Feb 23, 2012 | 02:54
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Jun 01, 2011
CityLab: 'Feeling like Watson and Crick'
“Wake up in the morning feelin’ like Watson and Crick.
Grab my labcoat and goggles, I’m gonna hit this City(Lab).
Before I leave, brush my teeth with some nucelotides,
‘Cuz when I leave for my lab, I’m going to transcribe.”
Thus begins UCLA science students’ DNA-focused YouTube parody of the Ke$ha song “Tik Tok,” a catchy pop-culture reference that definitely grabs the attention of sleepy high schoolers when they arrive for a day of lab work with UCLA’s energetic CityLab program.
The Bruins running the program know how important it is to make science fun. Through CityLab, which celebrates its 10th anniversary this year, undergrads bring students from low-performing high schools to UCLA and have just five hours to make science both understandable and appealing.
The freedom to make topics like gel electrophoresis exciting is part of the appeal for the undergrad teachers, said Eric Chan, a CityLab co-director and senior majoring in computational and systems biology. He joined as a sophomore as a way to teach and volunteer at the same time.
“The ultimate goal is to excite the high schoolers about science, and since we have a lot of control over how we teach, we’re able to make it fun and animated,” Chan said. “I love hearing their energy and excitement. It kind of reignites my own passion to remember how rare it is for most people to be able to do these kinds of lab experiments.”
It has huge benefits for both the high schoolers and the college students, said Dwayne D. Simmons, the CityLab faculty advisor and a professor in Integrative Biology and Physiology.
“The high school students get an experience of what it’s like to be in the UCLA environment and participate in a real lab,” Simmons said. “The undergrads are also inspired. They’re giving to the community in a fun way, and they’re learning. They know the lessons already, but it’s very different to learn the material well enough to teach it.”
Simmons meets a few times each quarter with the two co-directors. As their faculty adviser, Simmons signs off on purchases of new lab materials and helps maintain a long-term vision for the program as the students graduate and leave – a long-term vision which includes more of their educational music-video parodies, he said (“They’re so cool”). But overall, it’s the students who run the program.
“They’re incredibly self-sufficient,” Simmons said. A team of 13 students form the CityLab staff, and they manage the program: they find and schedule the high schools for visits, charter the buses, develop the curriculum, apply for grants, administer the labs, recruit new members and more. Although the student-teachers can enroll in the program for UCLA credit for two quarters, many of the undergrads in CityLab return as volunteers. In fact, most of the staff includes these experienced CityLabbers, who earn neither money nor credits for their hours of work.
“Seeing the high schoolers ask questions and get into it, and change their minds about coming to college is really rewarding,” said Kevin Terashima, a fourth-year neuroscience major and co-director of CityLab, who got involved as a sophomore. “I loved it and kept on doing it.”
In fact, at least one current member came to UCLA because of his high school experience attending CityLab, Terashima said. The group is developing tracking tools to find out how many students CityLab inspires to attend college and major in science, said Angela Gee, CityLab’s staff liaison and an academic administrator in the Undergraduate Research Center. CityLab is housed in the URC, through which the Division of Undergraduate Education under Dean Judith Smith provides some of their funding.
“It’s been an amazing decade. CityLab was very novel when the idea first came up,” Gee said. “The program targets high schools without many resources and that have minorities who are so underrepresented in the sciences. The idea is to give these students the opportunity to realize they do have potential in science. A lot of them don’t realize they can do it.”
Terashima and Chan work with about 40 CityLab members, and four Saturdays each quarter the group hosts about 60 high school students on campus. The week before is given over to prep. Most of the CityLabbers are science majors, and even the handful of humanities majors have to take science prerequisites to join, but they all still have to learn how to teach. The students use outlines of the curriculum to develop their own presentations. After a weekday dry-run in front of their peers, they incorporate feedback for the real thing. Friday before the big day, they pitch in to set up three to five laboratories that UCLA faculty have volunteered to open up for the weekend program.
Saturday morning, a bus of high schoolers rolls into the Ackerman turnaround around 9 a.m. After a tour of campus, they gather for a series of presentations about one of CityLab’s three specialties: DNA forensics, sickle cell anemia, or disease analysis. The high school teachers choose one, and the day starts with a skit or music-video parody, followed by in-depth presentations on the science and how to do the lab. For example, the DNA lesson starts with a video about a stolen sandwich and the scene of the crime before the group splits up to rotate through three 20-minute info sessions.
“Then there’s a presentation about replication, transcription, RNA and DNA so they have a solid basis,” Chan said. “Then we talk about how our lab project, gel electrophoresis, is used in crime-scene analysis. And there’s a biotechnology presentation, a fun one about innovation and how DNA is used outside of crime-scene analysis.”
Then it’s time for the hands-on lab work: testing DNA samples to compare to the crime scene. With more than 40 undergrads to work with the 60 or so high schoolers, there’s lots of individual attention. The group breaks for lunch while waiting for the test results. Lunch gives both groups of students a chance to get to know each other and talk about college life, Chan said. CityLab volunteers hand out their email addresses and encourage the high schoolers to get in touch.
By 2:30, the high schoolers have checked their lab results, reunited for one more skit or musical by the undergrads to conclude the lesson, and reboarded the bus. CityLab doesn’t know how many students will stick with science, but the high schoolers definitely remember the CityLab videos, Terashima said.
