Patricia Ann Mabrouk, Associate Professor of Analytical Chemistry
Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115
ph: (617)373-2845; fax: (617)373-8795
pmabrouk@lynx.neu.edu

Over the last five years, I have been privileged to share my research lab in the summer with six bright, hard working, enthusiastic economically disadvantaged high school students. Together we have explored heme peptides, prepared bioconjugates, learned perfusion chromatography, cyclic voltammetry, and resonance Raman spectroscopy. My students have presented their work at science fair competitions, regional and national American Chemical Society conferences, and published papers. In the process, we have had a lot of great fun together! Most importantly, my students have graduated from high school and are enrolled on scholarship at local colleges and universities. My purpose in writing this paper is two-fold. First, I seek to challenge you to become involved as a mentor to deserving minority students in your local area. Secondly, I intend to provide you with specific information on methods I have found to be valuable in inspiring, challenging, and teaching my high school students the joys and rigors involved in doing chemical research.

Are you looking for a challenge? Would you like to make a real difference in a deserving high school student's life? Have you ever considered opening your research lab for eight-to-ten weeks during the summer to economically disadvantaged high school students? In this article, I would like to challenge you to consider doing just this. The experience will stretch, enrich, and exhilarate you. You will see your lab, department and university in a whole new way and best of all you will have an opportunity to really make a difference in the world - introducing your students to college, college-life, and real-world research. You will stimulate your students' inquiry, help them foster a deep lifelong love of learning, help them develop effective thinking, solid communication and life management skills, and develop in your students a healthy self-confidence in their ability to make meaningful contributions to our world.

Over five years ago my best friend telephoned me to share her college's successful summer ACS SEED (acronym for Summer Educational Experience for the Disadvantaged) program for minority high school students. Her ardent enthusiasm made me an instant convert. Since summer 1994, I have been privileged to welcome six bright, enthusiastic minority high school students to my graduate research group at Northeastern University in Boston, MA (Table 1). My experiences in working with these delightful students have convinced me that summer research experience at area colleges and universities may be pivotal educational experiences increasing the likelihood that minority students will go on to attend college and consider careers in science-related fields.

There are so many advantages to opening your lab to minority high school students. First, on one level opportunities like SEED gives these students a paid summer job. (The ACS SEED program pays first year participants who work in a lab for ten weeks a stipend of $1750.) Secondly, and more importantly it gives these students an opportunity to experience college and college life. I was surprised to learn that my very talented high school students are often unsure about whether they can go to college due to financial concerns and the complexity of their families' lives. Third, conducting research at an area college/university allows these students to see a modern scientific lab and to use modern analytical instrumentation. Students obtain valuable work experience, which is advantageous for college admission applications. In addition, students develop self-confidence, poise, and positive self-esteem through their interactions with undergraduates and graduate students in your research lab. Perhaps most importantly, actual participation in the scientific enterprise provides these students a vision for themselves that helps them to see themselves as capable of giving something to the world in roles they may not have thought possible before - as leaders and contributors to society and the world.

I have discovered that mentoring high school students is not incompatible with earning tenure and collegial respect, and doing frontier science at a highly competitive urban graduate research university. In fact, I have found that working with SEED students has greatly increased the educational value of the research experience I provide my undergraduate and graduate students, the quality of my group's science, and our ability to work together profitably as a team. My experiences continue to bring me a great deal of personal satisfaction as I watch my young charges mature and progress through college.

If you are patient, committed, and willing to take the time to teach them, your high school students can accomplish the same things as their undergraduate and graduate student colleagues. You will quickly discover that your high school colleagues simply do not know that they aren’t supposed to be able to do certain things including read technical reports from the primary literature, run HPLC instruments or Raman spectrometers, write papers, etc. These students do not take their education for granted. They are hardworking, willing to help each other, and they have high expectations regarding what they can accomplish in the lab. My students' strong work ethic, enthusiasm, and fearlessness have resulted in poster presentations at science fair competitions, regional and national American Chemical Society meetings, and two published papers to date.(1-2)

High school students are creative, independent thinkers, quick and insatiable learners, who are extremely hardworking yet who know how to enjoy life. These students will supercharge your lab with their enthusiasm and intense energy level. They are incredibly serious about their work and determined to succeed. They possess a refreshing belief that they can quite literally accomplish anything and everything that can be quite contagious and spark the most jaded undergraduate and graduate student to give their very best. It is this last characteristic of which you had best beware! With attitudes like I have described the sky will truly be the limit in your lab if you but choose to invest yourself in their education and mentor them well.

