spring 2012 journal

NCSSSMST JOURNALThe National Consortium for Specialized Secondary Schools of Mathematics, Science and Technology

May 2012 Volume 17 Issue 1

www.ncsssmst.org

1

2012 Issue 1

Consortium Board 2012-2013

Mary ann Suddeth, PresidentRockdale Magnet School for Science and Technology

CryStal BondS, Vice PresidentHigh School for Math, Science, and Engineering at The City College (NY)

SuSan Caffery, Secretary Conroe ISD Academy of Science and Technology (TX)

hungSin Chin, TreasurerAlabama School of Fine Arts

Jay thoMaS, Past PresidentAurora University (IL)

Steve Canipe, Executive DirectorWalden University (MN)

tanya CaBreraIllinois Institute of Technology

niCole CulellaBrooklyn Technical High School (NY)

aliSon earnhart Liberal Arts and Science Academy of Austin (TX)

Mark godwinSouth Carolina Governor’s School for Science and Math

tiM gottThe Gatton Academy of Mathematics and Science (KY)

Cheryl hatChKalamazoo Area Math and Science Center (MI)

Clifford happyArkansas School of Math, Science, and the Arts

roSeMarie Jahoda The Bronx High School of Science (NY)

ChriStopher kolarIllinois Math and Science Academy

letita MaSonNorth Carolina School of Science and Mathematics

heather SondelThomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (VA)

Sharon weBBThomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (VA)

Contents3 Editor’s Note

4 President’s Note: Change Presents NCSSSMST Opportunities

5 Director’s Note: An Introduction and the Scientific Method

7 Extending the Scope of Public Education

8 Advocacy: Taking STEM from Idea to Action

11 Using Gene Ontology to Enrich Student Learning

13 Using Twitter and Facebook to Expand the Consortium’s Online Presence

14 Are STEM High School Students Entering the STEM Pipeline?

24 Economic Impact: Methodology and Overall Findings

30 Effects of Di-butyl Phthalate (DBP) on Developing Medaka Embryos

34 Using Enzymes to Improve Antibiotic Effectiveness on Staphylococcus epidermidis Biofilm Removal

38 Institutional and Affiliate Members

40 Journal Author Guidelines

2 NCSSSMST Journal | 2012 Issue 1

NCSSSMST Journal is the official publication of the National Consortium for Specialized Secondary Schools of Mathematics, Science and Technology.

Editorial Office: Rockdale Magnet School for Science and Technology 930 Rowland Road Conyers, Georgia 30012 (770) 483–8737 (770) 483–7379 (fax)

2012 – 2013 STAFF

Amanda Baskett, Editor Rockdale Magnet School for Science and Technology [email protected]

Dr. Steve Warshaw, Associate Editor North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics [email protected]

Dr. Steve Canipe Executive Director NCSSSMST [email protected]

Kenneth Baskett Layout Designer Ellipsis Digital Solutions [email protected]

Dr. Thomas Morgan, Founding Editor Dr. Jerald Thomas, Past Editor Dr. Arthur S. Williams, Past Editor Dr. Martin Shapiro, Past Editor Dr. Richard W. Shelly, Past Associate Editor Gary L. White, Past Co-Editor Dr. Ron Laugen, Past Editor

The NCSSSMST Journal (ISSN 1084-6522) is published twice a year. Copyright 2012 by the National Consortium for Specialized Secondary Schools of Mathematics, Science and Technology (NCSSSMST). All rights reserved. Editorial materials published herein is the property of the NCSSSMST unless otherwise noted. Opinons expressed in the NCSSSMST Journal do no necessarily reflect the official position of the NCSSSMST. Permissions: Copyrighted material from the NCSSSMST Journal may be reproduced for noncommercial purposes provided full credit acknowledgements and a copyright notice appear on the reproduction. Other requests for reprinting should be directed to the Journal Editor. Submissions: Manuscripts for feature articles and teacher practice summaries are invited. Author guidelines are found at www.ncsssmst.org>publications>journal. The NCSSSMST Journal assumes no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts. Student research papers are encouraged.

Website: www.ncsssmst.org

Postmaster: Send address changes and subscription requests to the NCSSSMST National Office, PO Box 3679, Boone, NC 28607. Subscriptions: Individual subscription price is $50 per year US dollars and $75.00 per year for international subscriptions with postage at an additional cost. Institutional Pricing is available by contacting NCSSSMST.

Professional Conference Ad Photo Credit: Jeffrey Turner

On the Cover

Photo Credit: Larry Jacobs, a 9th grade student at Rockdale Magnet School for Science and Technology, took this photograph after one of Spring’s first rainstorms.

Know a talented student photographer? Suggest they enter the 2012 Issue 2 Student Science Photo Competition. Students should email their photo and a brief biography to [email protected] by September 1, 2012.

3Spotlight on Student and Teacher Growth

tearS were not in the leSSon plan my first day in the classroom. However, I quickly learned that the emotions of ninth grade girls are rarely conveniently timed. I hardly had time to introduce myself, much less begin the first community building activity I had meticulously planned, when the water works began. At that mo-

ment, the stress of high school was overwhelming for her. The student felt like she had too many choices available to her and she didn’t know how to take it all in.

Many students at schools like ours may feel like mine did that day at times. To be honest, the options available to teachers, with the seem-ingly endless resources being tweeted or shared daily, can also be staggering. We have to remain lifelong learners anxious to try new things, but also become comfortable that there is no way to use it all at all times. Over the next four years I had the chance to help my teary-eyed student become comfortable as she chose which new opportu-nities to seize and which to let pass by. Ultimately, she had great success, particularly in research endeavors. She represented our state at the National Junior Science and Humanities Symposium and even had an abstract of her junior year research published in this journal.

Years later, I still think about her when I reflect on how many opportunities students at Consortium schools have and find myself enamored by an organization that helps the kids realize they are not alone. As a research teacher, I have also found tremendous value in connecting with teachers focused on similar goals. Attending and present-

Spotlight on Student and Teacher Growth

FROM THE DESK OF THE EDITOR

We have to remain lifelong learners anxious to try new things, but also become comfortable that there is no way to use it all at all times.

ing at NCSSSMST conferences has been an integral part

of my professional development. It even lead to a new class being created at my school when I learned about the Independent Studies in Computational Biology Course at a conference presentation by Randy Smith from the Jack-

son Laboratory. That course has since facilitated three of

my students having the opportunity to spend the summer being paid to work on research projects in Bar Harbor,

Maine.

As I put the finishing touches on this issue, I became excited about new opportunities available. I was also

reminded of Carol Dweck’s Mindset talk from the At-lanta conference. Growing up as an active 4-H member,

it seems like they claimed the motto ‘making the best better’ before NCSSSMST had the chance. I have no

doubt that what our member schools are doing right now

works. I don’t hesitate when I tell people that NCSSSMST includes the best schools in

the country as the data clearly supports it. Please consider

submitting the unique lessons and perspectives that you bring to your classroom or school management for

publication in the journal. I would like to also encourage

you to read this issue with an open mind as you consider what you can do to make your school, and the Consor-

tium, even better.

— Amanda Dyann Baskett

Amanda Baskett teaches Research and Microbiology at the Rockdale Magnet School for Science and Technology. She is currently serving as Interim Editor and can be reached at [email protected].


