The Ultimate Transformation: Teaching at NCSSM

By: Erica Carlisle, Honors College Sophomore

Going into my senior year of high school, if you had told me that the genetics class I was taking through the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics was going to lead to an amazing internship opportunity less than two years later, I would have told you that you were crazy. Taking Dr. Martyn’s class in videoconference format with students from across the state was a great opportunity. While we laughed a lot and had fun in class, it was the most challenging course I ever took in high school. When the semester ended, none of us thought that we would see or talk to Dr. Martyn again. We couldn’t have been more wrong! My classmate (and one of my best friends) Marissa and I kept in touch with her long after the class was over, and we talked to her regularly via email throughout our first semester of college. So when I left my chemistry lab one day in January and had an email from Dr. Martyn on my phone, I just assumed she was checking in to see how the new semester was going.

What it actually turned out to be was an offer for a summer internship in which Marissa and I would have the chance to work as her lab assistants and help her with her summer program at NCSSM. So of course, we immediately texted each other about this exciting news and emailed her back later that day to tell her that we were definitely interested. Once we confirmed our interest, she sent us the details. We would be helping her with her Summer Accelerator program offered by NCSSM to high school students. Dr. Martyn’s students were doing a cloning lab. They were going to be transforming E. coli bacteria to glow in the dark. Groups of students would come in for a week at a time, and during the week they would perform DNA extractions, load and run agarose gels for electrophoresis, and at the end of the week, they would transform and plate their bacteria in hopes that they would get glowing colonies.

This lab is very hands-on, and there is a lot going on at any given time. My responsibilities were to aliquot solutions and prepare things that the students would need, answer any clarification questions that I could, help them with the procedure if they were confused, and to run and get anything that we needed in the lab so that Dr. Martyn didn’t have to leave the students. The days were very busy, but it was most definitely worth it to see the students learning and beginning to trust themselves more in the lab.

The students weren’t the only ones learning, though. I learned a lot myself, because I got the chance to do things in the lab that I had never done before. I learned how to prepare different solutions, how to work with some of the equipment that we were using, how to run an electrophoresis gel, and how to pour plates with media so that the E. coli would grow. I also improved my lab technique, developed more patience, and realized that I love teaching people about things that I enjoy.

This experience was absolutely incredible, and I got way more out of it than I ever expected. Not only did I get to do really cool lab work and help students work through the lab protocol, but I was reminded of how at home I feel in a lab. I was reminded of how much I want to do research, and I realized that I might want to do it in this field. I think the thing that had the biggest impact on me, though, was watching the students learn and get excited about something that I love so much. It was so rewarding to see their work each day and to see their results at the end of the week. I couldn’t have possibly asked for a better way to spend part of my summer, and I can’t wait to see what next year has in store.

Until next time!

Erica