Their First Lab Experiment

From left:  Vaughn Cooper, Alecia Rokes, Naomi Bastiampillai

“Most high school students don’t do authentic experiments, especially in the life sciences,” says Vaughn Cooper, professor of microbiology and molecular genetics in the School of Medicine. 

But Cooper, whose research involves understanding how bacteria become more infectious, knew from day one that he wanted educational outreach to be embedded into his research. 

He discovered the key to bringing the two together in the evolution of a pathogenic bacterium known to cause chronic infection in people with cystic fibrosis. The bacteria colonies quickly changed to look like rosettes or doilies instead of circles. “I thought, ‘Wow, can we turn that into a curriculum?’,” says Cooper. 

With funding from the NIH, NSF, and a partnership with Fisher Scientific, he was able to find a safe analogue—a relative of the pathogen—and with the help of enterprising teachers, set up a curriculum to help students better learn the material. 

“Even though the curriculum is just two weeks, it led to notable changes in sentiment toward future activities in STEM,” Cooper says, “especially among the young women.”