Change iS the naMe of the gaMe in education today. With the com-mon core curriculum and assess-ments, standards-based grading, and STEM education gathering national attention and momen-tum, schools are forced to analyze and reflect upon policies, proce-dures, and practices daily. While many school leaders and teachers

around the country are in a panic, NCSSSMST member schools realize they are the pacesetters and will continue to do what is best for students. Providing a specialized curriculum and environment that prepares students for future success is the name of our game. A focus on contin-uous improvement and devel-opment of 21st century skills has allowed NCSSSMST member schools to not only break the mold of a tradition-al high school experience, but also serve as exemplars for fu-ture STEM schools.

Change does not only exist at the national level and within our member schools. NCSSSMST is also expe-riencing a great deal of change. With our former Ex-ecutive Director, Dr. Cheryl Lindeman, completing her tenure with the Board of Directors in October after over 20 years of service, the organization must develop a new “face”. Dr. Stephen Canipe is ready for this challenge! I am pleased to serve as President of the organization dur-ing this transition and hope to gather important feedback from our members as we continue to focus on our busi-ness plan, communication plan, partnerships, grants, and member services. We also recently launched a new web-site, an important step to improving our virtual presence.

Change Presents NCSSSMST Opportunities

FROM THE DESK OF THE PRESIDENT

A focus on continuous improvement and developing 21st century skills has allowed NCSSSMST member schools to break the mold of a traditional high school experience.

The 2011 Professional Conference in Austin, Texas was a huge success with attendees feeling engaged, energized, and eager to take their work to the next level. Conference sessions focused on the theme of “balance, cultivate, and sustain” provided excellent information. Many ideas were generated during these sessions, as well as the opening panel discussion, key-note speakers, and Saturday’s enterprise sessions. We are excited to move forward with discussions started at the conference related to developing a research e-match system, providing resources and “promising practices” on our website, and creating new student competitions for our member schools.

Finally, I would like to encourage you to become more involved in NC-SSSMST. Our 2012 events will be spectacular! The 2012 Student Research Conference will be host-ed by Illinois Institute of Technology on June 20-23, and the National Keystone Youth Policy Summit will be held June 9-16, 2012.

Additionally, we will be partnering with the National Association of Gifted Children (NAGC) for our 2012 Professional Conference in Denver, Colorado on No-vember 15-18. Please consider attending, so you can learn and share your expertise! We are also looking for members to serve on our Board committees. Your input and participation are important to the growth of NCSSSMST during this necessary time of change.

— Mary Ann Suddeth

Mary Ann Suddeth is the Director of the Rockdale Magnet School for Science and Technology. Her email address is [email protected]

5An Introduction and the Scientific Method

i wanted to take thiS opportu-nity to introduce myself to the broad membership. I began as your part-time Executive Director in April 2010 and have had the op-portunity of working with some of you at the Student Research Conference and the Professional Conferences in 2011. Your for-mer Executive Director, Dr. Cher-

yl Lindeman, has retired from this position after bringing years of leadership. I wanted to express much thanks to Cheryl for getting the organization moving forward.

You may be wondering a little about me and what I have planned for the organization with the acronym you can-not pronounce (NCSSSMST). I thought I would take this opportunity to share a little about me and my thoughts as we continue to grow and en-hance the Consortium. I grew up in North Carolina where I became enamored with science in the 8th grade with Ms. Irene Seagle. I went to Appalachian State University in Boone and majored in Biology and became a high school teacher in Charlotte. After completing my Masters in Bi-ological Sciences in East Lansing at Michigan State Uni-versity as an NSF Fellow, I started the first environmental science class in NC and subsequently served as a science consultant with the NC Department of Public Instruc-tion. Then, after a stint outside of education working in public relations with Duke Power (now Duke Energy), I completed my doctorate at Duke University, where my dissertation topic was entitled “A Microcomputer Model for Determining School Energy Use”; outdated now but

An Introduction and the Scientific Method

FROM THE DESK OF THE DIRECTOR

I was intrigued and excited over the possibilities of tying together several of my passions – education in the STEM fields along with administration of an organization.

fairly unheard of in the early 1980s. I had co-advisors of an engineering and an education professor.

After this experience, I returned to education and was principal at a comprehensive high school and then had the opportunity to found a specialized high school for 11th and 12th grader focused on technology called the Lincoln County School of Technology. After that I served as prin-cipal in Charlotte and then did teaching at the university level at several schools in North Carolina and Arizona. After retiring from land-based schools, I started teaching in an Integrating Technology program at Walden Univer-sity. I continue to work there as the director of Math, Science, and Instructional Design & Technology areas.

I live in the northwestern mountains of North Carolina (Boone) in late spring through late fall and in the southwest desert of Arizona (Tucson) in winter to early spring. I have a lovely wife of 40 years, two wonderful adult children (girl and boy), and two rambunc-tious but loveable dogs (chow-bradors).

When I saw the position at NCSSSMST, I was in-trigued and excited over the possibilities of tying together several of my passions – education in the STEM fields along with administration of an organization. Perhaps all of you know about the Strategic Plan that was developed in 2009-2010 for the NCSSSMST, but if not, this is a doc-ument that I will be working from as I hope to lead the Consortium into the future. I will be sharing the entire document with you in later columns but wanted to let you know about it and how I see us moving forward.

I studied the strategic plan and have several goals, as I work to operationalize the plan. In this column, I wanted


Want to talk to Steve? His phone number is 202-596-9272; cell is 828-406-1287; and fax is 704-745-6870. His email address is [email protected] .

to share some of those initial plans with the membership.

A primary focus of mine will be on clear communica-tions to the membership through such things as regular mailings, newsletters, FaceBook page (www.facebook.com/ncsssmst), and Twitter (@ncsssmst) among other possible venues for sharing. One of the items I wanted to share is that I am working on a Business Plan to grow the membership and to make the Consortium more valuable to member schools. I will be asking for your input on this plan after the draft is shared with the Board. To be effec-tive, communication must be a two way process, and I hope that each of you will share within your school com-munity and gather input to share with the other members. While we may all be individually smart, none of us is smarter than ALL of us together. I hope that you will be willing to work on various committees as we mover the Consortium forward.

As I continue to learn more about the Consortium, I may see ways that I believe will be more effective. This may require some paradigm shift from what has always been done. I hope you will bear with me as we try new things. If they don’t work, I hope we will continue to look for ways that will. This is the essence of the scien-tific process—trial and error. I certainly don’t have all the answers, but I will not be hesitant in looking for them with, I hope, your assistance..

I hope to talk with each member school during 2012 and look forward to meeting you at various events, in-cluding the Student Summer Research Conference being held at Illinois Institute of Technology, June 20-23, 2012 and the 2012 Professional Conference being held in Den-ver in conjunction with National Association for Gifted Children on November 14-16 with the option of staying for the rest of NAGCs conference until the 18 November.

Don’t hesitate to get in touch with me about ideas, thoughts, or needs that you may have. I may not have answers, but can help you seek them.

— Steven Canipe, Ph.D.

7Extending the Scope of Public Education

hoping that the nCSSSMSt will sustain its interest in sustain-ability, I take this occasion to report on an important, though hardly new, initiative in environ-mental education for students of secondary schools.

Now entering its twenty-fifth year, the Canon Envirothon de-scribes itself as “North America’s

largest high school environmental education competi-tion” (Canon Envirothon.org). This year’s North Ameri-can Envirothon took place at Mt. Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick in late July. Teams from forty-five states and nine provinces and territories took part in the competition, which was won by a team from Mani-toba. Consortium schools from Louisiana and New Jersey repre-sented their respective states.

