During the question and answer session at the  town hall meeting, Lark asked when were they going to actually talk about ending youth violence? He and others felt that the meeting did not address issues, but only gave a showcase of already existing programs in the community.  But his comments were not well received by the organizers of the meeting, and he was limited in his time to speak.  After his comments, the meeting became a little restless and many also were having the same concerns. “That was my friend that got killed,” said another attendee. “I also want to hear what he [Lark] has to say.”

Lark has started a website called http://www.upgrademycity.com/ The site is only for South Bend, and is suppose to be for residents to voice the concerns.

In his email, Lark said, “It’s time for a MOVEMENT! Who’s tired of the violence, the lack of productivity, and dysfunction in our community? This is an opportunity to let your voice be heard and to become a part of the solution. Go to UpgradeMyCity.com. This is specifically for the City of South Bend, IN. This is from the people for the people, it not ran by the city government, but facilitated by the residents. Dig in! Our goal is to reach everybody. Share, Share, Share… “

The site is in its beginning stages, but you are welcome to visit the site and join the conversation.

When you visit the site, you will see the name “Barbmetologist.” This is because Lark is also known by the name “Barbmetologist.” In addition to his pastoral ministry and city involvement, he is also a licensed hair stylist. He specializes in designer hair cuts. And, interestingly, while he cuts hair for the youth, he is always encouraging them and speaking into their lives.

In all of my years in South Bend, I have never been to a town hall meeting. This meeting was held in the auditorium of the Kroc Center, and it was super packed…standing room only if you were late. This was apparently the talk of the town. I expected that people would get the microphone and offer real solutions to ending the youth violence. But, instead there was already an agenda with a planned list of speakers from different organizations to give a two min speech on what they were doing for the youth. There were some personal speeches from concerned individuals too.

It was formal, and the atmosphere to me was not action planning. I say that because these services offered had existed for some time. We (the audience) knew about these organizations, because most in attendance were either part of those organizations or were city officials. (And, yes I didn’t know everyone in the room, but this comes from me recognizing faces of a lot of those I knew who I have seen at other community events). This meeting was sort of “preaching to the choir” in a way.

However, four things did intrigue me:

1. There are efforts to recruit 500 mentors for at-risk youth. There were mentoring applications on every seat. I believe in mentoring. I have mentored quite a few students over the years. Youth appreciate having someone to look up to, especially those who do not have positive role models in their lives.

2. Those who were formally prison or jail inmates were offering their help to speak to the youth about not taking the same road they did. I remember one time in high school when inmates on a work-release program came to speak to our class. The class was dead silent as they really spoke the truth and “horrors” of making poor decisions. Individuals with a criminal background and who have changed their ways could really connect to those who are struggling with violent behavior (i.e., in and out of juvenile jail).

3. One of the youth who spoke in the meeting said that there needs to be more job opportunities for the youth. You can read his comments in the South Bend Tribune article. This is so true…because when the youth have something to do and are getting paid, they are so much more less distracted from getting into trouble. And, with summer around the corner, no or little employment opportunities plus no school can unfortunately equal a rise in juvenile crime.

4. Coach Phelps mentioned that South Bend should raise their rankings in math and science studies, possibly competing with Shanghai (China).

Ok, so the last point on math and science left me a little confused. I definitely understand the importance of doing well in math and science. But how will this end or slow down youth violence?  Are there math and science opportunities for youth in this city? Outside of school? I know that students can improve in test scores and learning in school…but does a student who excels in math/science also choose not to do violence? Maybe so because they are more focused and thinking about their future…but couldn’t this be true for those who excel in other fields (english, history,etc)?

Here is what I am imagining as an immediate solution to this community using math and science. What if there were programs for math and science (outside of school) that involved at-risk youth (not just those who can do the subjects well). The programs will be outside of the school environment during the school year (after-school?), and have to be some-what fun in addition to being educational. Hands on activities and projects. And, maybe in the summer there can be paid “internships” for these students….or a student stipend for them attending a math-science course. Maybe a stipend during the year too. (Money is an incentive.) This program could welcome students who have a history at the juvenile justice center or who have no positive role models or have been struggling in math and science. Does anyone know if such programs exist here or somewhere?

In high school, I was selected a couple times to be a math tutor and teacher assistant. I was paid to tutor struggling math students during study hall (as part of a school grant). I was also a teacher assistant to help struggling students in remedial math (pre-algebra; think I received some course credit for this).  The remedial class had the most difficult students (in regards to behavior)…but the class did help them in math. I do have a heart for the youth in the city…it grieves me to hear about shootings or youth funerals. If there was a math and science program for the youth as a solution to end the violence, I would offer to help….there has to be something done…maybe I should contact the mayor’s office ….I’m just thinking out loud……..

