A Recipe for Synergy:

Mix idealistic college undergraduates with a great idea, inquisitive high school students who want to know more about science that's making the news, an innovative faculty member willing to do whatever it takes to set this in motion, and a receptive high school science curriculum coordinator who decides this is worth a try. Add enthusiasm, creativity and commitment; blend students from two very different academic disciplines and stir with nearly obsessive determination. Buy the best ingredients with support from the university, college and three of its departments. Finally, put it to the taste-test at four different Columbus high schools-and voila! A dish fit to put before the Queen-Synergy in its purest form!

Take an idea...

In the Autumn of 1998, molecular genetics undergraduate, David Jones, knocked on faculty member Amanda Simcox's door. He had an idea.

Jones, who had volunteered at Linden-McKinley High School, thought it would be great if he and some other students could do an outreach project in local schools that would involve some aspect of modern molecular biology.

Molecular Genetics Department Chair Lee Johnson put Simcox and the students on the track of BioRad DNA fingerprinting kits, which would allow them to set up a DNA laboratory to teach high school students the basics of DNA fingerprinting.

Simcox saw the idea's possibilities immediately. She then began to investigate how to make it work.

First, she applied for and received a grant from the President's Council on Outreach and Engagement with matching funds from the College of Biological Sciences and three of its departments: Biochemistry, Microbiology and Molecular Genetics. The funding allowed Simcox to purchase state-of-the art portable equipment. Then, she approached Gloria Letts, Science Curriculum Supervisor for Columbus Public Schools, and the two began to work out logistics.

Gather the ingredients...

In the winter and spring of 2000, Simcox and her students (members of the undergraduate student clubs from the three participating departments) who had volunteered their time and energy to be the teacher/trainers, set out to deliver the techniques of modern, molecular biology to four Columbus high schools.

To make the project even more compelling for high school students, Simcox wanted to develop a story/video that would set up a crime scene that the students could solve using DNA analysis. She needed a little outside expertise. Simcox enlisted the aid of Dan Boord of the Theater Department, who saw a great learning opportunity for his students. Simcox and Boord held a script-writing competition open to everyone on campus. The winning script by film student Ross Headley, "The DNA Files," was a droll take on "The X-Files." Many of Boord's students helped with the project, among them, David Gelb, who shot the video and Jason Swank, who headed the production team, which auditioned actors and got a local film studio to donate $25,000 in equipment and studio time to produce a professional looking video.

Mix well and bring to a simmer...

With the film students' video and Simcox's cartoon Power Point presentation in hand, along with BioRad, the sophisticated, portable DNA fingerprinting equipment, they were ready to cook.

The workshops were divided into three segments and set up to take place over a three-day period.

On Day One, the scene is set; the first part of the video introduces the crime and Simcox goes over the basics of the science.

Day Two turns the high-school students into "FBI" lab experts, running the gel electrophoresis on the "crime scene samples." While they wait for results, the students discuss what they have learned. Also, the students, who have been asked to think about what the possibility of genetic screening might mean to their own lives and its impact on society, are encouraged to talk about these issues. With the college students facilitating the process, lively debate ensues.

On Day Three, the students solve the crime.

The high-school students get to see how what they have only read about actually works. Simcox explains, "We have the students compare the banding pattern to match samples. Without DNA you are left to figure out a psychological probability. It hammers home how criminology has changed-DNA is a powerful way to link you to a place."

Serve it forth...

The euphoria of the high school students on Day Three was the payoff for the intense efforts of Simcox and the biological sciences students.

Simcox does not deny that it was exhausting: "You have to work it into everybody's schedules, get stuff ready, pack it up, arrange the car pools; it takes a lot of organization. You have to arrive ahead of time. It is a great time commitment-the preparation, getting there, setting up, cleaning-up, packing up again."

Part of what made it grueling, Simcox says, was that there were no time-outs, "All the usual university work went on in parallel."

All in all, she believes it was worth it, although in the future she would like to see a workable solution for the hectic pace. "I think the university needs to release faculty to do this kind of thing and schedule class time to facilitate undergrad participation. Some of our peer institutions do this.

"For the undergraduates, this was a fantastic experience, because they had the chance to teach, to be the experts."

"And for the high school students, it was a unique opportunity to get the kind of cutting-edge, hands-on learning experience that is normally absolutely unavailable to them. It was additionally an opportunity to interact with potential role models not too far removed from them in age, who could give them a little taste of what college life might be like for them."

This project was a labor of love-and labor intensive. Twenty-some students carried out the work, while faculty members from the three departments, including faculty advisors from biochemistry and microbiology, Neil Baker and Venkat Gopalan, attended and assisted with some of the workshops. Baker did a great deal to help with the project and is carrying out a modified version of it this year while Simcox is on Sabbatical in England.

But it was Simcox who became the field general/head chef, coordinating her troops of student cooks and flawlessly executing an intricate plan of action that became a piece de resistance.

Four high schools participated: Fort Hayes, Linden-McKinley, Beechcroft, and West. At each high school, a series of workshops were given. At Fort Hayes, for example, the workshop was given to six different biology classes, involving about 300 students. Some days, Simcox and the bio sci students left campus early in the morning and returned late in the afternoon. While some of the classes were back-to-back, others involved individual, multiple trips in a single day.

The response from each school was more than worth the effort. Wildly enthusiastic is not too strong a term. Surveys collected from students at each school were overwhelmingly positive.

Teachers, students and administrators all agreed that it was a fantastic opportunity.

The icing on the cake for the high schools is a tape to remind them of the experience. The film students shot footage at each of the four participating high schools, which was edited into their own individual tape and presented as a memento.

The plan for the workshops consisted of two components. First, a workshop to give high school biology students hands-on experience with state-of-the art equipment and molecular-biology techniques, while looking at some of the issues this technology raises. The second, was to produce a documentary video to serve as a teaching tool and permanent personalized record of the workshop for the high schoolers.

The workshop were set up as "Who Dunnits" using DNA fingerprinting techniques. Theater Department undergrads produced a crime-scene scenario and video that can be used as a teaching tool. The experiments involve a DNA "who dunnit." As the story unfolds, the science project of a high school student named Todd, is sabotaged. There are four suspects. The FBI is called in to collect evidence-blood and hair traces left at the scene-and do interrogations. The agents send the samples for DNA testing. The high school students then become the crime-lab experts, using what they have been taught to determine the guilty party.