The North American Envi-rothon tests students in the categories of soil/land use, aquatic ecology, forestry, wildlife, and a current environ-mental issue. In keeping with its location near the Bay of Fundy, the New Brunswick competition focused on salt water and fresh water estuaries. The 2012 competition will take place at Susquehana University in Selingrove, Pennsylvania, July 23-28. The current issue will be “non point source pollution” as it relates to “low impact devel-opment.” Discussion and resources for study are avail-able on the Envirothon web site.

The competition itself consists of field testing at dif-ferent sites and oral presentations that address a selected issue or problem related to the local environment. In New Brunswick the problem was how best to mitigate environ-mental and cultural damage that might result from build-

Extending the Scope of Public Education

ing an oil refinery on the Bay of Fundy. Each member of the five-member teams contributed to his or her team’s oral presentation and then answered questions from a panel of experts.

According to Envirothon planners, “Being able to communicate natural resource material is crucial in ad-dressing environmental problems / issues, particularly in situations where collaborative efforts are required to develop practical solutions and effect change.” The oral presentations count for a significant portion of the overall scoring, and represent an opportunity for collaboration between science and language arts teachers as well as

among students.

In addition to the importance given to oral communication in the overall competition, the var-ied backgrounds of team spon-sors comprised an interesting fea-ture of the Envirothon. Some, of course, were high school teachers, while others were experts in soil and water conservation, agricul-ture, fisheries, and forestry. The

involvement of such individuals—people with applied expertise and extensive local knowledge, though not nec-essarily with formal teaching backgrounds—extends the scope of public education from the school to the com-munity and from theory to practice. If, as David Orr and others have suggested, environmental education is to be-come more central to the curriculum, perhaps consor-tium schools as well as others should look more carefully at their local resources and at the relationship between schools and their surrounding communities.

— Arthur S. Williams, Ph.D.

Art’s Corner

The involvement of people with applied expertise and extensive local knowledge ... extends the scope of public education from the school to the community and from theory to practice.

Dr. Arthur S. Williams has taught English at the Louisiana School for Math, Science, and the Arts since 1984. He may be reached at [email protected].


advoCating for advanCed learn-

ing or talent development in sci-ence, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) is both timely and very important.

The time is right to speak out on

behalf of advanced learning in STEM areas as the emphasis in

schools at all levels has been and continues to be on proficiency or

grade-level learning. It is very important to speak out on

behalf of talent development as the future of society de-pends on providing opportunities for developing talent to

optimum levels. The goal, in fact, is to remove the lid often placed on learning.

Some basic questions can set an advocacy plan for STEM in

motion: Who? What? When? and How?

Who? The question of who

should advocate points to each educator who is interested in ex-

cellence in learning in the STEM disciplines. Advocacy is a “do it yourself job.” That does not mean that one must

advocate alone, but rather it encourages individuals to act

and not wait for someone else to do so. Each person must assume the responsibility and then find others who are

kindred spirits – others with whom to join in advocating for advanced learning opportunities in STEM disciplines.

If the goal of the advocacy is at the state level, it is essen-

tial to identify potential stakeholders from various parts of the state to be involved in the advocacy. Professional

organizations of engineers, businesses and companies with a STEM focus, and community groups promoting

innovation are a few of the possible stakeholder groups

who would be willing partners. If the advocacy goal is national, it is necessary identify fellow advocates at key

Advocacy: Taking STEM from Idea to Action

places around the country. National organizations of sci-

entists and engineers, groups such as the National Asso-ciation of Governors or the Chamber of Commerce, and businesses that depend on STEM talent would be pos-sible partners when advocacy involves STEM initiatives

and a focus on innovation.

What presents the second of the basic questions, and the answer to this question frames the advocacy plan. An

important component of a successful advocacy campaign is a clear message, one that has been crafted to resonate with the decision-makers. The advocacy message must

be crafted to articulate the goal. Messages need to be con-cise and easy for the all advocates

to communicate; when that is not the case, the message may change as various advocates talk with

decision-makers. It is very impor-tant that advocates are communi-

cating the same message. Mes-sages change as they are passed along unless the original message

is clear and easy for the advocate to share and the decision-maker to

remember.

If the message concerns funding, then specify the

amount and the purpose for which the funding will be

used. For example, the message to the state legislature could be a request for nine million dollars to build a wing

on to the academy to accommodate a greater number of students from all geographic areas of the state. The

message must be complemented by a personal story that

taps the emotions of the decision-makers as only good

STEM Talent Development

An important component of a successful advocacy campaign is a clear message, one that has been crafted to resonate with the decision-makers.

Dr. Julia Link Roberst is Mahurin Professor of Gifted Studies and Executive Director of the Carol Martin Gatton Academy of Mathematics and Science and the Center for Gifted Studies at Western Kentucky University. She can be reached at [email protected].

9Advocacy: Taking STEM from Idea to Action

stories can do. Advocates might share stories to support

the request that is the advocacy message. Two examples of such stories follow. A student from a rural part of the

state graduated from the state math and science academy,

became an engineer, and credited her advanced learning

opportunities at the academy with pursuing that career

trajectory. What a great message about the need to of-fer this opportunity to more well-qualified young people

who currently apply to the academy but cannot come be-

cause of the limited capacity of the program! Another

student from a lower-income family came to a magnet school and found the research fascinating, and this ex-

perience solidified his professional aspirations in an area of science about which he knew nothing prior to engag-

ing in the research. Both stories communicate messages

effectively. When possible, it is quite effective to have a person tell his or her own story. Advocacy messages must

be credible—they must ring true. They must be crafted to communicate effectively. Crafting the message is an early

step in the advocacy campaign.

When is the next question for advocates to consider when making an advocacy plan. The sooner, the better

is the motto to use when it comes to timing an advocacy campaign. In fact, yesterday would be the best answer

as effective advocates often have ongoing relationships

with decision-makers. The key to success in advocacy is

tied to knowing the individuals who make the decisions or perhaps knowing the people who know the decision-

makers. Parents of current or former students can be ef-

fective advocates and may well have relationships with

decision-makers. Former and current students are also

effective advocates.

Another important part of the advocacy plan is to

know the trajectory that the idea must follow from the

beginning to the enactment of the idea in legislation, per-

haps in the budget but maybe in enabling legislation. It is

very important to know what group in a legislature will be making the decisions that will determine the fate of the

advocacy plan. It is necessary to know which legislators

serve on the committees that will consider the issue for

which the advocacy plan has been developed. If the issue

being advocated requires inclusion in the budget, it must get approval in the appropriations or budget committee.

Other STEM advocacy goals may need approval of the education committee to move to the full house or sen-ate. The timing for advocating is incredibly important. It must start early and be ongoing.

After knowing the path the initiative must follow, the first step to take is to meet with key members of the spe-cific committee that handles the legislation of the type be-ing presented. If the members of the committee express interest, the next step is to schedule a time to present the initiative to the entire committee. Approval at the com-mittee level is required before the legislation moves on to the full house or senate.

How should the advocacy carry on? Here it is impor-tant to recognize characteristics of an effective advocate.

One: The advocate must be a good communicator. Communication, of course, is listening as well as talking. He is able to articulate the message and to support it with information and stories.

Two: The advocate must be resilient. Although reach-ing the advocacy goal quickly is desirable, it does not al-ways happen that way. It is often necessary for her to advocate, evaluate advocacy efforts, and then advocate once more.