“We get really great emails,” he said. “The high schoolers say, ‘I showed this to all my friends, and we’re using this to study for the test because you made it easy to understand.’ That’s really rewarding.”
Grab my labcoat and goggles, I’m gonna hit this City(Lab).
Before I leave, brush my teeth with some nucelotides,
‘Cuz when I leave for my lab, I’m going to transcribe.”
Thus begins UCLA science students’ DNA-focused YouTube parody of the Ke$ha song “Tik Tok,” a catchy pop-culture reference that definitely grabs the attention of sleepy high schoolers when they arrive for a day of lab work with UCLA’s energetic CityLab program.
In this screengrab from a CityLab music video parody, one of the group's undergrad teachers takes a turn singing about DNA to the tune of Ke$ha's song "Tik Tok."
The freedom to make topics like gel electrophoresis exciting is part of the appeal for the undergrad teachers, said Eric Chan, a CityLab co-director and senior majoring in computational and systems biology. He joined as a sophomore as a way to teach and volunteer at the same time.
“The ultimate goal is to excite the high schoolers about science, and since we have a lot of control over how we teach, we’re able to make it fun and animated,” Chan said. “I love hearing their energy and excitement. It kind of reignites my own passion to remember how rare it is for most people to be able to do these kinds of lab experiments.”
It has huge benefits for both the high schoolers and the college students, said Dwayne D. Simmons, the CityLab faculty advisor and a professor in Integrative Biology and Physiology.
“The high school students get an experience of what it’s like to be in the UCLA environment and participate in a real lab,” Simmons said. “The undergrads are also inspired. They’re giving to the community in a fun way, and they’re learning. They know the lessons already, but it’s very different to learn the material well enough to teach it.”
CityLab faculty advisor Professor Dwayne Simmons (right) in the lab with co-directors Kevin Terashima (left) and Eric Chan (center). Photo by Reed Hutchinson.
“They’re incredibly self-sufficient,” Simmons said. A team of 13 students form the CityLab staff, and they manage the program: they find and schedule the high schools for visits, charter the buses, develop the curriculum, apply for grants, administer the labs, recruit new members and more. Although the student-teachers can enroll in the program for UCLA credit for two quarters, many of the undergrads in CityLab return as volunteers. In fact, most of the staff includes these experienced CityLabbers, who earn neither money nor credits for their hours of work.
“Seeing the high schoolers ask questions and get into it, and change their minds about coming to college is really rewarding,” said Kevin Terashima, a fourth-year neuroscience major and co-director of CityLab, who got involved as a sophomore. “I loved it and kept on doing it.”
In fact, at least one current member came to UCLA because of his high school experience attending CityLab, Terashima said. The group is developing tracking tools to find out how many students CityLab inspires to attend college and major in science, said Angela Gee, CityLab’s staff liaison and an academic administrator in the Undergraduate Research Center. CityLab is housed in the URC, through which the Division of Undergraduate Education under Dean Judith Smith provides some of their funding.
Students gather in the CityLab auditorium for a presentation.
Terashima and Chan work with about 40 CityLab members, and four Saturdays each quarter the group hosts about 60 high school students on campus. The week before is given over to prep. Most of the CityLabbers are science majors, and even the handful of humanities majors have to take science prerequisites to join, but they all still have to learn how to teach. The students use outlines of the curriculum to develop their own presentations. After a weekday dry-run in front of their peers, they incorporate feedback for the real thing. Friday before the big day, they pitch in to set up three to five laboratories that UCLA faculty have volunteered to open up for the weekend program.
Saturday morning, a bus of high schoolers rolls into the Ackerman turnaround around 9 a.m. After a tour of campus, they gather for a series of presentations about one of CityLab’s three specialties: DNA forensics, sickle cell anemia, or disease analysis. The high school teachers choose one, and the day starts with a skit or music-video parody, followed by in-depth presentations on the science and how to do the lab. For example, the DNA lesson starts with a video about a stolen sandwich and the scene of the crime before the group splits up to rotate through three 20-minute info sessions.
“Then there’s a presentation about replication, transcription, RNA and DNA so they have a solid basis,” Chan said. “Then we talk about how our lab project, gel electrophoresis, is used in crime-scene analysis. And there’s a biotechnology presentation, a fun one about innovation and how DNA is used outside of crime-scene analysis.”
Then it’s time for the hands-on lab work: testing DNA samples to compare to the crime scene. With more than 40 undergrads to work with the 60 or so high schoolers, there’s lots of individual attention. The group breaks for lunch while waiting for the test results. Lunch gives both groups of students a chance to get to know each other and talk about college life, Chan said. CityLab volunteers hand out their email addresses and encourage the high schoolers to get in touch.
By 2:30, the high schoolers have checked their lab results, reunited for one more skit or musical by the undergrads to conclude the lesson, and reboarded the bus. CityLab doesn’t know how many students will stick with science, but the high schoolers definitely remember the CityLab videos, Terashima said.
“We get really great emails,” he said. “The high schoolers say, ‘I showed this to all my friends, and we’re using this to study for the test because you made it easy to understand.’ That’s really rewarding.”