SEED students want project relevance, tangible results, and well-structured research projects. Most of all these students want to be taken seriously - treated as peers alongside their undergraduate and graduate student colleagues in the research enterprise.

One of the biggest challenges I have encountered is teaching my students the pace at which science is done. Most high school and college laboratory experiences mislead students to expect that science is about activity such as mixing solutions together and making measurements, or performing calculations. These experiences leave impressionable students with an unrealistic sense of the time and effort required to plan and execute a successful experiment. While it is tempting to identify "busy" activities that do not require reading and mental preparation, your will find that your students really appreciate being made full-partners in the scientific enterprise rather than being treated as technicians.

Communication skills represent another significant challenge. All of my students to date have learned English as a second language. While all of my students have had superior mathematical skills, I have observed that their communication skills (reading, writing, and public speaking) need improvement. Since both writing and public speaking are such important skills in science, I have made writing and speaking opportunities integral to my high school students' summer research experiences. I have found it to be very important to make my students feel comfortable communicating with everyone in the group. Because of the difficulties English presents for them and because students this age tend to be somewhat shy, making oral presentations can be difficult for them. So, I have encouraged my students to prepare their group meeting and poster presentations in writing which I review and then encourage them to use this material to prepare their oral report.

To be a good mentor all you need is to be enthusiastic, patient, have a good sense of humor, and be fairly organized. You don't need to be a rocket scientist and have all of the answers. You simply need to be willing to open your lab, your heart, and your life to an eager student. Repeatedly when I have surveyed my students, they have commented most on the importance of their mentor's patience:

"I had appreciate all the patience and helpful work from my mentor. Her kindness made the laboratory become a pleasant environment where I felt comfortable and confident."

In the next several sections, I would like to provide some specific information regarding how you can get started working with high schools students in your own laboratory.

Participation in SEED does not require the participation of a certain number of faculty at your institution. You can initiate a SEED program yourself though I do believe you will find it beneficial to work together with other committed faculty in your department or at other neighboring institutions. The ACS SEED Office publishes each year a list of college faculty and industrial scientists who have served as mentors in the program during the preceding year. These faculty can be a tremendous resource to you in getting started and will be more than glad to help you out in any way they can. For the first several years that I hosted SEED students, my students and I journeyed to nearby Boston University (BU) once a week to participate in activities that the Boston University ACS SEED program had organized for their SEED students. BU typically has had a very strong SEED program with 7 or more faculty participating as mentors. On Friday afternoons, SEED students working in different chemistry labs were brought together to listen to one of the faculty mentors discuss his/her research interests and to facilitate discussion among the SEED students concerning their own progress and summer accomplishments. My students at Northeastern University benefited by knowing that there were other high school students doing research on different projects with different faculty nearby in the same city.

You may also find your own institution and administration to be extremely generous sources of support on many levels. In the business of higher education, your summer project represents an invaluable opportunity to publicize and attract talented high school students to your institution. I have found that many departments such as our Environmental Health and Safety Office and Media Production Lab within the university are eager to provide training and support.

There are truly many sources of financial support available to educators interested in offering research opportunities to area high school students. Possible sources include the American Chemical Society's Project SEED Program, the National Science Foundation's Research Assistantships for Minority High School Students (RAMHSS), your local ACS Section, and pharmaceutical companies, chemical manufacturers, and analytical instrumentation companies.