Three: The advocate must be willing and effective in working with others. Numbers count in advocacy. Cer-tainly the message is far more likely to be communicated effectively if the idea is important to lots of people, so it is important to find others who share a vision. Getting oth-ers to coalesce around an advocacy message is important.

Four: The advocate must harness social media to cre-ate interest and support for the advocacy goal. The abil-ity to reach a significant number of people quickly de-scribes the advocacy potential of social media.

Five: The advocate must be familiar with the legisla-tive process and the responsibilities of various legislative committees, as well as know which legislators are in lead-ership positions in each house. This information helps the advocate negotiate the journey of the idea (the initia-tive) through the legislative process.

Six: The advocate must remain alert. The proposed legislation may seem to be going smoothly through the

STEM Talent Development


legislative process, but it is so easy to get way-laid along the way. It is essential to be in the room when decisions are made or to have someone in the room who can text, call, or email to keep you up to date on what is happening on the floor of the House and Senate.

The process of taking an idea through the legislative process is seldom quick, but rather it is one that requires planning and persistence. It begins with an idea that becomes the centerpiece of the advocacy. Momentum builds when kindred spirits join together and share the carefully crafted message. Negotiating the legislative pro-cess works best when it is well planned. If success is not the result, advocates move forward and work to build sup-port for the next legislative session. On the other hand, the advocacy initiative may result in the passage of legis-lation or the inclusion of needed funds in the budget that is adopted. Either way, advocates thank all partners and legislators who helped, and they continue to build rela-tionships – the key factor in moving an initiative from an idea to action for talent development in STEM.

— Julia Link Roberts, Ed.D.

A Special Request

To help decision makers understand the need to provide specialized services to gifted and talented students, it is important to share stories and examples of how programs – and specialty schools such as those that are part of NCSSSMST – have made a difference in the education success and life success of program and school graduates.

Many elected officials believe that high-ability students will succeed, even in the absence of the opportunities, challenges, and camaraderie that these programs offer. It is important to dispel that myth with your stories that link your specialty school experience directly to your ensuing post-secondary and career paths. I know that many readers could tell stories of wasted academic time prior to attending specialty schools, or the moment when the light bulb went on in what would become your chosen profession, or some of you could share examples of mentors whose encouragement led to remarkable achievements at a young age – paving the way to selective university programs and other opportunities.

If you’re willing to share your story, please send me an email at [email protected] with a brief summary. I’ll follow up with a short questionnaire so that we can capture similar information from each of you that will illuminate for others the value of our specialty schools!

Stem Talent Development

11Using Gene Ontology to Enrich Student Learning

teaChing and learning in the in-

formation age can be stressful if

you decide that new vocabulary, programs, wikis and blogs are tak-ing us away from the essence of

our profession. It seems only yes-terday we were trying to imagine

what the information age would

be like. Now our brains are bom-barded by billions of words every

time we perform a “Google Search.” There is a calm to the chaos when we focus on the foundation of our profes-

sion. Our role as teachers is to design learning activities

that will actively engage students to be independent learners. The

focus is on student learning, and we as teachers are in the back-

ground of the process.

As we identify new avenues

for student learning, there are ba-sic questions that are part of the

instructional design process. We

consider: What concepts will the

students learn? Will it be depth or

breadth? Will they utilize technol-ogy to acquire the new skills? What will be the students’

deliverable? What will the assessment rubric look like?

In my own teaching, these are the guiding questions that

go through my mind each time I encounter a new topic

or process.

Over the summer the terminology “Gene Ontology”

was introduced to me at the Institutes for Science Teach-

ing sponsored by American Society for Microbiology’s

Functional Genomics Institute at Hiram College. Al-

though we learned updated methods in biotechnology, the real take away message was about how scientists are

Using Gene Ontology to Enrich Student Learning

managing all the informatics data generated since The

Human Genome Project. If you do a search for Gene

Ontology, at the top of the list will be http://www.ge-neontology.org/ . It gives the history and rationale for the project and illustrates how the world community of scien-

tists are organized to understanding genes across species.

During the institute Professor Jim Hu of Texas A &

M’s Dept. of Biochemistry and Biophysics introduced

the CACAO project that engages undergraduates to learn how to annotate genes. As I was listening to his presenta-

tion and wandering through his wiki [gowiki.tamu.edu], my instructional design mode was in full gear. Questions

I had: Can this be a way for my

biotech students to be engaged with current science? What do

they need to know before they get started? Wow! Other NCSSSMST

students and teachers might like

this! So, I invited Jim to present at

the NCSSSMST Austin Confer-ence. Within 24 hours he upload-

ed his presentation and included

his post-doc, Brenley McIntosh

in the presentation. At the confer-

ence we had over 10 NCSSSMST schools at the session.

In my own biotechnology lab class, I challenged two

of my students who are taking computer science to read

about GO and make a short presentation to the group.

Within 15 minutes the two students were figuring out that computer programming is behind the project and

that scientists from all over the world are working on the

GO project. It was noteworthy that they recognized that

evidenced based research comparing molecular functions

and cellular components across genomes. As the teacher, I was jumping for joy because they were able to ascertain

Teaching and Learning

It seems only yesterday we were trying to imagine what the information age would be like. Now our brains are bombarded by billions of words every time we perform a “Google Search.”


Cheryl A. Lindeman is a biology instructor/partnership coordinator at Central Virginia Governor’s School in Lynchburg, VA. She can be reached at [email protected].

the connections on their own AND explain them to their peers. Is there a learning curve with GO? Yes, there is, but the way the scientific community has organized the in-formation, paths of communication, and discovery make it an ideal way for groups of students to explore a gene with limited background preparation. They learn as they go along. They chuckle at the terms used to organize the process and see cross pollination with computer science terms.

Jim’s group has developed a competition phase for un-dergraduates. Brenley manages and coaches the competi-tions. So, what is the next step for GO? One suggestion is for our NCSSSMST students to be involved as teams to help annotate genes. The GO project fits the model for designing instruction. The deliverable is the team’s anno-tation. The assessment is when their annotations are ac-cepted by the curators. Students can be organized within a class or by interest group. Their involvement can be doc-umented for their future science work and NSF grants.

How exciting for our students as they can have the op-portunity to connect with other NCSSSMST peers and at the same time assist scientists by learning how to anno-tate the International Gene Database. For more informa-tion about CACAO at TAMU, contact Brenley McIntosh at [email protected].

— Cheryl A. Lindeman, Ed.D.

Teaching and Learning

13Connecting the Consortium

In order to cultivate a meaningful and sustained on-line presence, NCSSSMST will be devoting more atten-tion to its Facebook page (www.facebook.com/ncsssmst) and Twitter (@ncsssmst) account. With all online media, the key to relevance is in frequency of use and volume of users. Following this logic, members of NCSSSMST are highly encouraged to not only visit the Facebook page and follow the Twitter account, but to actively share ideas, post resources, and “mention” NCSSSMST whenever an opportunity arises. As more users visit and utilize the on-line resources provided or facilitated by NCSSSMT, the more popular and relevant these become.

Special thanks to Gerald P. Doyle of the Illinois Insti-tute of Technology for his wisdom and insight on these matters.

— Alison Earnhart

Using Twitter and Facebook to Expand the Consortium’s Online Presence

Connecting the Consortium

Figure 1. The NCSSSMST Twitter Page

Figure 2. The NCSSSMST Facebook Page

Looking for another way to get involved? Contact one of the committe chairpersons listed below.

