Southern Research continues to expand its efforts to transform STEM education in schools across Alabama.

The organization has revamped its STEM Ambassadors program, with an eye toward training a new crop of math and science teachers.

“Across the nation, there’s a huge shortage of qualified math and science teachers, just as there’s a shortage of STEM workers in general, so we are trying to help address that issue,” said Kathryn Lanier, Ph.D., Southern Research’s STEM Education Outreach director.

When it started several years ago, the STEM Ambassadors program was a summer program, in which University of Alabama at Birmingham students with an interest in STEM fields helped with summer camps for high school students at Southern Research’s state-of-the-art STEM Lab in Birmingham.

But now, STEM Ambassadors are working throughout the year, helping with field trips from high schools across Alabama.

Southern Research has partnered with UAB Teach, a program that allows UAB students majoring in STEM fields to take education courses as well. And when they graduate with a STEM degree, they will also be certified to teach in high school classrooms.

This semester, Southern Research has 10 STEM Ambassadors who are also a part of UAB Teach. They are paid by the hour, and they are gaining valuable training for their future careers.

“It’s a win-win for us,” Lanier said. “We need extra hands to help us facilitate our field trip experiences. It also provides these future educators with exposure to a very different learning environment – one that allows students to apply their content knowledge to tackle real-world problems.”

“PERFECT EXPERIENCE”

One of the newest STEM Ambassadors is Amber Lakey, a UAB freshman who is majoring in mathematics.

“I knew that working with kids in such an intellectually stimulating environment, the STEM Lab, would be an incredible experience that would hopefully prepare me for my career as a teacher,” she said.

After graduation, Lakey wants to teach high school math and later become involved in administration.

“The STEM Ambassador program is the perfect experience for me, since I want to teach,” she said. “As I work through my education courses, I’ve already begun to notice how much easier it is for me to connect with the students; it’s a skill that I take on with ease now. When I am a teacher, I will be able to apply these experiences to engage with students and encourage them to be passionate about STEM.”

Lakey said she has loved her STEM Ambassador experience so far.

“When the students are there, I’m super busy running around to be involved with each group, ask questions and encourage them to keep trying new things during the experiments, and I enjoy every second of it. There are some jobs that are just that – a job. This honestly feels nothing like a job. I have so much fun with the students,” she said.

MAKING CONNECTIONS

Southern Research is in the middle of a robust schedule of about 80 field trips for the 2019-2020 school year. Field trips include hands-on experiments in the STEM Lab and cover a variety of topics, such as tracking and diagnosing infectious diseases and transferring renewable resources into electricity.

Lanier said another benefit for the STEM Ambassadors is the connections they are making with educators and administrators who are accompanying their students on the field trips, which could help with future job placements.

Over time, she expects the STEM Ambassadors to become comfortable with leading students through the various steps of the field trips on their own.

“The hope is that by the end of the semester, or next year, they’ll be confident enough to lead certain parts of the field trip, if they want to,” Lanier said. “And hopefully they will become teachers themselves and bring their students back here for a field trip.”

High school students from across the state and beyond have reached new heights in engineering and innovation this summer at Southern Research.

The organization’s first Drone Academy drew 124 students, split up into four one-week sessions. They represented more than 40 schools, mostly in Alabama, but also in Georgia, North Carolina, and California.

Each week, the students designed and produced fully functioning drones using 3D printers in the new STEM lab at the Birmingham campus. Then they took a field trip to an airport in Walker County to try out their creations.

“This academy has allowed students to dive into the engineering design process,” said Kathryn Lanier, Ph.D., Southern Research’s STEM Education Outreach Director. “And not only do they get to design and print their own drone, they also get to take it home with them.

“They’re so proud by the end of the week, and I’m even more proud of what they have accomplished.”

Kamari Marzette, a 10^th grade student at Ramsay High School in Birmingham, said she found the experience inspiring.

