Students at four local high schools starting from this year will carry out experiments designed by Tufts students, using lab equipment borrowed from the university.
The Chemistry Organized Outreach Program (CO−OP) partners Tufts with local high schools in Medford, Somerville, Malden and Boston's Chinatown neighborhood to connect high school students with cutting−edge science by giving them state−of−the−art lab equipment.
Project Coordinator Meredith Knight explained that high school science experiments are often outdated because of budget limitations.
"Science is going forth with lightning speed all the time," Knight said. "High schools don't have the resources to introduce their kids to the fascinating and current discoveries that are out there."
Tufts students working for CO−OP in 2006 started developing two new experiments and this summer taught high school teachers how to perform those experiments in a workshop held at Tufts, Knight said.
Professor of Chemistry David Walt, who originally envisioned the project, hopes the experiments will engage and excite students.
"We wanted to bring something that was personal, that allowed the students to really get involved in something and do experiments that resonated with the kinds of things they're thinking about," Walt said.
In one experiment, students test their own mitochondrial DNA to discover their maternal ancestry dating back tens of thousands of years. In the other, students investigate whether soy−based products brought from home have been genetically modified, according to Knight.
CO−OP sought to design experiments in which the answer was not known beforehand, Walt said.
"We did not want this to be something that was a cookbook kind of science," Walt said. "If you know what the answer is, the motivation isn't there."
A Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) grant to Walt in 2006 funded the initial development of the experiments. Another grant, from the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation earlier this year, funded the purchase of the new lab equipment for the program.
Walt said the lab equipment will be placed in a lending library that local high schools can access.
Although Walt laid out the criteria for the experiments, Tufts students spearheaded the actual brainstorming and development. The students also ran the teacher's workshop this summer and visited the high schools to oversee some of the experiments, Walt said.
Shrikar Rajagopal, a senior who worked on the development of the experiments, said the students were responsible for the creation of the final product.
"For the undergraduate students, this was our own experiment," Rajagopal said. "It was a challenge, but we came through and it felt good to get that done."
Senior Daniel Rodkey participated in the teachers' seminars. Rodkey said working with the teachers gave him a new insight into the educational system.
"We taught the teachers how to teach the experiment, which is interesting because you get to see the other side — the teaching," Rodkey, a chemical engineering major, said.
"I was thinking back on my high school experiment and it was cool to see these teachers taking the next step and learning more than their curriculum calls for to teach their students the science," he said.
Rodkey said CO−OP students will go to the high schools themselves to aid in carrying out experiments.
Rajagopal, who is pursuing a major in biology and a minor in child development, said CO−OP enabled him to combine his two academic interests.
"I got a unique opportunity to work with kids and work with science at the same time," Rajagopal said.
Walt said both the HHMI and Dreyfus grants will be used up within a year. Despite that fact, local schools will still be able to borrow the lab equipment through Tufts' lending library and CO−OP will post experiment instructions on the Internet, Walt said.