2012 NCSSSMST Committees

Diversity Committee

Membership and Affiliate Committee

Nominations Committee

Program Committee

Research Committee

Technology Committee

Business Plan Committee

Letita [email protected]

Tanya [email protected]

Mark [email protected]

Nicole [email protected]

Heather [email protected]

Chris [email protected]

Steve [email protected]


Are STEM High School Students Entering the STEM Pipeline?

ABSTRACTThis study compared the career skills and inter-ests for students in two STEM schools to nation-al data. Students completed the KUDER skills assessment and career planning online tools. Results were compared across school, grade level, and sex. The results provided evidence that STEM high school students expressed ca-reer intents in predominately STEM-related ca-reers at twice the national rate. Between 42 and

44% of STEM school students hold STEM-re-lated career intents, and these intents resulted in more than half of the School B STEM school students majoring in STEM fields in college (School A will graduate its first class in 2013). This is double the national percentage of high schools graduates pursuing STEM-related col-lege studies, suggesting that STEM high school students are entering the STEM pipeline.

by M. Suzanne Franco, Ed.D., Nimisha H. Patel, Ph.D., and Jill Lindsey, Ph.D.

Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio

the worldwide deMand for SCienCe, teChnology, engi-neering, and math (STEM) trained professionals has fos-tered a plethora of responses within the United States as STEM-based economic activities increase. At first, the national response focused on initiatives to support more college graduates in STEM programs (Kuenzi, 2008). Be-cause the results were not encouraging, initiatives emerged to increase the number of high school students entering pathways for STEM professions, sometimes referred to as the STEM pipeline. The focus on increasing high school graduates’ STEM interests and skills within the United States is documented in federal and state initiatives (Amer-ica COMPETES, 2007; Battelle, 2002; Kuenzi, 2008; Na-tional Science Foundation, 2007). One response to the initiatives is the creation of STEM specialty high schools. Though high school reform is not a new concept, the de-velopment of STEM-focused high schools is relatively new. In 2007 there were only 100 such schools throughout the country (Atkinson, Hugo, Lundgren, Shapiro, & Thomas, 2007; Subotnik, Tai, Rickoff, & Almarode, 2010; Thomas & Williams, 2010); as of 2011, there has been an emer-gence of many more STEM specialty schools, including charter schools, as well as STEM schools within traditional schools. Furthermore, individual states have launched or-

ganizations to increase the number of graduates prepared

to enter the STEM pipeline. Indiana, Tennessee, Ohio,

North Carolina, New York, and Maryland are a few states

that have STEM initiatives, many of which are funded by

the Gates foundations or the National Governors Asso-

ciation (NGA) (The National Network of STEM States,

n.d.). The goal is to create a National STEM Learning Net-

work as a clearinghouse for advancing STEM policies, best

practices, and industry alignment (Miller, 2009).

Longitudinal studies about STEM high schools’ impact on

the number of STEM-trained college graduates have not

yet been published. Legislation and policies are predicat-

ed upon the hope that the availability of STEM-focused

high schools will increase the percentage of high school

students who enter the pipeline anticipating a STEM ca-

reer and exit the pipeline as STEM professionals. Indeed,

it is during high school that students begin to differenti-

ate career intents. Career aspirations emerge in the middle

school years but are not fully formed until late in the high

school experiences (Low, Yoon, Roberts, & Rounds, 2005).

Tai, Liu, Maltese, and Fan (2006) studied the career paths

of grade 8 students and found that roughly half of grade

8 students who expected to participate in a science-based

15Are STEM High School Students Entering the STEM Pipeline?

For additional information, please contact Dr. Suzanne Franco at [email protected]. Dr. Franco is an Associate Professor at Wright State University and also the Director of Research and Evaluation at Dayton Regional STEM School.

career actually did study science at the postsecondary level. The result provided evidence that there is interest in STEM careers at early ages; but do STEM schools further devel-op these interests? To investigate the question, this study compared the career skills and interests for students in two STEM schools to national data.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Research suggests that exposure to STEM content within the traditional high school (HS) experience does not guar-antee students will become STEM professionals. Thomas (2000) compared the majors of college graduates who at-tended a STEM HS to national percentages of college ma-jors collected by the National Center for Education Statis-tics (NCES) in 1992–1993. National results indicated that 3% of college-attending traditional HS graduates majored in math or computer science. Meanwhile, 10% of students who graduated from a STEM HS and attended college ma-jored in math or computer science. While the percentage of STEM majors was three times greater for graduates of STEM HSs, it is reasonable to expect the difference would be higher. Interestingly, graduates of STEM HSs majored in the science fields at twice the rate of graduates from tra-ditional HSs, 51% compared to 23%.

The phrase ‘enter the STEM pipeline’ refers to a student declaring intent in further education or a career in a STEM

field. Students enter the STEM pipeline at high school graduation and exit the pipeline as STEM professionals. For the remainder of this paper, the authors will refer to degree completion, career interests and career clusters (a distinct grouping of occupations and industries based on the knowledge and skills they require), rather than entering the pipeline because the actions are more descriptive of the postsecondary actions and decisions.

STEM High Schools

STEM schools deliver state-mandated HS content with a focus on science, technology, engineering, and math. Gen-erally speaking, STEM schools employ an inquiry-based instructional framework with interdisciplinary content de-livery. Students work in either collaborative or cooperative groups to solve problems. The problems are non-trivial and are generated either from students’ personal interests and/or from community issues. Consequently, students are more likely to be invested personally in solving the problem; their engagement in and motivation for solving the problems are enhanced. The student-generated solutions are commonly presented to school stakeholders; subsequently, students incorporate stakeholder feedback into their final solution. As such, most STEM schools partner with local businesses and/or Institutes of Higher Education (IHE) in order to provide personal connections between students and those with careers in a STEM field. Some STEM HSs offer early college credits or all college credit classes in the junior and senior years.

Career education in K12 Schools

It is said frequently that careers that will be available for today’s high school graduates have not yet been creat-ed. As students join the workforce, their experience and knowledge will shape new professions (Haberman & Ye-hezkel, 2008). Nonetheless, schools continue to provide career education in varying degrees in the middle school or high school. Ideally, students complete personal skills and interest inventories which map into distinct groupings of occupations and industries. The groupings are referred to as career clusters. From this activity, students can begin the process of exploring further the group of careers that matches their interests.

Career selection is a process that takes place over a peri-od of ten or more years as a student matures (Low et al., 2005). Parents, teachers, friends, and neighbors influence


the process, as do school counselors. Unfortunately, the ac-tual time performing career counseling duties is minimal according to a state wide study of elementary, middle, and high school counselors (Osborn & Baggerly, 2004). Budget challenges for education that cut or minimize counselor ac-cess along with the ever growing counselor responsibilities associated with standardized testing and class scheduling contribute to this situation.

Beyond time constraints, school counselor knowledge influences the ability to guide students in career explora-tion. School counselors are not and cannot be experts on all career opportunities. In fact, most school counselors work with students to recognize their personal skills and interests and then direct students to additional resources for career options related to these interests (McWhirter, Rasheed, & Crothers, 2000). In a study by McCuen and Greenberg (2009), students reported that school counsel-ors’ lack of awareness of emerging STEM-related careers had a negative impact on students pursuing postsecondary STEM interests.

