Instead of sitting at home looking for ways to stay busy, a group of high school students from the St. Louis and Metro East areas is engaging in a free, learning opportunity that is building knowledge and offering hands-on research experience during Southern Illinois University Edwardsville’s Environmental Science Summer Research Academy being held June 17-21 on campus.
“I’ve been passionate about science since fifth grade,” explained Mukund Viswanadha, a senior at Parkway West High School in Ballwin, Mo. “I was elated to find I could apply for this research program at SIUE and learn important research techniques. This experience is confirming my interest in pursuing the medical field.”
SIUE’s Center for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Research, Education and Outreach is co-hosting the Summer Research Academy with the Department of Environmental Sciences. The outreach offering stems from STEM Center Community Impact Fellow Kyong Yoon, PhD, assistant professor in the College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Environmental Sciences.
Yoon is leading the high school participants in conducting research on how fruit flies react to pesticide treatments. With the help of graduate students Jenese Roberts and Carl Namini, Yoon is offering participants the opportunity to work in his lab as they would in an undergraduate research program at SIUE.
Participants are collecting data, analyzing results and creating posters they will use to present their interpretations to SIUE faculty at the conclusion of the Summer Research Academy.
“Some people think science is distant from our daily lives, but we’re demonstrating to students that science is all around us,” Yoon said. “It’s been intriguing to teach the students that there is a real problem in the environment, and through this practical research experience, we can better understand the problem and suggest or discover potential solutions.”
“This opportunity offers high school students unique exposure to University-level research, and gives them a chance to see students just a few years ahead of them academically getting to conduct important work in an SIUE lab,” said Matthew Johnson, instructional design and curriculum specialist with the SIUE STEM Center.
“This has been really interesting,” noted Pranav Nagila, a junior at Marquette High School in Chesterfield, Mo. “Dr. Yoon is obviously passionate about what he teaches, and he presents it in a fun manner. This experience will help me decide what I might like to do in the future with research.”
The Summer Research Academy is a culmination of Yoon’s work as a STEM Center Community Impact Fellow. The program supports SIUE faculty as they leverage their existing and active research programs to engage area learners through STEM-based high impact community engagement practices.
The next phase of Yoon’s plans involves creating stronger connections with high school science educators to build their educational resources, and offer development and training opportunities.
Photos: Summer Research Academy participant Sid Das, a junior at Parkway West High School in Chesterfield, Mo., injects CO2 into a fly culture bottle to anesthetize flies and transfer them to a new bottle.
SIUE graduate student Carl Namini assists Malachi Moyegun, a sophomore home school student from Edwardsville, prepares DDT-coated glass vials for the fly knockdown bioassays.