I have been underwritten in my efforts to work with high school students through two different programs: The American Chemical Society's Project SEED and the National Science Foundation's Research Assistantship's for Minority High School Students. Both programs have been developed to increase the number of economically disadvantaged pre-college students going into college with the intention of pursuing science-related careers. Eligible students are typically high school juniors or seniors from economically disadvantaged homes with an interest and aptitude for science and mathematics. Participation in the ACS SEED program requires the interested college educator to identify and obtain matching funds. In the past I have found local industry, specifically, the Millipore Foundation, and my local ACS section, the Northeast Section of the American Chemical Society (NESACS), to be extremely generous in their support of my efforts. Their generosity has provided not only matching funds but also travel support that enabled my students to present at the National ACS meetings.

The ACS SEED Program wisely limits the number of student participants in any one lab to two students. Since quality mentoring takes a great deal of time and effort, I feel strongly that committed preceptors limit themselves to working with two students. While I have found that mentoring one student gives me more time to work on grant proposals, papers, and course preparations, high school students are much happier working in a laboratory with at least one other high school student present even if the student is working on a different project. When possible, I like to have one of the high school students be a returning student and preferably a graduated high school senior. This student can easily share from her rich research experience and provide needed advice on college admissions related-issues.

Identifying good students is important both in terms of maximizing the impact you can have in positively affecting your students' lives and in terms of your (your students and you together) being able to do high quality science that will be publishable and of long term significance. When I first began I solicited a large number of applications from all over the Boston area and attempted to cull through these. I cannot tell you how many deserving students there are out there who are looking for an educational summer opportunity! I quickly found area high school educators to be extremely supportive of my efforts and very willing and better able to identify those students most likely to strongly benefit from participation. I strongly urge interested college educators to seek out area high school teachers who are interested in partnering with you - it is literally as easy as picking up the phone and calling an area high school.

I have found that students who benefit from summer research experience and who are successful display a number of similar characteristics: successful students typically enjoy reading and display a strong desire to learn. They are very curious about everything and not afraid to ask questions. These students are willing to work hard and not afraid to ask questions when they don't understand something. Successful students are usually social and work well with others.

You should be careful not to equate being shy and quiet as indicative of someone who will not be a good student. Many of my students were initially shy and quiet -usually due to their unease with spoken and written English. Once you break the ice and demonstrate that you are genuinely interested in them and have a vested interest in their success, you will find that they lose their shyness and speak up!

It is also too easy to impart too much importance to grades when selecting a summer student. I have found that high grades are not necessarily a good indicator of a good researcher. Some students who earn high grades are sometimes more interested in grades than in education and good students are those who think for themselves and take calculated risks.

An approach I have found to be extremely beneficial in mentoring my high school students is the following:

The first step is to define a good project. Everyone - high school students, undergraduates, graduate students, and postdoctoral students - really appreciates being handed a well designed, articulated, and doable project. A good project has a well-defined topic that is interesting and relevant to the student. Students appreciate knowing that the project they are working on will impact and benefit their world. You will find your students to be extremely effective communicators on your behalf and on behalf of their science if you only take the time to explain how their study will benefit the real world. Ultimately, if the problem is really of interest to you, likely it will excite your student. Enthusiasm and interest are contagious!

In terms of specific types of problems, students tend to be naturally interested in problems relating to health, the environment, etc. Some of the past projects we have investigated (Table 2) in my lab have included (1) the preparation and physicochemical characterization of heme protein bioconjugates useful in drug delivery and in the field of nonaqueous enzymology, (2) investigating methods for measuring and controlling pH in water-immiscible solvents, and (3) isolating and purifying by HPLC a new peroxidase derived from soybean hulls.

Once you identify a problem, it can be useful to break the problem down into clear, bite-size objectives that represent doable tasks. This will help your high school students to see that they are making real progress toward their objective(Table 3). Since your student may need to master certain fundamental concepts in order to perform doable tasks, you may find it beneficial to ask students to demonstrate to you and themselves that they have really mastered a new technique or instrumental method with a certain level of understanding and technical skill. I usually require that my students first perform a control experiment using a standard reagent in our lab prior to carrying out the procedure or measurement on their own protein or enzyme. Students generally like this approach since the qualitative and quantitative results are known in advance much as in their own high school chemistry laboratory experiences. The approach also fosters student self-confidence and enables students to be more active, thoughtful participants in their own projects.

