Outreach and Mentoring Activities

Outreach activities of NIH and MSU funded fellows and faculty members

Ducat lab: Graduate student Lisa Yun resumed an outreach program through the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology department and the Carole J. Greer Community Learning Center with cofounder Hannah Parks (Barry lab). To meet the safety needs in the face of the pandemic, this program now pairs under-resourced and at-risk youth with MSU graduate students for weekly virtual one-on-one mentorship through Zoom. The outreach program has acquired funding for laptops for the children, and materials for hands-on activities for both mentors and mentees to explore scientific concepts and thinking. Other PBHS participants include Nicholas Schlecht.

Last lab: Graduate student Paul Fiesel and Bryan Leong contributed to the planning and operation of an in-school demonstration titled “Why are plants so smelly? They just make scents!.” The demonstration at Eaton Rapids Middle School featured hand-on activities designed to teach students about plant chemistry. The event was a part of the Michigan State University Science Festival.

Shiu lab: Graduate students Bethany Moore and Siobhan Cusack contributed an art piece to the Science-Art Showcase on campus that was open to the public. Graduate student Christina Azodi hosted a “Girls who Code” activity in the DeWitt Public Library introducing programming concepts to middle school girls. Graduate student Serena Lotreck co-led the “Code Like a Girl” activity during the MSU Science Fair. B.2 (For B2 - diversity, graduations, outreach2020.pdf) RPPR Page 7 TerAvest lab: Michaela TerAvest gave a lab tour and Q&A session for 25 students from the Kalamazoo Area Math and Science Center in March 2020.

TerAvest and Hamberger labs: The 2020 MSU iGEM team created educational videos about GMOs and synthetic biology and posted them on their iGEM wiki page and YouTube: https://2020.igem.org/Team:MichiganState/Collaborations

Other one on one mentoring activities:

Takahashi lab: A high school senior student from East Lansing High School gained lab research experience, working part-time with graduate student Katerina Lay-Pruitt.

Shachar-Hill lab: In the Fall 2020 semester, graduate student Danielle Young is mentoring an MSU undergraduate student’s research project for his required BMB 490 (Biochemistry Research) course credit. The undergraduate student is an international student from Sierra Leone who is planning on applying to medical school after graduation.

Trainee Lisa Yun is mentoring an undergraduate student with a hybrid virtual/in-person approach to meet safety requirements, build technical proficiency, and prepare her for applying to doctoral programs.

Bonito Lab: Trainee Reid Longley is mentoring an undergraduate student, Sophia Grace Gabrysiak, who is gaining experience in microbial culturing techniques as well as setting up experiments to study plant-microbial interactions.