Eleventh Grade Science Class Visit at Waltham High School

Introduction<br>Members of our lab visited a local high school for one day and worked with five classes of eleventh graders. <br><br>Methods<br>Two weeks before our scheduled visit, I dropped off vials of flies so that the students could watch the progression of their life cycle from egg laying adults to larvae, pupae, and F1 adults. Six of us visited the high school: a lab manager, two grad students, two postdocs, and a PI. We got there 45 minutes before classes started to setup the 5 experimental stations. Each class lasted ~55 minutes, and we divided this time into two phases. For the first part, we were talking to the students for about 20 minutes and for the second part, the students had ~7 minutes at each of the 5 experimental stations. In our presentation portion we began with a brief overview of what we study and why we study it. I gave a quick primer in why we use flies to study human bodies and diseases. Then each of the lab members introduced themselves and their personal science journey (where she was from, how she got interested in science, etc.) to show that there are all kinds of ways to get to a job in science regardless of background, culture, sex, economic status, etc. Our five experimental stations were : 1) Scientist dissection demo - Using a dissecting scope attached to a camera and laptop, the students could watch the dissection on the laptop as Cassie performed the dissection using one of the oculars on the scope. 2) Temperature sensitive seizure phenotypes as demonstrated by seizing flies in glass vials in a 39 degree water bath - Students observed the differences between WT and ts sensitive flies and Avi talked with them about different ways to think about the nervous system and how to ask questions about this system using scientific experiments. 3) Fly behavior observation - Students observed a couple flies in petri dishes sealed with parafilm, and watched videos showing flies grooming, courtship, aggression. Anjali and Amy discussed the similarities and differences in fly vs. human behavior with the students. 4) Fly and larval anatomy and phenotypes - Using a dissection scope and anesthetized flies, Erica explained the differences between males and female flies, and other eye and wing phenotypes. The Nightsea device allowed for LED fluorescent visualization of the GFP marker in the eyes of some flies and in thefts of some larvae. Students took turns looking through the oculars and using the paint brush to manipulate the flies. 5) Slideshow of One Complete Experiment - I spoke with the students about what a single experiment looked like from conception/hypothesis through crafting of a novel experimental method and imaging to data analysis and discussion of the next hypothesis/questions. We talked about mistakes I made, and I externalized my thought process for them, and showed them some really neat experimental images.<br><br>Results<br>As a group we worked with four classes of students (roughly 100 students total). During the entire day (lecture and hands-on parts) I thought the students did a great job of paying attention. I did not see anyone being disruptive or distracting. Some kids were grossed out, some kids were bored, most we reasonably interested and there was a handful of students that had lots of questions and good ideas. :) After our lab had lunch, I returned to speak with a class of four students. Only one was really interested and so he and I had a really great chat about neurons in giraffes, what limits the size of insects, the autonomic functions of the brain stem, etc. and then he watched me do a larval dissection. It was a really nice hour of one on one conversation with someone who was genuinely curious about all kind of "biology stuff".<br><br>