Most high school students have never worked before in a research laboratory and likely have received no or very little training in laboratory safety. Therefore, I usually spend the first day with a new recruit teaching them the basics of laboratory safety. I usually teach them how to read the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) safety symbol, reagent labels, manufacturer material safety data sheets (MSDS), and explain how to use the various lab safety tools including the eye wash, spill kits, and fire extinguishers we have in our lab. At the end of this lecture, I require the student to remove all of the chemicals from the shelves of our lab and identify them on our lab inventory sheet and replace each chemical on the shelf. This sheet specifies the name, manufacturer, lab location, and NFPA safety hazards unique to each reagent. This exercise allows students the opportunity to see what different kinds of chemicals and hazards we have in our lab and at the same time it allows me to keep our lab inventory up to date.

Typically on the second day, I begin by first outlining the summer project to my new student. Each project is presented as a road map that we design together as we proceed. This is an important point since most students expect to be handed a detailed road map that has been prepared ahead of time much as in their high school chemistry lab experiences. This clarification also helps move the student from the traditional classroom role as passive learner to the new and unfamiliar role as active learner and valued colleague. As we investigate our research problem together as a team, I emphasize the project as consisting of a series of "bite-size" tasks, i.e., obtainable objectives, and experimental skills. By breaking the project into "bite-size" tasks, the students can measure their growth and progress.

I usually give my students a "mini-lecture" before they begin work on a new task or are ready to learn a new skill(Scheme 1) The purpose of each "mini-lecture" is to teach the student some of the underlying fundamental concepts involved in their task and provide them with specific directions to accomplish the task. I write everything we discuss on paper as I teach each concept. These sheets are given to the student at the end of each "mini-lecture" so they have something permanent to refer to later in reviewing the new material. While this approach is admittedly somewhat time consuming, most students at this stage are more comfortable learning in a lecture format than they are learning independently by reading the primary technical literature which assumes a fairly rigorous and advanced technical training.

Following the "mini-lecture", students are asked to apply the new concept to their own projects usually on a model compound. This approach acts as a built-in feedback mechanism and allows me to determine early on whether there are any problems with communication, understanding, or lab technique. This allows me to quickly correct the situation so students do not lose confidence and momentum. When students demonstrate success with the new skill by obtaining certain qualitative or quantitative results, the students perform the skill on their own protein or enzyme on their own specific project. For example, before performing modern HPLC to purify a new biomolecule, students first learn the basics of ion exchange chromatography for the open column ion exchange purification of cytochrome c, a task that usually requires one 8-h day. Then the students transition to HPLC and separate a standard cation or anion exchange protein standard mixture in order to learn how to use the HPLC instrument in our lab (about one 8-h day). At this stage, the students are usually relatively confident and independent and ready to tackle purifying their biomolecules by HPLC.

The nature of the specific research problem and my students' own curiosity drive our summer curriculum and allow me to connect chemistry and chemical concepts to real-life situations. The use of "mini-lectures" also allows me to explicitly connect fundamental concepts to a real-world context. In the course of working on a project, we often visit and re-visit a concept such as acid-base several times, in several different contexts, each time increasing the depth of our discourse. The "mini-lectures" allow me to demonstrate to my students through their summer research projects wonderfully the interconnectedness of learning.

Whenever the student begins a new task and learns a new skill or instrument I work side-by-side with the student to ensure that the student develops a suitable level of proficiency. When the student appears comfortable working on their own, I step aside and let the student work independently with the understanding that the student approach me if she has any questions or needs any help. This approach is admittedly time-consuming. This is particularly true during the first several weeks when everything is new to the student and progress may seem slow. It is at this point that some faculty may be tempted to turn their high school student over to a senior graduate student or post doc. However, I feel quite strongly that what you reap will be in direct proportion to what and how you sow: Quality education is inherently labor intensive and expensive and cannot be mass produced.

