Video: Tiny Earth Collaboration is Inspiring New Dreams for High School Students
UW-Green Bay’s Tiny Earth program collaborated with Green Bay West High School’s Serious About Stem program (SAS), to develop a high school Tiny Earth program for student-sourcing antibiotic discovery. The pipeline program brought SAS high school students to the UW-Green Bay campus to learn microbiology skills during a summer camp followed by soil research for antibiotic discovery during the fall semester. The high school student researchers presented their findings at the Tiny Earth Winter Symposium on Dec. 3, 2021.
– Video by Sue Pischke, Marketing and University Communication.
Transcript for Tiny Earth High School Program video:
SAS, the Serious About STEM program at Green Bay West High School collaborates with the Tiny Earth project, so, it’s a pipeline program and it’s been very, very successful. So, the partnership that we have with Green Bay West High School is really special because one of the things that we know about the Tiny Earth curriculum is that students are actually doing science.
Being a student researcher in this project has made me feel very much part of my community. I’m glad to be able to help this crisis in finding novel antibiotics. I feel like I’m saving the world here you know. I’m doing something amazing that’s going to help everybody and I’m just so happy to be a part of it, to be given the opportunity to be a part of this great organization. My experience with Tiny Earth has been really exciting. Everything is hands-on with Dr. Merkel he’s able to work with us one-on-one which is amazing.
The Tiny Earth project at UW-Green Bay has helped me in my studies in high school because college students are participating in the things that I am doing. So, me as a junior in high school, it’s given me so much more confidence. I walk into a test and I feel like I’ve got this, I’ve done microbiology. I’m doing the things that college students have done in high school and it makes me feel on top of the world.
Because of Tiny earth at UWGB, I feel more confident and empowered and proud of what I’m doing and hopefully in the future, I can save people’s lives by these antibiotics that we’re researching and discovering. My Tiny Earth research experience has been incredible. I walked in this lab and I did not know a single thing. I walked in and I saw this lab and I didn’t know even what a Bunsen burner was. And to this day, now I feel like I can walk in the lab and I own it. I know everything there.
Tiny Earth is a great way to get into the work line of science and medicines and being able to understand that everything in this background is going to be based off of what you’re going to be able to do here and being able to get that experience is really going to help you. I’m considering to go into the medical field as a pediatrician to save kids’ lives as a doctor.