“What I learned this summer gave me the confidence to achieve things I never thought I was capable of,” Marzette said. “It was also really cool that the Academy was led by mostly women — it helps me believe that I can make my STEM dreams become a reality, too.”

‘NOVEL IDEA’

The idea to implement the Drone Academy program came about during the planning phase of the STEM lab, which opened last summer.

 Outfitted with equipment and supplies to conduct both physical and life science experiments, the facility has been the site of many camps and other programs that are part of a Southern Research goal to attract more students to STEM careers.

“When seeking funding we discovered that the Drone Academy program is one of a kind,” Lanier said. “While there are several drone programs offered around the country, there are no known programs that incorporate drone design and engineering using computer-aided design (CAD) software and 3D printing, especially in the state of Alabama.”

“The Drone Academy has been extremely successful in sparking students’ interest in STEM careers, and we are most grateful to the American Honda Foundation, Motorola Solutions Foundation, and Best Buy Foundation for providing almost $50,000 in funding to make this program possible,” Lanier added.

Additionally, Sanders Aviation partnered with Southern Research to provide visits to the flight training center at the Walker County Airport, where the students raced their drones and also learned about pilot’s license programs offered there.

OVERCOMING CHALLENGES

Lanier and her team faced many challenges while building the program from the ground up, including mastering 3D printing and dividing the use of eight 3D printers among approximately 30 students each week, since each drone takes about four hours to print.

“There’s not a guide for this type of program out there, but now I think it’s one of the best programs we offer. People from other states are calling and asking about it.”

The Southern Research team also designed backup drones before the camps started, so the students would have something to take home if they struggled with their own projects.

“But by the middle of the first week, the students’ drone designs were better than our backups. They didn’t need the backup drones at all,” Lanier said.

GROWTH PLANS

Lanier said it’s exciting to see the organization’s STEM Education Outreach programs continue to grow.

Next year, she would like to add more 3D printers to the Drone Academy, as well as a new technology that would eliminate the need to provide a remote control for each student’s drone.

Chris Crawford, Ph.D., a University of Alabama computer science professor, has been involved in brain-controlled drone racing. It involves connecting electroencephalogram, or EEG, devices to drones and headsets, so people can race each other with their brains instead of controllers.

Crawford was a speaker during one of the Drone Academy sessions this summer, and Lanier hopes to collaborate with him again next year.

“Basically, you have to think about something really complex to get those beta brainwaves firing, and the harder you think, the more it will lift,” Lanier said. “One of the most expensive parts of this program is the remote controls, so maybe next year they could fly drones with the EEG headset instead of standard drone remotes.”

For now, though, Lanier is proud of the progress of the first class of Drone Academy graduates. Most of those who attended this summer had never used CAD software or 3D-printed anything.

“Some of their drones are Star Wars themed, some look like UFOs, some put on chicken feet as landing gear. Their designs are so creative and so much better than anything I could have ever made. They’ve really blown me away,” she said.

“It’s a rewarding experience for us to see them and for them to see themselves solving problems.”

Teachers from high schools across Alabama spent the summer working alongside scientists in the labs at Southern Research, and now they’re excited to take what they learned back to their classrooms and students.

The Summer Internship Program for STEM Educators, or SIPSE, just wrapped up its second year of offering the participants real-world applications of the subjects they teach.

“It was amazing,” said Devon Lusa, an honors chemistry and AP chemistry teacher at The Altamont School in Birmingham. “I feel like I’m going to be a better teacher in so many ways.”

Lusa was one of 11 SIPSE fellows who were assigned specific projects and paired with researchers from the Drug Discovery, Drug Development and Energy and Environment divisions at Southern Research. One fellow worked with professors at the University of Alabama, and two more fellows worked with professors at the University of West Alabama.

They all spent six weeks learning how scientists and engineers approach problems, design experiments, interpret data, communicate findings and develop and implement workplace solutions.

Lusa’s project was focused on creating an opioid replacement for morphine that would still reduce pain without the negative side effects of that drug.

