West Serious About STEM Students

West High Serious About STEM Students
Posted on 04/19/2022
West SAS students Six of West High School’s Serious About STEM (SAS) students participated in a two-week camp in August of 2021 at the UW-Green Bay campus to learn lab skills to search for novel antibiotics produced by soil bacteria. Three of those students then completed 14 weeks of research at UW-Green Bay during the fall semester. This is typically a junior/senior level college course for science majors, and these students completed the research as juniors in high school. To honor their part in this international effort to combat antibiotic resistance, a celebration was held at West High on April 6. The students celebrated included: Jamayah Booth, Lanae Steele, Kiearra Hawkins, Jasmin Martinez-Hernandez, Yasmine Cruz and Maritza Lopez. 

As part of the celebratory event, the students received their white lab coats and a certificate. Speakers were UW-Green Bay Chancellor Michael Alexander and Dr. Brian Merkel, Associate Professor and Tiny Earth Instructor at UW-Green Bay. 

The 14 weeks of research completed by Jasmin, Yasmine and Maritza included conducting experiments, including DNA sequence analysis to identify the soil isolates, and to evaluate the activity of the antibiotics their isolates produce against bacteria of clinical concern. This research is part of a worldwide initiative called Tiny Earth.
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