster design and their presentation of the poster.

I would love to see one graduate student in each Advanced class.  On average, you will meet with the class once a week, though this is very flexible.

For the most part, the students are very excited about Biotechnology, and they will have had extensive technical training.  The techniques that most of them will have experienced are:
DNA electrophoresis, Bacterial transformation, General Microbiology techniques, PCR from a variety of organisms, using a variety of DNA extraction procedures, DNA Sequence Analysis, SDS-PAGE, Western Blot, Protein Assays and other UV/VIS Spectrophotometry, ELISA.  One, maybe two schools, are working on getting tissue culture in their classroom, one school has an area that is Biosafety level 2.

What you can gain from the experience is the opportunity to present your research to group of interested individuals who are not scientifically trained.  This will allow you to present with less jargon and incorporate more relevance and big picture why into your presentation.  I find that this is lacking from many scientific presentations, and a very useful skill.  Additionally, this could be an excellent addition to your service to the community section of your academic CV.

You will be able to work closely with one of the better teachers in Arizona.  If you wind up doing any teaching at the university level, the experience with these teachers should offer great insight into quality teaching.

If you have a project that allows some or all of the students to work on a part of the research, you may be able to get a labor force to work on your project.

And you may help recruit some of the next scientist into research science and to UA (or at least some higher education institution).  These types of experiences for high school students help open their eyes to the possibilities for them, the opportunities that are available.

If you are interested and would like more information, please contact me.  Phone: 520-626-4664<tel:520-626-4664>
email: nadja at bio5.org<javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','nadja at bio5.org');>

Thank you,
Nadja

Nadja Anderson, PhD
BIOTECH Project Director
Molecular and Cellular Biology and BIO5
1007 E Lowell St<x-apple-data-detectors://7>
University<x-apple-data-detectors://7> of Arizona
Tucson, AZ 85721

Phone: 520-626-4664<tel:520-626-4664>
Fax: 520-621-9903<tel:520-621-9903>
email: nadja at bio5.org<javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','nadja at bio5.org');>

webpage: biotech.bio5.org<http://biotech.bio5.org>



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