For one week this summer, students from local high schools came together to study genetics in Project GENES, and even take a look at their own genes.

The project, supported by the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, involves students from Gray Stone Day School, Independence High School and Phillip O. Berry Academy of Technology in hands-on activities, labs and field trips involving DNA.

These students recently met for a residential camp at Pfeiffer University, where biology professors Dane Fisher and Laura Reichenberg guided them through genetics investigations.

Our goal is to do STEM [science, technology, engineering, and math] outreach to high school students, with a focus on students underrepresented in science, Reichenberg said. We collaborate with their high school science teachers and the teachers recruit students each year.

The students recruited take part in Project GENES for one year. Fisher and Reichenberg visit their high schools for DNA modules that increase in complexity, then the students come together for the summer camp, where they put in practice what they have learned.

Theyre basically isolating their own DNA. They get to amplify one of their own genes, Reichenberg said.

Students run tests on their PTC gene, a gene that determines a persons ability or inability to taste a specific flavor. Students then get the chance to try to taste the flavor, comparing those results with their lab work.

This year, students attending the camp took a field trip to the North Carolina Research Campus in Kannapolis, where they looked at samples under microscopes and tested them for antimicrobial properties.

According to Reichenberg, several students who attended the Project GENES camps in previous years have since graduated and gone on to STEM careers.

The former Oakboro Elementary is scheduled to open in August as Oakboro Choice STEMSchool for kindergarten through eighth grade.

Marina Shankle is a freelance contributor for The Stanly News &Press.

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IT'S ALL ABOUT THE GENES: High school students participate in genetics camp - Stanly News & Press