For my outreach, I went to Clarke Central High School to help with obtaining the high school samples for the antibiotic resistance project. We spent a class period working with the students on the samples.
I was given roughly a third of the class as my group, along with their respective sleeves of Petri dishes. We worked on sorting them by density of growth and photographing the best samples. Next we restored all the trays to the original order of strength of antibiotic and set number. Working with these students was a very positive experience. I was very surprised by how bright and enthusiastic my group was about the project. It was a much smoother and more positive experience than I expected.
The thing that most surprised me was how much the high schoolers looked up to us, the college kids. Although I am only one grade level above most of the guys who were in my group, they seemed to view me as some kind of knowledgeable elder. While I could not answer all the questions they had about science, they did ask me many thoughtful, smart questions about what college was like and advice on the admissions process. I made a close connection with two of the students and we had an extended conversation about life at UGA. Since then, we have talked several times and I’ve been help to help them through the admissions process. Through the outreach, I gained two new friends and learned a lot about myself having the privilege of attending UGA and also about those in the community we call home.
Sadly I do not have any photos. We were too caught up in Petri dishes and college advice that I forgot to take some!