Students find homes in University labs
For students interested in science, one advantage of going to the Laboratory
Schools is the opportunity to work throughout the school year with University
of Chicago scientists in their labs. Students taking part in the experience
say their interest in science has increased and their skills have sharpened.
"I worked two years ago in the lab of Philip Padrid (Associate Professor in Medicine), studying asthma," said current U-High junior Beckett Sterner. "It turns out that the only other animals besides humans that have asthma are cats, so we studied bacteria in their throats." Sterner did not take the samples himself but did work on compiling the data. "It was fun. I felt like I was right in the middle of things, and I learned how a lab operates," Sterner said.
During the summer of 2000, Sterner also worked in the lab of Chung-I Wu, Chairman of Ecology and Evolution. "I was helping a graduate student with his Ph.D. work. What we studied was the rate of mutation in fruit flies. I discovered the tedium of entering data, but I also got to go to lab meetings where we would have someone new come in each week to lecture, and that was interesting."
Natalie Vokes, a sophomore, spent last summer working with cells in the University's radiation oncology laboratory. "They taught me how to grow and feed cells that were being used for a particular experiment. I liked the way I learned about laboratory techniques. I had fun and learned quite a bit," she said.
Marisa Kraig, a senior, worked in the laboratory of Jeffrey Bluestone, a Professor of Medicine who has since relocated to California. "I learned quite a bit of technical material and feel it benefited me for the future. I want to go on in biology and perhaps explore neuroscience," she said.
Alumni such as Benjamin Abella,'88, remember the experience as being instrumental in their careers. Abella, now in his third year of internal medicine residency at the University of Chicago Hospitals, said that his work at in a University professor's lab while a U-High student led to being a finalist in the Westinghouse Science Talent Search and to a life-long interest in research.
"I was really fortunate because my teacher, Murray Hozinsky, helped plug me into the lab of Robert Haskelkorn (Fanny L. Pritzker Distinguished Service Professor in Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology), where I studied bacterial genetics. I found out that doing scientific research was something I really enjoyed and that experience helped propel my career," he said.
We wish them well
Joan Koblick, an esteemed fine arts teacher at the Schools, has announced her
retirement at the end of the current school year.
Koblick took a position as an assistant teacher at Lab in 1970, which led to a job as an art teacher in the Lower School in 1972. While at the Lower School, Koblick also began teaching art history in the high school and has been teaching at the high school level exclusively since 1981. She is chair of the fine arts department.
Other teachers concluding their service at the end of the school year are Catherine Fisher, Nursery School teacher; Fran Hahn, Lower School computer teacher (currently on leave of absence); Donna Schatt, Middle School librarian; Daniela Schuvaks-Katz, Middle School foreign language teacher; Jason Smith, U-High mathematics teacher; and Sarah Wilson, Nursery School teacher.
Technology gets major boost
The use of technology at Lab will be enhanced greatly and student instruction
improved as a result of recommendations from school-level technology committees
that have been working all year.
"The committees' focus on curriculum and professional development will lead to ways to increase our program's cohesion across Schools," said Curt Lieneck, Director of Information Technology.
The committees' recommendations aim to increase teachers' incorporation of computer-based learning activities in individual classes and to improve their ability to instruct students in applications that will enrich their learning experiences.
The Schools also are upgrading equipment to establish hardware and software standards that will create more opportunities for effective collaboration and training. The improvements will be financed in part by a tuition increase that will be charged in the 2001-2002 academic year.