“This was a great opportunity for me to become the expert, so when students ask, ‘When am I going to use this in the real world?’ I can tell them,” she said.

CLASSROOM STRATEGIES

All of the SIPSE fellows devised a strategy to improve how STEM subjects are taught in their classrooms. Lusa plans to introduce a new organic chemistry unit.

Nicole Daly, another SIPSE fellow and an environmental science teacher at Clay-Chalkville High School, designed an experiment to test the robustness of cell viability assays. She plans to relate her experience to her students with a study on bioluminescence, a light produced by a chemical reaction within a living organism.

“I learned so much, I got out of the classroom, I met great scientists and I did something I’ve never done before,” she said.

Other projects involved studying the development and treatments for certain diseases, identifying environmentally friendly production methods for commodity chemicals and studying the microbial community in Black Belt soil to aid improvements in farming practices.

EXPANDING PROGRAM

SIPSE was expanded this year to 14 intern spots, up from six last year. It also moved beyond Birmingham, with the placements at the University of Alabama and the University of West Alabama.

Participants receive a $4,500 stipend, as well as $500 for supplies to implement their strategy in the classroom.

Kathryn Lanier, Ph.D., Southern Research’s STEM Education Outreach Director, said her plan is for SIPSE to continue to grow each year, with more fellows and more diverse placements. Adding the universities was the first step; in the future, she hopes to place fellows at companies.

“The goal of SIPSE is to place teachers in authentic scientific internships, to give them that real-world experience and ignite a passion for discovery that they can take back to their students in the classroom,” she said.

Southern Research is gearing up to train a new class of teachers from high schools across Alabama.

The organization’s Summer Internship Program for STEM Educators, or SIPSE, is entering its second year, and big changes are on the horizon.

The program has expanded to include 14 intern spots, up from six last year. It’s also moving beyond Birmingham, said Kathryn Lanier, Ph.D., Southern Research’s STEM Education Outreach Director.

“The whole idea of SIPSE is to make it a statewide program and to find other entities to host a teacher. This year, we worked hard to find partner organizations to host teachers, and we will be able to place a teacher at both the University of Alabama and the University of West Alabama,” she said.

SIPSE Fellows spend six weeks learning first-hand how scientists and engineers approach problems, design experiments, interpret data, communicate findings and develop and implement workplace solutions.

The program offers the educators real-world applications of the subjects they teach, as well as practical examples of science, technology, engineering and mathematics studies they can pass on to their students. Participants receive a $4,500 stipend.

Applications for the 2019 class of interns are due Friday.

IGNITING PASSION

Twelve positions will be located at Southern Research’s Birmingham campus, where they will be assigned specific projects and paired with researchers from the Drug Discovery, Drug Development and Energy and Environment divisions.

Project topics include bioprinting a 3-D tumor environment, identifying environmentally friendly production methods for commodity chemicals and studying the development and treatments for chronic sepsis and Parkinson’s disease.

The fellows at UA in Tuscaloosa and UWA in Livingston will work with professors at the schools, and their projects are tailored for those regions.

For instance, the UWA project is titled “Tapping into Microbial Diversity of Alabama’s Black Belt.” It involves identifying the microbial community in Black Belt soil to discover antibiotic-producing bacteria, as well as beneficial microbes for improvements in farming practices.

By the end of the summer, the fellows must devise a strategy to improve the way STEM subjects are taught in their classrooms, based on their internship experience. The program then provides $500 worth of supplies to implement the strategy.

Lanier said SIPSE has drawn a wide range of participants, from teachers with doctorate degrees to those who have never worked in a lab.

But for all of them, the program’s goal is the same: to ignite a passion for discovery that they take back to their students.

“The more teachers we can get in here and actually experience real science, the better,” Lanier said. “Maybe some of them majored in education, and the lab setting is new to them. Or maybe they’ve been doing this for a long time.

“Like anything you do in life, once you’ve been at it for a while, you just fall into a routine. We really want to get teachers in here and spark that love they had for science 20 years ago.”