Career Clusters

In 1996 the U.S. Department of Education (DOE), the Of-fice of Vocational and Adult Education (OVAE), the Na-tional School-to-Work Office (NSTWO), and the National Skill Standards Board (NSSB) collaborated to develop 16 career clusters or groupings of similar careers (The 16 Ca-reer Clusters, n.d.). The purpose was to assist students in planning for the transition from high school to careers or higher education (The work suite: Career clusters, path-ways & specialties [thus], n.d.). The attraction for stan-dardizing the career clusters was that the cluster names are familiar to most students. For example, students can relate to the career clusters of Education and Training or Health Science (See Figure 1).

Career Planning Tools for Students

To assist students in familiarizing themselves with career options related to their interests, numerous career inter-est and planning tools have evolved. The ACT college entrance assessment offers a career exploration tool for middle school students (EXPLORE) and for high school students (PLAN for 10th graders and the ACT for 11th and 12th graders) (ACT, 2011). An informative career options student report merges ACT academic achievement results and self-reported interest inventories for each student.

ACT career interest analyses employ the RIASEC scales to identify interests: Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, So-cial, Enterprising, and Conventional (Swaney, 1995). For

example, a score close to ‘R’, ‘Realistic’, implies that the responder would be well placed in jobs such as mechanical and electrical specialties or engineering. A student with a scale score closer to ‘S’, Social, would be well suited for education or community services. The scales were final-ized by Holland and are sometimes referred to as the Hol-land scales; they have been supported repeatedly in the literature (Day & Rounds, 1998; Swaney, 1995). Holland (1997) posits a circular model for the RIASEC scale; R (realistic) is most similar to I (investigative) and C (con-ventional), less similar to A (artistic) and E (enterprising), and least similar to S (social). Prediger (1982) posited that the RIASEC scales can be subsumed into two dimensions (Things/People and Data/Ideas) to characterize further the RIASEC profiles. One dimension identifies careers as focusing on Things or People, such as Engineering for Things, or Education for People; the second dimension is named Data or Ideas, with Regulation or Financial careers related to Data and Arts or Social Sciences related to Ideas. Figure 2 includes a circular model depicting the RIASEC scales merged with career descriptions and Prediger’s two dimensions.

Another resource that provides career interest and plan-ning services designed for students is KUDER, an online survey regarding student career skills and interest. The on-line tool is designed for students as early as grade 7 and for adults at any point in a career (Kuder, 2010). Student skill interest data is mapped to either the RIASEC or the 16 Ca-

Figure 1. Sixteen career clusters

Sixteen Career Clusters

Agriculture Food and Natural Resources

Architecture and Construction

Arts, Audio-Video Technology, and Communications

Business Management and Administration

Education and Training

Finance

Government and Public Administration

Health Science

Hospitality and Tourism

Information Technology

Law

Marketing

Manufacturing

Public Safety, Corrections, and Security

Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics

Transportation


reer Clusters. For this study, student responses to KUDER assessments subsequently mapped to the 16 career clusters were used.

Student interest stability over time

Longitudinal data from career planning tools have pro-vided insights over time regarding stability and change of

HS student skills, interest, and anticipated careers. Tracey,

Robbins, and Hofsess (2005) analyzed national ACT data for students at the 8th, 10th, and 12th grades. The researchers

analyzed student academic scores and career interests. The results indicated that there was a general upward trend in

ACT academic scores for both sexes for all subjects over

the three assessments administered in the 8th, 10th, and 12th

grades. For career interests, the RIASEC scale scores also increased in magnitude over time, indicating more crys-

tallized interests. Girls’ interests were stable. Interests for

boys changed from the 10th grade to the 12th grade.

Interestingly, though, Tracey et al. (2005) found there was

no relationship between academic scores and subsequent career interests or vice versa. For example, students with

high math scores did not necessarily indicate career in-

terests in math-related careers. Students did exhibit more

crystallization within career interests as they matriculated

through HS; for example, instead of a broad math-related career, a student’s interests narrowed to electrical engineer-

ing or physics. Interest-career congruency, the match be-

tween interest and career intent, was stable from grade 8 to

10 and less stable between grade 10 and 12. For example,

between the 10th and 12th grade more students identified careers that did not align with their interests. The research-ers suggested that the change in interest-career congruency could be attributed to the major life decisions required in 12th grade regarding college/career choices; more career counseling efforts in 12th grade may be warranted regard-ing interest-career congruency.

National Statistics for Bachelor Degrees Awarded

In 2010 68% of the high school graduates enrolled in col-

lege and 90% were enrolled full time (US Department of Education NCES, 2011). Twenty-five percent of college

graduates received degrees in STEM fields.

Because higher education institutes have different require-

ments regarding when a student declares a major, it is not easy to determine how many students begin their college

career with the intent to major in a STEM field. The Na-tional Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) instruments

collect self-report data regarding college students’ antici-

pated major fields of study. For 2010, first year college stu-dents across the nation (n = 189,811) indicated that 25%

anticipated majoring in STEM fields (Biology, Engineer-ing, and Physics). Twenty percent of a 2010 sample of col-

lege seniors (n = 229,713) reported upcoming graduation

in STEM fields (NSSE, 2011).

College degree attainment is a more reliable statistic than

anticipated college degree fields when determining statis-tics regarding trends of STEM HS graduates entering the

STEM pipeline. For that reason the NCES data is preferred

in describing the number of STEM graduates. In 2008, 27% of the attained degrees were in STEM fields ranging from

health to computer science to physics. This is very close to the 26.9% STEM-related degrees awarded in 1998 (US

Department of Education NCES, 2009b), indicating that

recent efforts have to be furthered to bring about more sub-

stantial changes. It is interesting to note that NCES 2008 data (27% STEM graduates) is close to the anticipated per-

centage (25%) reported by NSSE (2011).

Sex Differences regarding STEM-related College Majors

The percentage of college degrees awarded to males and females was fairly constant between 1998 and 2008 (US Department of Education NCES, 2009a). The degree field that has experienced the largest female increase in the ten year period is Security and Protective Services; the largest decrease has been in Computer and Information Sciences, a STEM-related field. In fact, the percentage of females awarded degrees in computer science and engineering de-

Figure 2. The RIASEC scales merged with career descriptions and Prediger’s two dimensions


clined between 1998 (27%) and 2008 (18%). Likewise, the percentage of females who received degrees in engineer-ing, computer science and biology during 2008 was small-er than those awarded in 1998. In 2008, females had the highest percentages of degrees in Family and Consumer Sciences (87%); Health Profession (85%); and Public Ad-ministration and Social Services (82%). Females had the smallest representation in Engineering (16%) and Comput-er Science/Technology (18%). In contrast to the females, males continued to dominate in the Engineering (82%), Computer Science (73%) and Physical Science fields (60%) (US Department of Education NCES, 2009b).

Summary

Historical data indicate that the numbers of students an-ticipating and attaining STEM-related college degrees is stagnant. STEM high schools are providing students with skills that are necessary for success in STEM careers. The question remains, though, whether today’s STEM high school graduates are selecting STEM fields for careers or higher education. This paper documents a comparison of historical national data regarding STEM Bachelor’s degree anticipation/attainment and two STEM high schools stu-dents’ career interests and aspirations.

METHODS

Participants

Participants included students enrolled in either of two STEM schools in the same Midwestern state. At the time of data collection, School A served students in grades 8-10. The school was in its second year and planned to add grade levels each year, eventually to serve students in grades 6-12. The school represented students from 5 different counties and over 30 school districts. Applicants were required to be on grade level. A lottery system was used to attain equal representation from each of three surrounding counties and across sex. Over-representation was allowed from the three original counties if openings remained.

