Use the hyperlinks below to access the facilities of the Waksman Student Scholars Program.
Our Purpose
Faculty at Rutgers University are working with high school teachers to encourage their students to participate in genuine molecular biology research in the classroom.
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Courses Associated with the Waksman Students Scholars Program Introduction to Research in Molecular Biology (119:105) This 3-credit Faculty of Arts and Sciences course is open to high school students who participate in the research project associated with the Waksman Student Scholars Program. More than 400 students have taken it since its inception in 1998. The current research project (2007-2008) involves the brine shrimp, Artemia franciscana. In an effort to find out its evolutionary relationship with other organisms and to characterize some of the interesting genes and proteins of this creature, we are sequencing its cDNA's. The analysis of these and additional sequences will be an important part of the 105 course. Genes, Genomes, and Human Genetics (119:106) Genes, Genomes, and Human Genetics is an on-line course from Rutgers University Independent Research in Molecular Biology (119:107) Students in the Pre-College Independent Research in Molecular Biology course (01:119:107) will conduct a year long research project using bioinformatics. This work will build upon and significantly extend their previous research training in the Waksman Student Scholars Program (WSSP) and the 119:105 course. It will include in-depth DNA and protein sequence analysis, analysis of gene expression and mutations, and protein structure modeling. Each student will prepare a poster on his/her work and will be required to present their poster at local or national scientific meetings. Depending on the progress of students and the results from the analysis of their data, students may take part in writing a scientific paper on their findings. As described in detail below, the course will meet at the Waksman Institute during set time periods every week and students will be required to hand in material and take exams. Research Internship in Science Education (15:526:592) The Research Internship in Science Education course is designed to introduce interns in the Rutgers Graduate School of Education to the pedagogy of a high school biological lecture and laboratory course. The course is taught in conjunction with the Waksman Student Scholars Program (WSSP), an outreach program that brings high school teachers and two of their students to an intensive one month Summer Institute in which they learn the background and begin performing the experiments for a year long research project. Interns will attended the lecture sessions with the WSSP instructors and the high school students to observe how non-traditional teaching techniques can be used to teach the methods of scientific inquiry. To provide an enriching experience for the interns, a presentation/activity for the high school students on various aspects of the research project has been required.
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Our Support
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0422902, 0733255, and 0737574. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
We gratefully acknowledge the support of GE Healthcare. GE Healthcare has proudly supported the Waksman Scholars Program since 1998. Their involvement includes providing funds for student scholarships, supplying laboratory reagents and equipment, making their facilities available for the Waksman Forum, and, most importantly, donating the time of their scientists and staff.