EMPOWERING STUDENTS

Hoover High School teacher Janet Ort, who participated in last year’s SIPSE program, called it an amazing opportunity to delve into a subject, project or process far beyond the everyday classroom.

“Science teachers are a curious bunch,” she said. “We want to understand why and how things work. We want to investigate the world around us. We want to make it relevant and exciting for our students.”

But, she continued, classroom teaching rarely allows the freedom and support to truly explore.

Ort, inspired by how pollution issues in Birmingham and beyond impact people, developed a handheld, inexpensive environmental sensor to help local communities as part of her SIPSE project.

Her dream is for these sensors, both handheld and stationary, to be available across the state and around the globe, collecting data acquired by cell signals.

At Hoover High, Ort leads a team of students — the BioBucs — who last fall chose to focus on particle pollution and its human impact. The group tested sensors and compared methods of data visualization. They gathered data that proved particles were present, as well as the potential mitigating effect of trees.

They then submitted the project to the Lexus Eco Challenge, a national STEM competition, and won the Southeastern Regional High School section, which meant scholarship money and grants for the school. Last week, they entered an extension of the project to the Grand Challenge to compete with 15 other projects for four top prizes.

Ort said the students are excited about teaching others how to create the sensors, and they hope to put them into action across Birmingham and Alabama.

“The Southern Research SIPSE program quite literally changed my teaching and life by pushing me into directions I had never thought possible,” she said. “To empower students of all ages and really try to change the world is no small feat.”

EXPANSION GOALS

Lanier said she hopes SIPSE continues to expand in the coming years, by adding partners in Mobile, Huntsville, Auburn and other areas of Alabama.

The program complements Southern Research’s ongoing STEM education outreach efforts, including the new Birmingham STEM lab that hosts field trips and other events for students across the state.

SIPSE is a multiplier of those efforts, since it trains teachers who are then able to train students in STEM subjects more effectively and continue doing so with new students year after year.

The firsthand experience the program provides is a powerful teaching tool, Lanier said.

“When kids are in science and math class, and they’re asking, ‘When are we going to use this?’ a teacher can just point to Southern Research and talk about the things we do. But it’s an entirely different story when that teacher can say, ‘I was on the team that created this cancer drug, and that’s how you can use this.’

“It makes it more personal and more impactful, and they will be able to share the experience with their students for as long as they teach,” she said.

High school and middle school girls from communities around Alabama visited Southern Research on Friday and left inspired about their future studies and possible careers in STEM fields.

The Birmingham campus hosted Girls Engaged in Math and Science, or GEMS, and its 2019 Project Showcase, “Ignite the Light in STEM!”

Students showed off their projects that demonstrated STEM knowledge and skills. They also participated in interactive educational activities and experiments in the Southern Research STEM lab facilitated by Kathryn Lanier, Ph.D., STEM education outreach director, and Liz Johnson, Ph.D., STEM education specialist.

GEMS Coordinator Hailey Ridgeway said Lanier and Johnson are great female role models, one of the strategies the group uses to encourage girls in STEM.

“We hope the main impression they leave with is they can do anything they can put their mind to and they won’t be intimidated by math and science,” she said.

The students’ project expo covered a wide range of topics, including human blood types, the laws of motion and linear equations and slopes.

‘GIRL ON FIRE’

One project, called “Girl On Fire,” turned common electric circuits into modern fashion. Students from Chilton County High School adorned two prom dresses with LED lights that responded to motion and noise.

“I love to be creative, and I love designing things,” said Grace Tuell, a 17-year-old Chilton County High School student. “Having this project to work on for these last few months has been really fun and exciting.”

Tuell, who wants to be an electrical or mechanical engineer, plans to attend Jefferson State Community College and then transfer to Auburn University. The GEMS event offers an outlet for her and her peers to explore their interest in engineering and science, she said.

Jay LeCroy, STEM director for Chilton County Schools and a teacher at the system’s STEM Academy, said the dress project involved programming, soldering circuit boards and making circuits.