School B was a STEM-focused, early college academy that served students in grades 9-12. College level courses were

taught at the school during junior and senior years. An educational council representing the entire region of local school districts operated the school. Students in each of the participating districts applied for the STEM/Early College program; admittance was based on a lottery system. School B had graduated two classes. Over 50% of their graduates declared their major field of study in STEM-related fields.

All students at each school were asked to participate in the study. Participation rate was approximately 85%, with 422 participants out of the 498 students enrolled across both schools. Participant grade level and sex are presented in Figure 3.

Measures

To examine the research question, student skills and career intent were studied. For skills, the KUDER Skills Assess-ment (KSA16) maps students’ skills within the framework of the 16 career clusters described previously. Participants provide one of the five following responses to 170 state-ments describing activities, such as ‘planting a garden to make a salad’: Cannot do at all; Slightly certain can do; Moderately certain can do; Very certain can do; and Com-pletely certain can do. The internal consistency (Cronbach’s alphas) of the KSA16 are high (Zytowski, D’Achiardi, & Rottinghaus, n.d.), ranging from 0.78 to 0.85 for each clus-ter.

For career intent, the KUDER Career Survey (KCS) pro-vides data regarding the inventory-taker’s similarity with groups of employed people in the sixteen career clusters identified in Table 1. Students rank order responses to 60 forced choice triads using Most-, Next Most-, and Least-preferred as a ranking scale. The activities within each triad are described as a simple verb and an object, such as ‘take dance lessons’. Cluster scores are generated by means of a system of unique weights obtained by multiple regres-sion analyses of the attitude preference scales on cluster membership. Reliability studies indicate the instrument is both reliable and valid. Ihle-Helledy (2001) found Cron-bach alphas for cluster scores ranging from .65 to .86 with a median of 0.77, and temporal reliabilities ranging be-tween 0.83 and 0.92, with a median of 0.87. Recent stud-

Figure 3. Descriptive Statistics of Participants Across Grade Level and Sex

School 8th Grade N 9th Grade N 10th Grade N 11th Grade N 12th Grade N Total

Sex F M F M F M F M F M

School A 19 33 18 44 28 39 N/A N/A N/A N/A 181

School B N/A N/A 31 34 41 34 21 21 23 36 241

Total N 52 127 142 42 59 422


ies regarding the validity of the KCS found satisfactory concurrent validity evidence for the majority of career clusters (Kelly, 2002; Zytowski, n.d.).

Students completed the online KSA16 and KCS using school computers during two 50 minute advisory periods in March, 2011; those who did not complete the online assess-ments during advisory time completed the surveys at home using personal computers between April and May, 2011. Upon comple-tion, each student received a summary profile that included suggested steps for continuing career exploration and links for exploring options for additional career study. KUDER provided summarized skill and career data by grade level, sex, and school to the authors. Microsoft Excel pivot tables were created to investigate differences in skills and career intents by grade levels, sex, and school responses.

RESULTS

STEM career cluster and STEM careers

The STEM cluster within the 16 National Career Clusters Figure 1 includes jobs and careers focused in engineering; the cluster does not represent all careers that require STEM training. For this study, to better identify the sample’s STEM career intents, the authors defined ‘STEM-related’ careers to include Health Services, Architecture, Informa-tion Technology, and Arts Audio-Video Technology and Communications clusters. Given this expanded definition of STEM-related careers, the career interests of the major-ity of the students in both schools were STEM-related. The results are described in two sections: skills and careers.

Skills inventory

Skills inventory data represent students’ responses about their current skillsets. The skillsets are aggregated into the 16 career clusters described previously. The skill clusters identified from the student responses for the two schools were similar; therefore, the results are reported for a merged dataset containing School A and School B responses.

Students reported their current skillsets were focused in the

Hospitality and Tourism (31%) and Information Technol-

ogy (30%) clusters; the Education and Training was the third highest populated (19%) cluster. Figure 4 contains the

percentages of students whose skillsets were mapped to the

three most populated career clusters. Skillset/Career clus-

ters mappings to 3 or fewer students are not reported caus-ing the total percentages not to equal 100% in Figure 4.

Skills inventory by grade level

The three clusters represented in Figure 4 were also the most populated career clusters by grade level; however, the

percentage of students with skillsets mapped to the three

clusters varied with grade level (Figure 5). For example, Hospitality mappings decreased from 8th grade (42%) to

12th grade (23%) while Information Technology increased from 8th grade (23%) to 12th grade (35%). The third most

populated skillset cluster, Education and Training, re-

mained relatively consistent between 8th and 12th grade.

Skills by Sex

Skillset mappings to career clusters are different when

summarized by sex (Table 5). Boys’ self-reported skillsets

were mapped into Information Technology as first (44%);

Hospitality and Tourism as second (22%); and Education

and Training as third (11%). Girls’ self-reported skillsets

were mapped into Hospitality and Tourism as first (41%);

Education and Training as second (27%); and Information

Technology as third (13%). The sex differences regarding

skillset mapping to career clusters were consistent across

all grade levels.Figure 4. Percentage Students with Skillsets in Most

Populated Career Clusters

Career ClusterPercentage of students with skillsets in Career Cluster

Hospitality 31%

Information Technology 30%

Education and Training 19%

Figure 5. Percentage of Students Skillsets in Most Populated Career Clusters by Grade Level

Career Cluster Grade 8 Grade 9 Grade 10 Grade 11 Grade 12

Hospitality 42% 31% 27% 37% 23%

Information Technology

23% 27% 31% 37% 35%

Education and Training

16% 22% 23% 7% 13%

Figure 6. Percentage of Student Skillset Clusters by Sex

Career Cluster Boys Girls

Hospitality 22% 41%

Information Technology 44% 13%

Education and Training 11% 27%


Career clusters

Even though the top six career clusters were the same for both schools, the percent students mapped to the career clusters differed. The top two career clusters for School A are STEM-related; the top three career clusters for School B are STEM-related. The most frequently identified clus-ter for School A is STEM; the most frequently identified cluster for School B is shared between STEM and Arts Au-dio-Video Technology and Communications. The least fre-quently identified cluster for School A is Arts Audio-Video Technology and Communications; the least frequently identified cluster for School B is Information Technology.

Career clusters by Grade

There was no discernible trend regarding specific career clusters identified by grade levels. However, there was a slight trend regarding the number of career clusters rep-resented in each grade level. In grade 8, 5 of the 16 career clusters were not identified as likely for any students. By the 12th grade, every career cluster except Manufacturing was identified as a likely career cluster for at least one stu-dent (Figure 7).

Careers by Sex

Figure 8 and 9 present career cluster percentages by sex for each school. For School A, overall differences were found between boys and girls among the top six career clusters, with boys mapped to STEM and girls mapped to Health Science. No girls were mapped to Information Technology.

There were three career clusters heavily populated by girls in School B: Arts Audio-Video Technology and Commu-nications (20%), Health Science (16%), and Agriculture (14%). For boys, the most frequent career clusters were: STEM (11%), Architecture (11%), Information Technol-ogy (7%) and Health Science (7%). No girls in School B were matched to the Information Technology cluster.

