Science@EA
Experiential Learning: Dr. Kelly Bethoney’s Introduction to Laboratory Science Course Grows What did you
do this past summer? While most high school students use the summer months to rest and relax, a record number of students chose to work in EA’s teaching research lab for six weeks this past June/July in the second year of the constantly-evolving course: Introduction to Laboratory Science. This experiential education course is designed around student-driven inquiry. It aims to demonstrate that what is learned in the classroom and textbook has practical application in science research and beyond the walls of schools, colleges, and university learning. Unlike last year, which was the inaugural year for the course (see “Bringing a New Kind of Experiential Learning to EA,” Connections, Winter 2010, pp. 20 and 21), the curriculum for this year’s summer course was adapted to cover new ground, while keeping the same goals in mind: providing students with the necessary tools to learn to conduct research in a laboratory setting. The enrollment more than doubled this summer, putting the lab at maximum capacity. The strength of this course is the low student-to-teacher ratio, which enables the student to use high-tech equipment and perform more difficult experimentation. With the guidance of lab coordinator and Upper School Science Department faculty member, Kelley Bethoney, Ph.D., students Jill Barton ’12, Shreya Reddy ’13, Audrey Regillo ’13, Nisha Meyer ’13 and Christian Humann ’12 worked on a protein with specific project goals that were dissimilar to those used in the prior year. In the 2011 summer session, students cloned the protein,
The Introduction to Laboratory Science Course participants: (l to r) Audrey Regillo ’13, Nisha Meyer ’13, Shreya Reddy ’13, Dr. Kelley Bethoney, Jill Barton ‘12, and Christian Humann ’12.
bacteriophage T4 lysozyme, into a DNA plasmid with the overall goal of expressing the viral protein in E. coli. The students successfully genetically engineered the gene, and continued on to complete a small-scale culture protein expression test from a cloned plasmid. This was one of the first experiments of its kind at The Episcopal Academy and is routine in a standard research laboratory. To complete these tasks, the students designed their own DNA primers, used the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), restriction digestion, and transformation into the appropriate Bl21 expression cell lines. In addition to lab work at The Episcopal Academy, the students travelled to the University of Pennsylvania to visit the laboratory of David Christianson, Ph.D. At the lab, Patrick Lombardi, Ph.D. gave the lab students a tour of Penn’s x-ray crystallography facility and demonstrated some basic protein-
modeling techniques using the latest crystallography software to visualize protein structure. To quote Audrey Regillo, as she wore the 3D viewing glasses, “It just looked so real!” This year, we also had the privilege of welcoming guest speaker and father to Audrey Regillo, Dr. Carl Regillo, M.D. to our teaching research laboratory. Students were able to learn about cutting-edge stem cell research and its place in the treatment of several ocular diseases. We also learned about the latest technology in the treatment of blindness! A special thanks to Mr. Paul Rosenberg, Hon., Mr. Geoff Wagg, the US Science Department, the Summer at EA staff, Ms. Alex Thompson, Ms. Susan McQuiston, David Christianson, Ph.D., Patrick Lombardi, Ph.D., Renee Martin, Ph.D., Carl Regillo, M.D., SargentWelch Inc. Pfizer Inc, and University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.
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