Nativa Cazeau, a junior at Taylorsville High School, put it succinctly when talking about the value of the genetics workshop she attended Saturday at the Eccles Institute of Human Genetics: "Like, it opens the doors to opportunities."
She was among 40 high school students throughout the state, mostly juniors and seniors, to participate in the first of a series of workshops aimed at people who are underrepresented in health sciences and engineering. The sessions, held at the institute on the University of Utah campus, are intended to encourage teens to consider careers in fields such as genetic research.On Saturday, the youths experimented with DNA extraction, studied mutations in zebrafish, researched fruit fly genetics and watched a Howard Hughes Medical Institute film, "Minorities in Science."
The workshops aren't only for members of racial minorities, said Cherideth Starr of the U.'s ethnic and minority affairs program. They also seek to encourage people from many ethnic groups, students of lower socio-economic status, those who would be in the first generation of their families to attend college, and women.
"We sent out brochures and information to most of the high schools throughout Utah, and they go through and find students that they think would be interested in the program," she said.
Lynda Carlson, spokeswoman for the Eccles Institute, said the projects are interesting to the students. "It's a rare opportunity when they get to do hands-on science," she said.
That's exactly what one group was doing Saturday in the third-floor atrium, a glass-sided room overlooking the institute's grand helix-shaped staircase on one side with a view toward Salt Lake City on the other. About a dozen students were listening to Ellen Wilson explain how they would extract DNA from split peas.
"It's almost going to look like it's going to be rising up," she said, referring to strands of DNA that would float to the top of a rubbing alcohol solution. Wilson is director of the Natural History of Genes program, a science education project sponsored by the Utah Museum of Natural Resources and the U.'s Department of Human Genetics.
The experiment was one of three carried out Saturday morning, teaching what DNA is and why it's important. Wilson told her young charges that DNA is found in all cells of animals and plants.
During the experiment, the students used material that can be found in any local supermarket. A teacher who helped them added water to the peas and mixed it in a blender, breaking apart the hard peas. Then she added dishwashing liquid, which removed the outer membranes of the plants' cells.
The next stage was to mix in meat tenderizer, which broke proteins away and allowed the pure DNA to unwrap into strands. When alcohol was added, the DNA rose to the top, looking like nose mucus.
Wilson told the students how extracted DNA could be examined by scientists.
"At first they listen to us talk about DNA and why it's important," she said later. The students don't say much then and seem to have little reaction, thinking this is just another lecture. But when they start the experiment, holding the equipment and watching the DNA separate and rise through the alcohol layer, suddenly a murmur sweeps through, and the students quietly exclaim, "Wow."
An abstract idea about scientific research turns into a concrete example they hold in their hands.
"Seeing it means a lot," Wilson said.
"I think it's really cool," said James Park, a junior from Northridge High School in Layton who is interested in pursuing a scientific career. "You see what makes life, life."
Michelle Deng, a junior at Skyline High added that "It's a really cool program. You get to see the different types of careers" that are available. She found one of the experiments especially exciting, in which zebrafish are studied for mutations.
Cazeau added that because of her attendance, she will be getting information in the mail about volunteer work she can pursue in the summer. She'd like to get started working in the medical field, she said.
"With the right tools and preparation, students from underrepresented populations can have successful careers in the health sciences and engineering," Jesse M. Soriano, director of the minority affairs office at the U.'s Health Sciences Center, said in a written statement.
The free workshops are presented by the U.'s Health Sciences Academy. Workshops the first few months of 1999 will include health sciences research (Jan. 23), medicine and nursing (Feb. 20), health and engineering (March 6) and careers in pharmacy or as physicians' assistants (April 17). For more information, contact Soriano's office at 581-3178.
The Genetic Science Education partnership under which the workshops are carried out has an Internet site, http://raven.umnh.utah.edu. To learn more about experiments, click on the icon for "Teens: fun stuff to do at home."