Those tasks have previously been identified by Southern Research as necessary for today’s high school students entering STEM studies, said LeCroy, a former fellow in SIPSE, Southern Research’s professional development program for high school educators.

In fact, Southern Research helped design the Chilton County course that formed the basis for the dress project.

ELEVATING INTEREST

GEMS, which Chilton County has participated in for 11 years, helps his students dive deeper into their STEM studies, LeCroy said. Over the years, his students’ GEMS projects have covered topics such as underwater robotics, hydrogen fuel cells, solar cells and physics of roller coasters.

Visiting Southern Research for this year’s event was a special treat for students, he added.

“Being in a small, country county, they don’t have a chance to network often with scientists and researchers, and coming here gives them the opportunity to do that,” he said.

Offered by the Alabama Department of Education, GEMS supports the national need to close the STEM gender gap, using teaching strategies to encourage girls’ self-confidence and elevate interest in the areas of science, technology, engineering and math.

Participating schools in Friday’s event included those in Anniston, Chilton County, Cullman County, Florence, Hoover, Montgomery and Shelby County.

GEMS has held previous events at The Birmingham Zoo and Dauphin Island. This year, kindergarten through second-grade girls went to McWane Science Center, while sixth- through 12^th-graders visited Southern Research.

BUILDING THE FUTURE

Lanier on Friday encouraged the students to pursue their interest in STEM and to not be discouraged by failure.

“The cool thing about being a scientist is failure,” she said.

She asked them to imagine themselves working on a complex project for years with experiments that keep failing. But late one night, the experiment finally works, and the feeling that follows is indescribable.

“Not only are you the only person in the world who knows that answer, you’re also the first. That’s a powerful feeling. You’ve got to embrace failure, and you’ve got to be brave,” she said.

Lanier told the students they could help build a movement of girls who are brave.

“Each and every one of you need to know that not only can you do this, but we need you to do this. You’re the key to building that future.”

Anniston Middle School students Adrianna Fitten and Miasia Dennis, who are both eyeing careers in the medical field, said the GEMS event has helped inspire their future plans.

“You are around other girls who are interested in science,” Fitten said. “It helps get you out of your comfort zone, and you make friends.”

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama – More than 100 students from across Alabama went behind the scenes at Southern Research on Thursday in an event designed to spark their interest in STEM-related careers.

Students from Jefferson, Mobile and Wilcox counties participated in the 5^th Annual STEM Day, which has grown from 20 participants at its inception to 103 this week.

The event is part of Southern Research’s expanding STEM education efforts, which are helping to build the state’s next-generation workforce, said Kathryn Lanier, Ph.D., STEM education outreach director.

“I always say that I have the coolest job in the world, because we really are building a ‘STEMpire’ from the ground up,” she said. “We get to be creative and find new ways to do the right thing, which is educating kids and preparing them for the future.”

Lanier cited statistics from testing provider ACT that show more than half of Alabama students have an interest in STEM majors or careers. But just 11 percent meet benchmarks for STEM subjects.

“We have a lot of work to do, and there’s a big impact we can make,” she said.

CAREER PATHWAY

Liz Johnson, Ph.D., who joined Southern Research this fall as STEM education specialist, said STEM Day can help students turn their passion for science into a career.

“It’s awesome that we can give these students an opportunity to see what it’s like to be a real-life scientist or engineer,” she said. “It’s one thing to see them on TV or elsewhere in the media, but to actually get in the lab and participate helps open students’ eyes to new opportunities.”

STEM Day featured multidisciplinary, hands-on experiments across Southern Research’s focus areas, including Drug Discovery, Drug Development, Engineering and Energy & Environment.

Participants also had lunch with scientists and members of the Jefferson County Legislative Delegation.

Sonya Scott, who teaches chemistry at Mobile County’s Mary G. Montgomery High School, said STEM Day is a valuable experience for students and teachers.

For students, it’s an opportunity to see what scientists do every day and learn about the path to their careers.