Normally we only have 5 days to complete the GENO activities, but this time we were given 10 days. However, we only used 8 days. We were able to complete all GENO steps, including PCR, ligation, transformation, plating and painting. And, on the last day we gave a challenging quiz as usual.

We have done GENO several times in the past 2 years at Washington High School, New Prairie High School, St Joseph High School and Trinity School. But the last times in the past couple months at WHS and Trinity, I feel I really knew the lab. Not that I knew the science, but that I understood what to teach to my audience.

For example, at WHS we had freshman honor biology students, whereas at Trinity we had advanced sophomore chemistry students. And back in December, we had AP biology junior students at New Prairie. Not all of these students can understand the same level of material in just a weeks time. So, we have to pick and choose what is most important for them to know at their learning level (i.e., each group had different backgrounds in biology material).

I also learned how to make the lab flow smoothly in time management. At both Trinity and WHS we had some short days, but we still were able to get things done. And, even if we had normal class time, we still could break up the time to do things efficiently. Students did not have to get a pass to their next class because we ran over (this happened at St. Joe in our first GENO trials).

I am not perfected in my methods in any way…but I do feel more equipped to enter the GK-12 classroom. The only thing I am sad about is that I no longer will do this thru NSF or NDeRC. Wednesday was our last day. However, as I prepare for a possible teaching career next year (i.e, college level), I know that the NDeRC GENO experience has given me a big step forward.

Off the maternity leave, I have to get back going in my lab work. Thus far, I have been back almost 3 weeks but things got off to a little rough start in my experiments. And, yesterday I had a committee meeting. Even though it was just an hour long, it was a little struggle to get through it. The good news is that I have a plan (agreed by the committee) to finish my lab work by the end of July. I will have another committee meeting in early august, and hopefully they will agree for me to set a date for my defense. I have a lot of work to do this summer….really no time to be daydreaming, facebooking, procrastinating, …or staring at my pippetts. I must finish this work and get it done! (although blogging is a way to exercise the mind…writing skills…so I will keep up with that). I am running to the end, and I can’t wait to cross that finish line in early fall.

More info on Science Alive (a local community event that features several exhibitors for K-12 students)…read

http://www.wsbt.com/news/sbt-handson-science-draws-thousands-20120204,0,6787142.story

http://sjcpl.lib.in.us/sciencealive/

A couple of NDeRC pictures (Bioeyes and Nano) was on the WSBT website. Check out Pics #2 and #5 of the online photo gallery.

http://www.wsbt.com/news/sbt-photos-science-alive-20120204,0,1703947.photogallery

There were so many students and families that attended…that the traffic to every exhibit was constant.

The BioEyes exhibit was ran by Anita Beebe, myself, and Manuela Lahn (a postdoc in ND Hyde’s zebrafish lab).

We had 3 stations of microscopes showing embryos that were 5 days, 3 days, and few hours old. Anita also set up a video on her laptop that showed the first 24 hours of embryo development. There was also a tank of glow fish, and the visitors were allowed to shine a black light on the fish to make them glo.

Some of the visitors never seen the zebrafish larvae/embryos, while others were former students and teachers that went through BioEyes at their schools.

After dinner, the group of students and fellows went to Jordan 209 for a nano activity, while the parents attended a college preparation session. At the nano activity, val, natalie and becky lead the group in a simulation activity of the atomic force microscope.

We learned about the size of nanometers, and worked on a larger simpler model of AFM probing, which included ping bong balls, a wooden probe stick, rulers, and lego blocks. And yes I say “we learned,” because I have never done the nano activity. I also did my own lego building as well with the students. The nano-NDeRC fellows also showed us the workings of the AFM and STM microscopes, which they brought to the classroom. Thus, the students could get a real experience using the nano-research tools.

As a WHS alum (’99), I had the opportunity to meet the WHS students and parents. I remembered a couple faces from a Bioeyes event last year at Jordan Hall. This was when the WHS students had to a scale project in which they measured the size of embryos, and compare this to the size of other objects.

Surprisingly, I also had a chance to converse with one of the WHS guidance counselors, who was my middle school counselor at Jackson Middle School back in ’93-94. Funny, that no matter how much time passes, teachers and counselors still remember you. I also knew two of the ND representatives: Iris Outlaw and Arnel Bulaoro, both of ND Multicultural Student Programs and Services. They have been part of my graduate support staff at ND. And, Ms Outlaw was part of my high school experience as well (debutante cotillion believe it or not…and no picture will be posted, lol).

