"Science Field Trip to MIT" High School Outreach Program effort led by Mandana Sassanfar On March 24, 2003, during Spring Break at MIT, we organized a "Science Field Trip to MIT" that involved approximately 90 students from four Boston area high schools and their teachers. Highlights of the day included lectures by Professor Eric Lander, director of the Broad Institute and Susan Lindquist, director of the Whitehead Institute. After the lectures, students broke out into smaller group activities such as: a discussion with Professor Gobind Khorana, 1966 Nobel Laureate, about cracking the genetic code, and an account of his personal journey from his native India to America; an exercise on protein structure and function adapted from our Swiss Protein Viewer project; and a lab exercise based on microscopic observation of Zebrafish embryos. The several hundred embryos at different stages of development were generously provided by the Sive and Hopkins labs. The protein structure-function exercise was done in the TEAL room which allowed students to each have a laptop computer (see picture). Due to the high demand in 2004, we held lectures and hands-on activities on two successive days allowing over 200 students from 9 schools to participate. Professor Hazel Sive gave a lecture about vertebrate development, and Professor Jonathan King gave a lecture on protein structure. Students were then able to study and manipulate the structure of the hemoglobin and porin proteins on laptop computers using Swiss Protein Viewer, and observe wild type and mutant Zebrafish embryo at various stages of development under the microscope. The high school field trip was run again in March of 2005. AP and honors biology students from Lawerence, Hudson, Peabody, Newburyport, CRLS, and Arlington attended the event. The students participated in 3 hour-long activities. These programs involved using the Deep View protein structure program, observing zebrafish development, and using Lego kits to model meiosis. In addition to these activities, students were able to visit several laboratories throughout the biology department, including the electron microscope facility, a C. elegans lab, a drosophilia lab, and a yeast genetics lab. The field trip was run again in March of 2006 and limited to students concurrently taking AP biology in the greater Boston area. The high school students again participated in lectures and laboratories, but were the first students ever to use the new TEALSim PDBviewer developed here at MIT. The students enjoyed using the software and their teachers hoped to try using it in their schools. Coverage in the MIT press 2003 Coverage in the MIT press 2005 Coverage in Department of Biology

One teacher wrote in a letter of thanks: "My students enjoyed our trip so much! Thank you for this opportunity. Their favorite part of the field trip was the zebra fish lab. They enjoyed looking through the microscope at the embryos. The mutants and watching the circulatory system fascinated them. My students were greatful that they had the opportunity to learn "real" science that is happening currently. It opened their minds to possiblities they might not have known of before..." More about the Biology Department's Outreach Efforts

Zebrafish embryos A sophomore from Holliston wrote: "I really enjoyed yesterday's field trip to MIT. The lectures were interesting and informative, and since I had some background information in the two topics covered, I was able to understand what the two professors were talking about. My favorite part of the day, were the two labs. Both labs were extremely interesting. It was fun to play around with the computer program, as well as look at the zebrafish. I especially liked being able to see the mutant zebrafish under the microscopes."