Head Start for Tomorrow’s Scientists

Workforce shortages in Western New York are being addressed by a UB program that fosters an interest in science careers among area high school students

Microscope and hand model.
2/6/19

At Westfield High School, in rural Chautauqua County, New York, students are doing "hands-on" bioinformatics.

Students working together.
2/6/19

Working with microscopes and iPads, the students are annotating genes.

Teacher working with students.
2/6/19

Teacher Lon Knappenberger was trained by UB professors to use the Joint Genome Institute's computer-based Integrated Microbial Genome Annotation Collaboration Tool. He then created a tutorial for his students.

Left to right: Erica Woodruff, Jorgette Echevarria, Knappenberger, Emily Raynor.

Students working at a table.
2/6/19

As part of the Joint Genome Institute's program, participating schools  ‘adopt’ an organism on which to work. The organism adopted by UB for the students is a bacterium called Kytococcus sedentarius.

 

Left to right: Chelsea Lapp, Erica Woodruff, Jorgette Echevarria and Emily Raynor.

Students working together.
2/6/19

Students participating in the project who make discoveries can receive credit for their findings and can potentially publish their results in peer-reviewed journals.

 

Jordan Imm working with the iPad.

Student looking in microscope.
2/6/19

For high school students, it’s especially exciting to join the larger scientific community and be at the cutting edge of ongoing research at the national level.

 

Greg Momberger at the microscope.

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Jobs in the biomedical sciences are going unfilled in Western New York due to a lack of qualified applicants.

To address this problem, UB medical school professors have developed an innovative grant-funded program aimed at getting high school students interested in careers in science. The professors are teaching basic gene-annotation techniques to area high school science teachers, who then teach the techniques to their students as a way of introducing them to the field of bioinformatics.

High schools in six counties in Western New York are participating in the UB program, the largest of its kind in the country. Once such high school is Westfield High School in rural Chautauqua County. Administrators there are so enthused with the success of the program at their school—led by science teacher Lon Knappenberger—that they agreed to fund the purchase of 20 iPads for the students to use in their exercises.

As a result of the UB program, Knappenberger has developed two new “hands-on” biotechnology sections for his students that have “zero lecture material.” The courses are so popular that he has had to double their capacity.

Learn more about the Western New York Genetics in Research Partnership