High School Students Explore Biotechnology at the Edwards Campus
Kicking off the spring semester, Jack Treml, associate professor of the practice and director of research, has begun hosting local high school students for a day of discovery in the biotechnology lab on the KU Edwards Campus.
Students from Ruskin High School and Allen Village High School each visited the lab in recent weeks. The day of exploration is set up as a three-hour visitation to the lab where students get the opportunity to work through a “real world” biological mystery and discuss the opportunities in the biotechnology degree program at the Edwards Campus.
The activity revolves around a fictional town, Sutton, in Mill Creek, where residents are suddenly falling ill with the same symptoms. Students are tasked with deducing what is making residents sick from water sample results, background information about the companies operating in the area, and other biological tests.
“[Students] were pleasantly surprised by the real-world application of the lab,” said Stephanie Anderson, a biotechnology teacher from Ruskin. “They found Dr. Jack Treml easy to learn from and enjoyed his enthusiasm for teaching and science. I think he inspired some students to not fear chemistry as much.”
This visit was set up in partnership with PrepKC for Ruskin students. PrepKC mission is to “bring educators and industry professionals together to build paths to meaningful careers” for students across Kansas City.
The Allen Village students who visited KU Edwards have all expressed an interested in the medical field, according to Mario Brown, their health sciences teacher. “I like these field trips because I want to expose them to everything possible so they can make informed decisions.”
Destiny Hernandez, a junior, said she especially enjoyed the “hands-on experiments” of the day.
These visits to the biotechnology lab provide students engaging opportunities to explore biology, practice techniques in science-based activities, and learn more about how they can plan their own academic futures.