An integral part of my teaching method involves the use of standard operating procedures (SOPs) that describe the procedures for standard methods and instrumental methods used in our lab. SOPs are frequently used in academic and industrial analytical labs as a means of controlling quality. Each SOP has been designed and written for a particular technique or instrument by the first high school student, undergraduate, or graduate student to use and master that specific technique or instrument. Appendix A provides an example of a SOP authored by Qiu Ci Li, an NSF RAMHSS student, who worked in my lab the past two summers.

SOPs offer a number of unique advantages both for me and my students. From my perspective, the SOPs help ensure that everyone in my lab produces high quality results reproducibly since everyone is following the same written procedures. Since my lab is experimentally and instrumentally driven we are constantly purchasing new instrumentation and investigating new experimental techniques. Thus, there is always the opportunity to be the author of a new SOP. Since the SOPs are all written by past or present group members this gives each student in the lab the confidence that they too can learn to operate the new instrument. Finally, for my students, the SOP represents tangible evidence of the quality of their summer research experience that each student can take with them to show to future employers.

One pedagogical vehicle I have found to be particularly effective in challenging my high school students to grow as young scientists is our weekly research group meeting. Students often comment on how much they enjoy these get-togethers and how much they learn:

"The [thing] I most liked to do during the summer was every Friday morning's group meeting. This meeting gave me a very good chance to communicate with other students in the laboratory. I had a sense of what they were doing and their progress. Besides I can exchange ideas and learn new things."

I have used many different vehicles to stretch my students over the past five years. Together we have explored a number of different topics together in our weekly meetings including the format of a journal article, poster presentations, the basics of chromatography, and bioinorganic chemistry. Several times, we have learned about new subjects by reading a book together -tackling a new chapter each week(3-4).

My favorite tool for introducing students to research is the primary technical literature. Since students learn more when they are encouraged to explore subjects that they personally find interesting and since my research interests are truly interdisciplinary, I like to ask students to select, read, and summarize an interesting technical paper from the primary literature. Each student then prepares a short (1-page) written and brief (10-minutes) oral presentation with the purpose of sharing with the group what they have learned. Overall, I have found my students generally favor general articles such as those published in the American Association for the Advancement of Science's Science, Sigma Xi'sAmerican Scientist, and the American Chemical Society's Chemical & Engineering News.

Another approach I have used in group meetings is to ask students to briefly (10-minutes) report to the group concerning their weekly accomplishments. Most importantly this practice provides students with a strong sense of personal ownership of their research problem. Students gain a more global perspective regarding what the group as a whole is seeking to accomplish. It also helps students to see how much progress everyone else in the group is making on their projects and therefore helps each student to have a more healthy perspective regarding their own progress and accomplishments.

There is a tendency to assume that students growing up today are all conversant with computers. The reality is that some high school students have never used a computer and therefore have no experience with word processing, spreadsheets, and the World Wide Web (www). This summer I shamelessly exploited my students' natural interest in the www in order to get them to think and write about their research projects by teaching them the rudiments of html code and providing each of them with the opportunity to have their own www page.

You will find that your students will make better progress on their research problems if you offer them what I call "carrots," professional opportunities such as poster presentations at regional or national conferences or the opportunity to co-author a technical paper. Such experiences are invaluable to your students growth -enabling them to find out for themselves how good and well trained they are. However, before you make any such offer make sure that you are really willing to see it through from start to finish with your student. If you participate in the ACS SEED Program, SEED will provide partial travel support to enable your high school students to travel to the National ACS Meeting held in the month of August in order to present their research at a special SEED poster session.

Another carrot I like to use is a formal requirement of a final technical report at the end of the summer. This is an idea I have happily adopted from the ACS SEED Program, which requires each SEED student submit to the national office a final paper describing their project and their accomplishments at the end of the summer. Appendix B provides an example final report from Kwai Dzy Mak in my lab. Kwai's final report was drawn from her poster presentation at the National ACS Meeting in Chicago, IL in August 1995.

