Inaugural Session of the Pre-College Programs’ Saturday Academy Program

Saturday, Sept 18th was the inaugural Session of the Pre-College Programs’ Saturday Academy Program. This Fall the Biology Graduate Student Outreach (BGO) group will be teaching a Saturday class once a month in the Woodward teaching labs. High school students will take the BGO designed (and taught) lab course through the STEM Pre-College Program run by the Cato College of Education. Students who participate in the lab course will be exposed to higher-level topics such as DNA fingerprinting, frog dissections, squid dissections, cardiovascular response to environmental stress. The first session introduced participants to the Central Dogma of biology. The program is designed for targeting participants in 9-10th grades, though the course is currently open for all high school students. Students will also get to participate in a Biotechnology course taught by Dr. Dunlap and attend guest speaker presentations set up by the STEM Pre-College Program. The program was started by the newly formed Biology Graduate Student Outreach (BGO) group led by graduate student Anne McMahon and advisors Dr. Paola Lopez-Duarte and Dr. Michelle Pass in partnership with the UNC Charlotte Center for STEM Education Pre College Program. The group aims to develop closer ties between our department and the greater Charlotte community.