In a Hillsboro High School science lab in Nashville, Tennessee, a group of teens from Metro Nashville Public Schools spent their summer exploring whether filtration with peanuts could aid in creating safe, sustainable water for Ugandan communities. Despite about 7,000 miles between the locales, that work was very real for the juniors and seniors participating in Vanderbilt Peabody College's newest STEM internship opportunity.
The Summer High-School Internships in Research Experiences, or SHIRE, celebrated its third cohort on July 16 with a showcase at Hillsboro High School. Nearly 50 students presented work from their six-week paid summer internships, which spanned not only engineering clean water, but also pharmacology and independent projects like molecular gastronomy. MNPS students in Vanderbilt's academic-year program, Interdisciplinary Science and Research (ISR), can participate in SHIRE. Both are initiatives of Peabody's Collaborative for STEM Education and Outreach (CSEO).
The event also featured a keynote address from pioneering Vanderbilt cancer biologist Amanda Linkous, research associate professor of pharmacology, and drew local nonprofit leaders, families, friends and Tennessee state senator Heidi Campbell.
STEM confidence that lasts beyond summer
SHIRE is a team effort between Peabody College of education and human development's CSEO, MNPS, Nashville's POWER Youth summer employment program and The Ayin Project (TAP), with leadership from CSEO staff, postdoctoral fellows and local high school teachers. Vanderbilt faculty contributed expertise, as did Linkous, who helped plan the pharmacology internship.
"The breadth of what we offer at SHIRE is really exciting. There are so many ways we can get involved across Vanderbilt's campus and within the local community," Nicolas Means, a Peabody postdoctoral fellow and SHIRE facilitator who helped spearhead the program, said.
Extracurricular STEM immersion can improve academic outcomes and college and career readiness, and Means said he has seen that growth firsthand.
"They start gaining confidence in themselves and seeing how science is really done, and they feel empowered."
"Any student in ISR that is interested in SHIRE is able to join the program," he said. "While we get students from all GPA ranges, the students that have gotten Cs and Ds have consistently blown us away with a drastically different performance. That was an unexpected outcome of SHIRE. They start gaining confidence in themselves and seeing how science is really done, and they feel empowered. They often continue that positive momentum through the academic year."
Students, in their own words
In the lab each morning, 11th-grade interns from Hillsboro High School, John Overton High School and Stratford STEM Magnet High School explored how to engineer water filters for rural Uganda, in partnership with The AYIN Project, a Middle Tennessee nonprofit dedicated to clean water solutions. Students were excited to discover in their first experiment that peanuts, when heated to a specific temperature, led to an 80 percent reduction in nitrates from water.
In the afternoons, they shifted to pharmacology, designing and testing experiments on topics such as nicotine's impact on C. elegans (an organism used in scientific studies) and whether caffeine affects sensitivity in human lung cells to the chemotherapy drug doxorubicin. "We provided the space, the chemicals and the equipment," Means said. "The rest was up to them."
That independence, Means recalled, was sometimes met with surprise. Allison Luis Primero, a Hillsboro junior, said the experience changed how she saw her own abilities.
"Learning that our ideas shaped our project at first felt concerning, because we thought we couldn't do it. It seemed so unrealistic. But now I feel like these ideas have helped us a lot, because we have a foundation of how to move forward and what to expect. My confidence has increased a lot."
Cora Bauer, a Stratford junior, said SHIRE changed her understanding of engineering.
"Before SHIRE, I thought of engineers as professionals with a lot of training," she said. "As we go on through the weeks, I am learning that all of us are engineers. Not because we have had a lot of training, not because we want to be engineers when we get older, not even because we are being paid, but simply because we share the same passion: to get the contaminants out of our water. I have learned that it is very important to work as a team and to have the same end goal."
Meanwhile, senior interns selected their own independent research projects. Phat (Tommy) Tran, a senior at Hillsboro High School, partnered with Chef Ryan Simpson of the Francis Tuttle Technology Center to study molecular gastronomy; specifically, how spherification (the chemical process that forms a thin gel membrane around food, like boba spheres in bubble tea) affects the visual appeal of Vietnamese cuisine.
"SHIRE showed me that research isn't about having all the answers right away, but having the curiosity and passion to keep looking until the pieces fall into place," Tran reflected.
Savannah Williams, a senior at John Overton High School, channeled her interest in true crime into a forensic psychology study, exploring how biases play into risk classifications in forensic risk assessments. She hopes to study forensic psychology in college.
"I feel like I went into SHIRE as a way to get ahead on my research. I didn't think it would be that big of a deal, but I've gained skills that will help me in college," she said.
SHIRE curriculum draws on Peabody research
Guided by the STEM identity research of Peabody's Heidi Carlone, Katherine Johnson Chair in Science Education and professor of teaching and learning, SHIRE aims to help students see themselves as scientists and to foster the kind of independent and inquisitive learning that can propel them into STEM careers.
This year, instructors incorporated Carlone's work by using identity badges, giving students a positive way to recognize themselves. Interns assign badges to themselves or receive them from peers, with titles such as problem solver, advocate and community-engaged scientist.
"The badges are an easy, natural way to celebrate different identities," Nathaniel Freymeyer, CSEO's program manager for STEM student research, said. "A lot of them were so proud, because the badges were a way to reflect where they were at the beginning of the program versus where they are now."
Peabody outreach in action
SHIRE is part of Peabody's broader efforts to engage K-12 learners in research that sparks excitement for learning while making a positive difference in communities. The program is also supported by a generous gift to the CSEO from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals.
Under the umbrella of Peabody's CSEO, outreach programs like Interdisciplinary Science and Research, The School for Science and Math at Vanderbilt and Day of Discovery mentor MNPS students of all ages, placing them in science labs and experiential environments at Vanderbilt and around Nashville.
Students in Vanderbilt's Interdisciplinary Science and Research program are eligible for SHIRE. Learn more about ISR and other outreach opportunities for high school students and elementary/middle school students through Peabody's Collaborative for STEM Education and Outreach website.
