by Dan Toomey 7th- and 8th-Grade Science Teacher, Edgewood Campus School
8th-grade members of the SMART team
Often we as science teachers talk about things that are not readily seen by the human eye. We discuss and investigate the microscopic world as if we know it as an old friend. Topics like biology, chemistry, and physics provide us with the ability to share the wonders of life and the universe with our students. But how can we bring the invisible molecular world to our students in a fun, standards-orientated way that is not too over-the-top? Recently, our school has participated in a biochemistry program through Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE) entitled Students Modeling a Research Topic (SMART) that attempts to communicate the magnificence of the unseen world to middle and high school students.
The SMART team program connects middle and high school students with research scientists to experience the real world of science that exists in an active research laboratory. Initially, teams are paired with a mentor who is researching a specific problem. In the past we have worked with a UW-Madison researcher investigating a possible cure for Alzheimer’s disease; this year we are learning about HIV Protease with the guidance of another researcher from the UW.
There are 14 local SMART teams in Wisconsin and several other remote teams from Canada to California. The Edgewood Campus School team is one of two middle school teams in Wisconsin while the rest of the representatives are high school age. The primary goal of this program is to bring a real-world view of science outside of the classroom and into a research laboratory.
This process begins with a trip to MSOE on Saturday morning for some molecular basics. Students and teachers from the local teams meet and learn about the structure of amino acids, peptides, polypeptides, and protein structures. Then, examples from proteins that are currently in the news (like the Shiga toxin, responsible for the E-coli outbreak in 2006, and THG or “the clear,” a steroid that enhances physical performance) are examined in detail to understand the relationship between the structure and function of the molecules. Students and teachers then utilize RASMol, a 3-D computer program that allows users to program proteins to be viewed at different angles to see just what occurs when there is a slight mutation between specific atoms.
A prior SMART team at Edgewood Campus School learned, with the assistance of their mentor UW-Madison Pharmacy Professor Dr. Jeffrey Johnson, that the transthyretin protein presents a possible cure for Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers in Dr. Johnson’s lab discovered that mice can produce certain levels of transthyretin that essentially prevent the disease from killing neurons in the brain.
SMART team students then completed the program with a skit and poster presentation at Discovery World depicting the story of this discovery in Dr. Johnson’s lab, with a little bit of middle school fun. Each of the SMART teams presented their topics in Milwaukee, so students were able to enjoy the interesting topics of other schools involved in the program. One of the nice things about the SMART team program is that it is noncompetitive. MSOE faculty and staff strive for a more collaborative approach for students, and from a teacher’s perspective, that is quite refreshing.