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Students from area schools visit microbiology labs

Wednesday, May 04, 2016

Twice this semester, Iowa middle school students have visited the University of Iowa campus and the Department of Microbiology labs to learn more about research at Iowa.  Discussions were led by Microbiology graduate student Ashley Cooney (McCray Lab) and Professor Al Klingelhutz and topics included cancer and inheriting genetic traits.  

In April, Ashley Cooney led 7th graders from Trinity Lutheran School of Cedar Rapids in a discussion of how a cell becomes cancerous as mutations arise, how cancer spreads throughout the body, and why it's so hard to treat.  The students were able to view live HeLa cells and learned about the origin of the cell line and the historical importance. They also learned how traits are inherited and discovered more about heredity through the use of Punnett squares. The students were very inquisitive and took away some valuable information about research at the University of Iowa.  

Students from MFL Marmac Middle School of Monona and Clinton Middle School visited Professor Al Klingelhutz’s lab on May 2nd for a “Meet the Researcher” event to learn about how research is performed and how cancer cells become immortal.  They were selected from the two top schools in the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's "Pennies for Patients" event.  Each school selected twenty students to visit the lab.