Summer program offers high school students head start on STEM careers

This summer, Sweet Home High School senior Kyel Sin Zaw got the chance to experiment inside a UB laboratory. 

The experiment? Alginic acid worms.

Alginic acid is a natural polymer found in brown algae that clumps together when exposed to calcium chloride salt, resulting in worm-like gels. The worms’ colors can then be manipulated through exposing food dyes to solutions with varying pH levels.

 The experiment provided Zaw with some of the fundamentals of analytical chemistry, but that wasn’t the main goal.

“I hope the main takeaway is not necessarily alginic acid worms, but becoming comfortable coming into a laboratory setting, putting on a lab coat and following a procedure,” said Madison Williams, the chemistry PhD student supervising the experiment. “Most high school students aren’t comfortable doing that. We want to minimize any discomfort as much as possible to set them up for future success.”

Zaw spent several weeks in the lab of Emanuela Gionfriddo, associate professor in the Department of Chemistry, as part of the Girls in STEM Together We Chem (GSTWC) program.

First offered in 2023 when Gionfriddo was at the University of Toledo, the GSTWC program is supported by the National Science Foundation and aimed at empowering high school students interested in a STEM career. 

“We give high school students the chance to do some very basic research projects in an academic laboratory, so they don’t have to have as much of a shock when they do make the transition to higher education,” Gionfriddo said.

Research has shown the importance of STEM exposure to pursuing and obtaining a STEM career. A Gallup survey of Gen Z students found those exposed to four or five technology-related topics in school are more than twice as likely to declare a college STEM major than their peers who are exposed to just one technology-related topic or none at all. They’re also over five times as likely to eventually be employed in a STEM role.

Zaw said she’s always been interested in science, so when she heard about the program through her high school chemistry class, her interest piqued.

“I really wanted to see more of what chemistry was all about and get more of a hands-on experience,” she said.

She said she felt a “a rush of excitement” getting a chance to work in Gionfriddo’s lab.

“I realized it’s not just about following instructions and going along with the rules. You also have to be patient and fully immerse yourself within the experiment,” she said.

 Zaw is interested in pursuing either chemistry, biology or health sciences when she attends college next year. 

“I feel like this has really exposed me to more of the chemistry side of STEM and will really help me decide what STEM field I want to pursue,” she said.

Helping students find their preferred STEM discipline is a major part of the program. Gionfriddo said many high school students turn away from STEM after a bad experience in one subject area. 

“Some find calculus too difficult. I’m sure some find chemistry difficult, too. But STEM is so much more than one or two subjects,” Gionfriddo said. “We really want the students to understand that if you pursue STEM, you can tune your degree and your career to what you’re passionate about.”

The program will be offered again next summer.