Houston A+ Blog

STUDENTS AND TEACHERS BECOME LAB PARTNERS
FOR SIX-WEEK SUMMER SCIENCE INSTITUTE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Date: June 11, 2007
Contact: Melissa Milios,
713-658-1881 (office)
323-719-7225 (mobile)

Editors Note: To interview participants or to arrange visits to the lab, please e-mail Melissa Milios.

Nine teachers, twelve high school students and a Houston Community College student will spend the next six weeks as lab partners, conducting biomedical research in the Baylor College of Medicine's Discovery Lab as part of the Houston A+ Challenge/Baylor Summer Science Institute.

Founded in 2002, the Institute is aimed at sparking economically disadvantaged students' interest in science-related careers and developing classroom teachers' understanding of current biomedical research practices and advancements. Students and teachers are paired as teams for the six-week paid internship, which takes place in state-of-the-art research laboratories on the Houston campus of the Baylor College of Medicine.

To date, 26 student-teacher teams have participated in the program. This year's cohort -- which includes 10 student-teacher teams and three teams of students paired with Baylor graduate students -- is the largest group of participants so far. A complete list of this year's participants and the schools they represent is below.

Students and teachers in the Institute are not job shadowing, being lectured to, doing library research or running errands. They are fully engaged in hands-on research that contributes to the research agenda of the laboratory to which they are assigned. Laboratory research problems encountered are complex, open-ended and challenging. Knowledge and skills gained are carried back into the schools.

“The most powerful comment I hear from students is that now they know they can succeed in college,” says Dr. Scott Basinger, Associate Dean of the Baylor Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. “Many students may be the first generation in their families to even consider attending college, and once they complete the program, they are filled with such confidence about themselves and their abilities. It is truly inspiring.”

This year's participants begin the Institute on June 11, with a week of training in biomedical research methodology and laboratory procedures, including DNA extraction, sample preparation, lab safety and techniques for collecting precise samples.  Following this training they will be assigned to a research laboratory for the next five weeks, where they will function as part of the research team and learn the language, processes and culture of scientific research.

Funding for the Institute comes from Houston A+ Challenge, through a grant from the John P. McGovern Foundation, and from Baylor College, through a grant from the National Institutes of Health. The project started with three high schools in Houston ISD’s Northwest District, and now all participating schools are from Houston ISD’s East Region.

2007 Summer Science Teams

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