The final report assignment is mutually beneficial in a number of ways. First, the writing exercise forces each student to sit down at the end of the project, examine what they have done, and articulate their accomplishments in writing. The students are usually amazed by how much they have learned. The final report also provides the student with something concrete that they can submit as part of their supporting college application materials -evidence of their abilities and their potential. At the same time, the report provides you with a written record of your students' accomplishments that you provide to your institution's administration and which you can use in preparing a technical article if the results are publishable.

Before I began work on this paper, I contacted my former high school students, told them that I would be writing this paper, and solicited from them their candid thoughts about their summer research experiences and the impact that their summer research experience had had on their lives. I believe my students spoke quite eloquently regarding what they learned and what SEED meant to them. My first SEED student, Kwai Dzy Mak, wrote:

"Yes, I feel strongly that SEED helped me. It led me to the door of science and gave me the opportunity to explore science. The most valuable thing that I learned is not to give up when experiments failed. I have learned so much that surprised me. I learned how to set up and run experiments, how to write scientific paper, and how to communicate with other scientists (e.g., poster presentation in conference). The experiences I gained from the SEED program built up my confidence in scientific study, which helped me a lot in my chosen field, pharmacy study. I would suggest faculty have high school students work in their lab. There are so many high school students [who] are looking for this kind of opportunity. They need someone to guide them to the door of science so they can use their talent as a key to learn more about science."

Li Ci Liang, now a Northeastern University sophomore on CO-OP at Cambridgeport Bank in Information Technology, wrote:

"I had a great experience spending a whole summer at Northeastern University with all the faculties and students. The whole summer means to me learning, growth, and experimenting although the material in the lab was hard for me as a high school student. Overall, I learned more than I had expected and meanwhile I discovered my interest and my love for a college life. Thanks SEED for giving me this chance. I feel SEED helped me not only in Chemistry but also in the beginning of my college life. The most valuable thing to me was I realized my survival capability if I go to college. Before the SEED program, I was [lacking in] personal confidence to go to college under the pressure of competition with all the other American students. But SEED opened the road for me. I liked college life and I was sure I wanted to be part of it. Now, here I am, [having] passed my freshman year with an honors grade!"

As educators, we know that the true test of knowledge is what you do with what you learn. So, in closing, please consider carefully your answer to this question: Now that you have learned about SEED and how to involve minority high school students in your graduate research program, what are you personally going to do about it? There are so many deserving high school students out there just waiting for a mentor. Will you become a mentor?

Experiences such as those I have described are never due to the efforts of one person. For this reason, I wish to thank the ACS SEED Program, the National Science Foundation Molecular Biochemistry Program (CAREER MCB9600847), the Millipore Foundation, and the Northeast Section of the American Chemical Society for continuing to underwrite my work with high school students. I wish to thank my friend and colleague Professor Feng Chen, Rider University, for introducing me to the ACS SEED Program. I also wish to thank Guil Jones, former Chair, Department of Chemistry, Boston University and Morton Hoffman, Department of Chemistry, Boston University, for allowing my students and I to learn from the Boston University SEED Program. I wish to thank June Li, Science Chair, Charlestown High School, for her continued assistance in identifying and encouraging talented and interested high school students. Many thanks go to my research group, past and present, who have partnered with me to make our lab a warm, welcoming, and nurturing environment for our junior colleagues. Most of all I wish to thank my high school colleagues, Kwai Dzy Mak, Jing Nuan Liu, Xing Qi Zhou, Li Ci Liang, Qiu Ci Liu, and Zhi Chen, for taking a deep breath and boldly leaping into the unknown with me!

1. Mak, K.D.; Nuan, J.L.; Liang, L.; Zhou, X.Q.; Mabrouk, P.A. Polym. Prepr.1997,38, 580-581.
2. Li, Q.C.; Mabrouk, P.A. J. Electroanal. Chem.,1998, in press.
3. Lippard, S.J.; Berg, J.M. Principles of Bioinorganic Chemistry; University Science Books: Mill Valley, 1994.
4. The Busy Researcher's Guide to Biomolecule Chromatography; PerSeptive Biosystems, Inc., 1996.