Are You a Scientist? Exploring Science Identity in a Structural Biology Outreach Program

Abstract

At Marquette University, we developed a research‐intensive outreach lab dedicated to instructing high school students and undergraduate research mentors on techniques used in structural biology. The development of this outreach lab has raised specific questions on the effectiveness of engaging students in science through outreach programs. Specifically, does a semester long science outreach program that mimics a course‐based research experience increase students' perception of themselves as a science person by doing hands on experiments, group discussions and pre/post‐lab assignments? Which students (the high school students or undergraduate research mentors) are more positively influenced, if at all, and have a greater sense of identity in science? We hypothesized that all participants would have a positive gain in science identity but for different reasons. It was thought the high school students would have an increase in science identity due to exposure to an authentic research experience, while the undergraduates' science identity gain would be closely related to the mentoring of the high school students as they perform their experiments. Lab participants of the outreach lab express fluorescent proteins in bacteria and purify these proteins to subsequently determine the protein structure by X‐ray crystallography. These proteins are chosen because of their unique fluorescent properties that allow students to visualize the protein through the various stages of protein purification and protein crystallization. Seven main experiments are performed including: transformation, cell growth and induction, protein purification, screening conditions for crystallization, crystal refinements, and X‐ray diffraction of protein crystals. In order to assess science identity in our students, pre‐ and post‐surveys on how the students view themselves as a science person as well as a pre‐ and post‐exam were given. Due to the small sample size, the data were collected over two years with 22 participants. A focus group was another additional measure that was used to assess the students' perception of the outreach lab and the lab's impact on their science identity. Based on preliminary results, both the high school students and undergraduate research mentors had a positive gain in science identity after completing the outreach lab. Factors such as the type of experiments that were performed and the inclusive nature of the lab provided a space for the students to explore their science identity. This outreach lab can be used to engage both high school students and undergraduates in an authentic research experience that will increase students' engagement in science.This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.