Outreach Program Engages Students in Scientific Research

UPDATED: April 16, 2015, at 2:25 a.m.

Two dozen high school seniors from the Boston area gathered in lab in the Science Center Tuesday morning, eagerly donning gloves and goggles as they prepared to perform a three-hour long lab on polymerase chain reactions and gel electrophoresis.

Launched in 2002, the Harvard Life Sciences Outreach Program is composed of a variety of initiatives, including the Spring Student Program, all aimed at providing science-related educational resources to teachers and students alike.

“Our mission is to translate the research that’s happening at Harvard in the life sciences into tangible curriculum for high school students and also professional development for teachers”, said program manager Tara B. Bristow.

Over the year, the teacher program trains almost a hundred instructors, and the student program reaches about 500 high school students. The group reaches an additional four to five thousand students through another program, the Amgen Biotech Experience, according to Bristow, but she said the main purpose of the outreach efforts is not recruitment.

“Really our main goal is to reach students at all different places across Massachusetts and basically New England,” Bristow said. “It’s more about getting students excited about science and then learning about research careers than having a pipeline for students to apply to Harvard.”

According to Alia Y. Qatarneh, a research assistant for the Spring Student Program, many of the classrooms that participate have very little of the resources to run the labs themselves.

“A lot of these teachers come to these things not to get a day off from teaching but because they don’t have the funds to buy pipettes and gel electrophoresis equipment,” Qatarneh said. “Most of the time this is the students’ first experience with either that model organism or that key equipment that is necessary for that lab.”

But even though most classrooms come for only one three-hour lab, Qatarneh notices that many students walk away with greater interest in science.

“For me, the takeaway is when they’re leaving you hear them say ‘That was really cool’, and you know that even though the labs are content-driven, it’s really more about the experience,” Qatarneh said.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

CORRECTION: April 16, 2015

An earlier version of this article incorrectly spelled Alia Y. Qatarneh's last name.