“They’re also seeing how chemistry crosses with biology, and they’re using techniques in the lab we haven’t done, as well as different instruments we don’t have access to,” she said.

Scott said she also learned a lot about Southern Research’s ground-breaking research and discoveries. And the students’ experience in the lab will support her classroom instruction.

“Chemistry can be very abstract in the classroom, especially when we talk about nanoliters and microliters, units that are so tiny. Today, they were able to see that professionals actually use these things, and it’s not just something I’m telling them they need to know,” she said.

‘MAKING CHANGE HAPPEN’

Kelsey Kennedy, an environmental science teacher at Wilcox Central High School, said her students were excited to attend STEM Day and talked about it all week before the trip.

“We come from a low-income county, and this is a great opportunity for our students,” she said. “Our school’s motto is ‘Excellence is the Only Standard,’ and this event fits in well with that.”

One of those students, junior Makayla Kidd, said she learned a lot from an experiment that separated hydrogen from oxygen and carbon.

Kidd said she previously didn’t have an interest in the STEM field, but now she wants to learn more about its careers and majors.

“This is something I really enjoy doing, and I plan on doing a lot more of it,” she said.

Art Tipton, Ph.D., Southern Research president and CEO, said the organization is proud to host STEM Day.

“We are thrilled to again host this annual event that seeks to broaden the minds of interested students and help shape the next generation of researchers and scientists,” he said. “These real-world experiments serve as inspirational, aspirational and educational ways to promote STEM-related fields to those who will one day lead the charge in making change happen globally.”

Southern Research will officially open a new STEM lab at the Southside campus this week, part of the nonprofit organization’s increased efforts to attract more students to careers in the field.

The innovative space is a hybrid lab that will support an interdisciplinary approach, said Kathryn Lanier, Ph.D., Southern Research’s first STEM Education Outreach Director.

It is currently outfitted with equipment and supplies to conduct both physical and life science experiments in a fully-functioning lab setting. Eventually, it will feature 3D printers, robotics equipment, coding software and more to form a true maker space as well.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony will be held on Wednesday for the lab, which occupies nearly the entire second floor of the library and can accommodate about 50 students.

“It looks amazing,” Lanier said. “It’s an inspirational place to be, a fun place that inspires creativity and innovation.”

Lanier, who joined Southern Research last year, has been busy ramping up STEM education efforts, hosting numerous events for students and teachers.

“Our scientists love having students in the lab, but at the same time, they have important day jobs solving the world’s hardest problems,” she said. “This space allows us to bring students here on a regular basis. My goal is to have students here every day.”

The lab already has been used by teachers who are participating in Southern Research’s Summer Internship for STEM Educators (SIPSE) program and students who are part of the Alabama Governor’s School honors program.

INSPIRING YOUNG PEOPLE

Southern Research’s investment in the lab is an important milestone in its efforts to shape the next generation of STEM professionals in Alabama, said Art Tipton, Ph.D., CEO and president of the organization.

“It’s an exciting tool in our mission to introduce young people across the state to the fields of science, technology, engineering and math,” he said. “This is where students will learn new lessons, make interesting discoveries and perhaps start dreaming of careers they never considered before.”

Southern Research continues to roll out a robust lineup of STEM education initiatives.

SIPSE is a professional development program for Alabama high school teachers and provides paid summer internships for 9^th– through 12^th-grade educators. Teachers from schools in the Jefferson County, Chilton County, Russell County, Tarrant City and Hoover City school systems are already participating.

They are working with Southern Research professionals in several areas, including Cancer Therapeutics, Parkinson’s Disease, Schizophrenia, Environmental Science/Engineering/Internet of Things and Vaccine Development.

Southern Research will give each teacher $1,000 to buy supplies for their classrooms so they can implement a new lab or activity based on what they learned through SIPSE.

One participant, Janet Ort of Hoover High School, developed an environmental sensor as part of her SIPSE project and is currently in the Amazon collecting real environmental data using this sensor. She will leave the sensor in the Amazon and will continue to collect data from it upon her return to the U.S.