One thing I took from this event is that it is really worth it to invest in support events like “Exploring Potential.” When I think back on all the small events I went to during my GK-12 years, hosted by ND and other agencies, each event planted a seed for college. And, each event gave me a network of people to support my academic endeavors. I am still connected to that network today.

And, a super incentive to “Exploring Potential” is exposing the students to research and the broader world of science outside of textbooks. Yesterday’s event will have a long-lasting impact, and I am sure other events in this series will do the same. Think about how many of the students went home pondering on the nano-world….and thinking more about careers and college studies in sciences. Priceless.

Here is the link: http://www.wsbt.com/news/wsbt-special-report-can-research-really-boost-the-local-economy-and-create-jobs-20111107,0,6200171.story

There are some other related articles at the site.

http://www.wsbt.com/news/wsbt-special-report-why-you-should-care-about-nanotechnology-20111107,0,7874252.story

I was one of the fellows that shared my research. (Other presenters were Jamie in particle physics, Michelle in astronomy-physics, and Natalie in nanotechnology). I explained that biologists used animal models to study human diseases, and that my lab uses the zebrafish as a model for Parkinson’s disease (dopaminergic cell degeneration or…the death of “DA” cells ).

The biggest reactions I got were when I showed them pictures of the human brain and the zebrafish brain. And the reactions were kind of “ewwhh, gross, ” which was funny…but the fifth graders were still attentive. Here are the images that I showed: Avilla Visit

It was a great experience to have. The students were energetic, lively and attentive. And most of all, they had good questions. Hopefully, they will be inspired to also enter the STEM fields of research. I know that this was not an experience I had in fifth grade, so I know their visit was invaluable.

NANODROPPER: Check Concentation

The research students learned how to use the nanodropper (in the biology department) to measure DNA concentrations. This is a very specialized spectrophotometer instrument that measures the absorbance of a solution using a particular wavelength of light. The absorbance readings are translated to concentrations (i.e., nanograms/microliter). Different absorbances/wavelengths are used for different substances (e.g., DNA, RNA, protein, etc), and you only need 1-2 microliters to test a sample. For more info check out this link: nanodropper. We used an absorbance reading of 260nm for DNA.

To our surprise, there was no DNA in the solutions sent to us last month. This could of been due to various reasons, such as poor preparation or denaturation over time in storage or shipping. Nevertheless, the Grad Fellows used this as a teaching opportunity to show the high school research students how to prepare more DNA template. Note the DNA template used in PCR is the GFP plasmid.

MINI-PREPS: Make more GFP plasmid

I had some frozen bacteria in my lab that were already transformed with GFP (-80 degrees Celsius freezer). I streaked an arabinose-ampicillin agar plate with very small amount of frozen culture, and the next day had small GFP colonies on the plate. I used a sample of just one tiny colony to inoculate 5mL of culture broth. This is called a “mini-culture.” I made 4 mini-cultures total. The cultures were allowed to grow overnight at 37 degrees Celsisus, in a shaking incubator (i.e,. the tubes were vigorously shaken). This produces the growth of millions of bacterial cells, that will all have GFP DNA plasmid. Thus more bacterial growth equals more plasmid.

The next day, I centrifuged the cultures, obtaining a bacterial pellet. The research students then used a “mini-prep” kit to lyse open the bacterial cells in order to get the GFP plasmid. The plasmid was then purified, and nanodropped again.

For each mini-prep, we were able to obtain 50uL of DNA plasmid. Using the nanodropper, we found that each prep had a concentration of about 90-100 nanograms per microliter. This is 100 times better than our original tube of template! We then used these preps for our PCRs, and did obtain positive results.

I felt that most of the attendees that came to our ND exhibit were middle schoolers or younger (all the way down to 4 year olds). There were some high school and college visitors as well. It was definitely quite an experience to share the GENO project with not only the students, but with their parents and teachers. I met a couple scientists from different companies that had worked with GFP (green fluorescent protein) in the past. I even met one older scientist who use to catch Jellyfish so many years ago for the GFP protein.

I was able to share this project with others at so many levels. For example, a high school student or even a middle schooler may have understood the DNA, vector and transformations. They had some background in DNA genetics (or the expression of genetic traits). But, for the small children, we mainly talked about the comparison between GFP fluorescence and jellyfish bio-luminescence.

It was a long day (9am-5pm for me), but I am glad I was able to be a part of it. I did feel that the turnout for this free public event in Indianapolis was not as high as it could of been (being a metropolitan area). But, maybe next year, the event would definitely grow more.