Fall 2007 -- Vol. 60, No. 4

Try to imagine a virtual superhighway of “science” connecting every county in South Carolina. One that carries the snap, cracklin’ latest discoveries in biology, natural history and life sciences to middle and high school students and teachers across the state.

This highway allows a constant flow of ideas among Clemson faculty, classroom teachers and schoolchildren — all scientists, both large and small.

In high schools, it attracts the state’s academically elite students who already have multiple scholarship offers as well as economically challenged students who may become the first in their families to attend college. It engages Extension services and other in-state campuses and programs.

Clemson’s SC LIFE program has paved the way for this exciting interchange of knowledge and inquiry for the past 10 years, with major support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Undergraduate Science Education Program. And the traffic is heavy.

Welcome S.C. teachers!

SC LIFE offers on-campus, on-site and distant-learning graduate courses for in-service teachers — from “River Explorations” to “What Is Bioinformatics?” to “Welcome to the Gene Age” — all designed for teachers’ needs and schedules.

It provides hands-on materials, including interactive CDs, lesson plans and SC LIFE footlockers. The footlockers, available for loan to trained teachers, are jampacked with laptop, digital camera and recorder, CD player, related software and equipment along with kits to study everything from ladybugs to bats and weather to water quality.

The greatest “material” available to classroom teachers just may be the knowledge and enthusiasm of Clemson faculty who teach courses and give presentations for SC LIFE. They’re centered in the College of Agriculture, Forestry and Life Sciences and include professors from the College of Engineering and Science and the College of Health, Education and Human Development.

‘Our Community, the Movie’

SC LIFE partners with teachers and students in selected schools throughout the state to guide them through research projects focusing on their own communities. Projects involve a team of faculty, Extension specialists and local folks.

For example, middle and high school students and teachers in Florence County School District 3 helped preserve the history and record the impact of growing tobacco in South Carolina. The end product is a DVD, “The Rise and Fall of Tobacco in the Lake City Market Area.”

Even more valuable than the DVD is the experience. The project stimulated interest in the sciences while fostering a respect for the community’s agricultural heritage. At the same time, it reviewed alternative economic opportunities that agricultural producers will pursue.

Students learned how to research, interview, record and communicate while their teachers earned course credit, savvy in new computer technology and success within the community.

An exam even students love

As a special incentive, each spring Clemson offers its Biology Merit Exam to S.C. middle and high school students. Its purpose is to recognize and reward outstanding student achievement and promote further interest in life sciences. 

While here for the exam, students get to experience campus and interact with scientists in various biological and agricultural areas including the new DNA Learning Center.

Through the award from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, SC LIFE brings to campus more than 200 students from distant and economically deprived middle and high schools by identifying biology teachers who want their students to participate and by subsidizing the registration, mileage and lodging expenses for their classes. 

Students compete for a spot on the team, and those who make it become “science celebrities” in their schools and honored guests at Clemson.

CSI: Clemson

SC LIFE offers opportunities for classes of middle and high school students to get their hands into biotechnology, genetics, forensics and natural history, using lessons developed by the Dolan DNA Learning Center and by K-12 teachers and Clemson researchers. These laboratory field trip lessons at the S.C. DNA Learning Center cover life sciences from molecules and cells to whole organisms and ecosystems.

Middle school students can analyze DNA restriction fingerprints and see how they’re used to solve crime. They can use forensic and DNA evidence to explore a history mystery — what happened to the lost Romanov princess, Anastasia.

High school students can learn the basis of recombinant DNA technologies, create their own DNA fingerprint, discover which foods are genetically modified and do other gene sleuthing.

Young scientists ROCK

For rising high school seniors, SC LIFE and the S.C. Governor’s School for Science and Mathematics provide summer research internships. Teens are paired with researchers at various state universities and given an average of six weeks to conduct an original research project in field or laboratory setting. 

Projects range from tracking dangerous weather patterns, to making our food supply safer, to developing new surgical procedures.

They present their findings in a poster session. They also submit a formal abstract and present their work again at the annual S.C. Governor’s School for Science and Mathematics Research Colloquium.

For undergraduates, SC LIFE supports up to 90 research projects at Clemson and three historically black universities. Their research looks into highway maintenance, production of biofuels, gene study, use of traditional crops for novel protein biopolymers and much more.

Clemson currently has approximately 70 students conducting life sciences research with 30 faculty. They’ll present findings at the SC LIFE Colloquium of Undergraduate Research in the spring.

Fueling the sizzle

SC LIFE is driven by the marathon energy of Barbara Speziale, associate dean of Academic Outreach and Summer Academic Programs. Her experience covers every aspect of the program from biological sciences professor to Extension specialist to high school biology textbook specialist.

Fueled by her passion, her project manager, Ginger Foulk, and her team of faculty, SC LIFE has received $5.4 million in support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute since 1998. The program has earned the respect of this acclaimed institute by its solid record of outreach.

• SC LIFE has worked with middle and high school students in almost every S.C. county. It has supported more than 1,200 students from Lowcountry schools to participate in the annual Biology Merit Exam.

• It has sponsored 227 high school student internships with the Governor’s School and another 290 undergraduate student research projects at Clemson and S.C. historically black colleges and universities.

• SC LIFE has attracted other grants to expand its program, including a $1.9 million NSF grant to encourage and support “first generation” students.

• And for every teacher it has enriched, the program continues to impact that teacher’s new class of S.C. students every single year.

SC LIFE is a rich, dynamic pipeline of science excellence from grade school to college to the workplace and ultimately to the economy of South Carolina. And it’s a resource our state doesn’t have to import.

For more information about SC LIFE programs, go online at www.clemson.edu/SCLife or contact Ginger Foulk at (864) 656-4224 or foulk@clemson.edu. For more about the DNA Learning Center, go to www.clemson.edu/scdnalc or contact Bob Ballard at (864) 656-3579 or ballard@clemson.edu.