There’s also the STEM Excellence Program (STEP), in which students representing nearly 30 high schools and eight counties across Alabama will gather at Southern Research for a week of discovery and innovation. STEP sessions are planned for July 16-20 and July 23-27.

The week will feature hands-on experiments in the new STEM lab, and UAB undergraduates serving as mentors for the students. Guest speakers will include Southern Research scientists and engineers, scientists from the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences, marine biologists conducting research in Antarctica and an astrobiologist working with NASA to explore other planets.

STEP will promote discovery and teach problem solving skills and teamwork, while enhancing student understanding of the technology skills necessary to be successful in STEM careers. Lab investigation topics will include environmental engineering, molecular biology, computer science and robotics.

DEVELOPING PROBLEM SOLVERS

Last month, Southern Research participated in the annual National Organization of Black Elected Legislative (N.O.B.E.L.) Women Conference, which was held at The Westin Birmingham.

The conference featured the group’s STEM education program, Girls, Gigabytes and Gadgets, and Southern Research helped provide instruction for about 60 local girls who participated.

“It was such a good experience for these girls, who were able to interact with Southern Research scientists and engineers, as well as strong African-American women who are elected leaders,” Lanier said.

Other recent STEM education efforts included a Spring Break Camp, which gave about 80 Central Alabama students hands-on experience conducting lab experiments, and a Black History Month Science Fair, which called for students to create projects that complemented the research of an African-American scientist or engineer.

Expanded STEM education not only benefits schools and students across Alabama, it also enhances the potential of Southern Research’s future workforce, Lanier said.

“It’s the right thing to do, to give back to the community we live in, and it’s also a pipeline of new talent for us, by exposing students to this field and developing them into critical thinkers and problem solvers.”

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Forget the beach or the mountains. One of the coolest places to be this Spring Break is the lab at Southern Research.

About 80 Central Alabama students are expected to spend this week at the organization’s Southside campus, conducting experiments much like the ones researchers do there every day.

It’s Spring Break Camp, part of expanded STEM education efforts aimed at sparking students’ interest toward careers in the field.

On Monday, students measured the effect of caffeine on cardiovascular function using chick embryos. In some cases, the work didn’t go as planned, as some chicks didn’t have heartbeats.

But that was an important lesson for students, said Kathryn Lanier, Ph. D., Southern Research’s first STEM Education Outreach Director.

“Science doesn’t always work. There’s a lot of trial and error, and they are getting real world career exposure here,” she said.

For Abel Lopez, a senior at Bibb County High School, the camp is meaningful step toward his planned career as a neurosurgeon and medical researcher, a choice he traces to childhood.

“When I was 4, my dad had a brain tumor, and the doctors at UAB saved his life,” he said. “I’m going to be starting UAB in the fall, and I will be the first-generation college student in my family.”

Lopez said the camp has exceeded his expectations, because of the hands-on experiments.

“I’ve toured a couple of other labs, and it was all ‘just looking,’” he said. “This is great. I was not aware we had a place like this so close to home.”

Some of the students participating in this week’s camp are part of Upward Bound, a college preparatory program for students from low-income families and families in which neither parent has a bachelor’s degree. Others are part of the Boys & Girls Club and home school groups.

Working with the students are Southern Research scientists, including Michelle Valderas, director of Infectious Disease Preparedness Initiatives, who helped the group with the chick embryo experiment. Her daughter Tori, a sophomore at Vestavia Hills High School, is participating as a volunteer helper all week.

“I hope they learn a little about how to design an experiment and how to look at their results in an objective way,” Valderas said. “I hope they also learn how science isn’t perfect, how our own biases can taint our experimental results and how we can use math to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

Delbra Peoples, a sophomore at Montevallo High School, said she has always been interested in STEM, and events like the camp help her make decisions about her future education and career.

“It’s cool to see the work they’re doing here, and it furthers my knowledge,” she said.

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