DISCUSSION

Careers that require STEM skills are not limited to engi-neering; Architecture, Health Science, Audio-Video Tech-nology and Information Technology career clusters are part of a constellation of STEM-related careers. Using an expanded definition of STEM careers to include STEM-related careers, girls and boys in this study were predomi-nately matched to STEM careers with different career clus-ters for boys and girls. The difference in career intents by sex is supported in the Tracey et al. (2005) research regard-ing sex and career interests.

The most frequently mapped skillsets included one STEM field: Information Technology. The other two most fre-quently identified skillsets, Hospitality and Tourism, and Education (See Table 3) may reflect high school student skills developed as a result of exposure to work in the ser-vice market or school settings. These skillsets are typical for high school students who work in sales or service jobs during high school. The result that two of the three most

Figure 7. Career Clusters not populated by Grade Levels

Grade 8 Grade 9 Grade 10 Grade 11 Grade 12

Education & TrainingFinanceHospitality & TourismHuman ServicesTransportation

BusinessHuman ServicesTransportation

Human Services ManufacturingMarketing

Manufacturing

Figure 8. School A Career Clusters by Sex

Career Cluster Girls Boys

Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources

9% 10%

Architecture and Construction 5% 10%


6% 7%

Health Science 22% 7%



8% 21%

Figure 9. School B Career Clusters by Sex

Career Cluster Girls Boys

Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources

14% 5%

Architecture and Construction 2% 11%


20% 6%

Health Science 16% 7%



3% 11%


frequently identified skillsets did not include STEM skills should motivate policy makers to develop initiatives for STEM businesses and professionals focused on providing STEM experiences for elementary, middle and high school students. Tracey et al. (2005) documented that there was a relationship between skills and interest, and consequently between interest and careers. Earlier exposure (before and during middle school) to STEM environments instead of sales and service jobs could increase the number of stu-dents who develop STEM skills before high school. Earlier exposure could also lead to increased skills, awareness and preferences for STEM careers. Without the exposure, some who may be excellent candidates for a STEM field career may never recognize that such a field would be a match for their abilities and interests.

For career mapping, boys tended to match with STEM and Information Technology careers; girls tended to match with Arts Audio-Video Technology and Health Sciences. School B data indicated the greatest boy/girl disparity (Ta-bles 7, 8). One reason for this could be the fact that School B includes 11th and 12th graders. Tracey et al. (2005) analy-ses documented the trend for boys to alter career intents between the 10th and 12th grade. School A’s boy/girl dispar-ity could have a similar disparity once the school provides services for grades 11 and 12. Other reasons could include the fact that School B is an early college academy whose 11th and 12th graders take college level classes that may in-troduce additional career options to students.

Five of the six most populated career clusters are included in the constellation of STEM-related careers, though the order was slightly different for students in the two schools. This is in spite of the fact that students were distributed over 15 of the 16 clusters by 12th grade. As more clusters were populated, it was possible that STEM-related careers would not have been among the most populated mapped careers for students. The results show otherwise.

Younger students were mapped to fewer career clusters (11) than the older students (15). This trend is supported by Tracey’s (2005) finding that career interests tended to change between the 10th and 12th grade as decisions about postsecondary options become realities.

NSSE data from 2010 indicated that about 25% of first year college students anticipated majoring in STEM ca-reers, but a survey of senior college students reported only 20% anticipated graduating with STEM degrees (NSSE, 2010). NCES data (2011) indicates that about 27% of col-lege degrees are awarded in STEM-related fields. Students in all grade levels from the two STEM schools studied

have a far greater percentage (44% and 42%) anticipating STEM-related careers after graduation. These career in-tents should not change much according to the Tracey et al. (2005) research regarding stabilization of career intent by grades 9-12.

LIMITATIONS

Students in the two STEM high schools represent at least two groups: students with interests in STEM-related fields as well as students who shared in focus groups and per-sonal conversations with the researcher that they desired to ‘try something new.’ Though some may minimize the find-ings of this study because portions of the students in the sample already have demonstrated an interest in STEM, the authors do not see this as a limitation. The research question was to determine if STEM high school students were anticipating STEM careers. Future research should address the question regarding whether STEM high school students anticipate STEM careers at a greater rate than stu-dents in traditional schools.

CONCLUSION

If the nation remains committed to increasing the number of high school graduates who enter the STEM pipeline, policy makers need to realize that initiatives to increase pre college students’ exposure to STEM-related experiences should include students younger than high school age. Moreover, policy makers should design programs that take into account that girls and boys are interested in STEM fields but in different clusters of STEM-related careers.

This study provided evidence that STEM high school stu-dents expressed career intents in predominately STEM-related careers. Data from two graduating classes from School B provided evidence that these interests translated into college studies in STEM fields. In the first graduat-ing class for School B (2010), over 50% of the graduates entered college to pursue STEM fields. In 2011 64% of the graduating class entered college to pursue STEM fields.

The findings from this study of students in two STEM schools suggests that between 42 and 44% of STEM school students hold STEM-related career intents, and that these intents resulted in more than half of the STEM school stu-dents majoring in STEM fields in college. This is double the national percentage of high schools graduates pursuing STEM-related college studies, suggesting that STEM high schools are increasing the number of students entering the STEM pipeline.


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REFERENCES

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This paper summarizes five phases of a com-prehensive Economic Impact Study conduct-ed by the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics (NCSSM) from 2009-2011. The methodology and assumptions of those analyses is summarized for those wishing to conduct similar studies. The paper also docu-ments highlighted results, such as the school’s estimated $521 million in 2009 contributions to the North Carolina economy, including over

$20 million in institutional spending, $1.1 mil-lion in state taxes, and nearly $500 million in economic activity by NCSSM alumni. Over their lifetimes, each cohort of NCSSM gradu-ates who reside in North Carolina contributes between $48.4 and $66.8 million in taxes to the state’s treasury. As the publicly-supported school continues to expand enrollment, its economic impact on the region will continue to grow.

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION

The North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics (NCSSM)

As the nation prepared to enter the 1960s space race, North Carolina gov-ernor Terry Sanford envisioned devel-oping a school to nurture the state’s sci-entific talent. In 1980, with increased international competition in scientific and technological innovation, Gover-nor James B. Hunt, along with former Sanford administration official John Ehle, and NC State Senator Kenneth C. Royall worked with the state’s leg-islature and business community to establish the North Carolina School

of Science and Mathematics, the na-tion’s first publicly-funded residential high school for students gifted in sci-ence and mathematics.

The legislation establishing the school mandated that NCSSM: (1) train North Carolina’s future scientists, engineers, and mathematicians at the school’s Durham campus; and (2) pro-vide outreach to cultivate and nurture K12 scientific talent throughout the state.

In admitting the state’s most promis-ing high school juniors and seniors, the school was required to draw equal representation from among North Carolina’s 13 Congressional Districts.

The school’s first class graduated in

1982, and approximately 7,500 gradu-

ates representing all 100 counties of

North Carolina have passed through

NCSSM’s doors. In 2005, the school

became the 17th constituent campus

of the University of North Carolina

system.

Today 680 students live and learn on

the 27-acre Durham campus, situated

on the grounds of the former Watts

Hospital. Approximately 80 faculty

members provide rigorous instruc-

tion in the humanities, mathematics,

and sciences. Eighteen specialized

schools throughout the world have

been founded on NCSSM’s model,

and NCSSM helped to found the Na-

tional Consortium of Specialized Sec-

ondary Schools of Mathematics, Sci-

ence, and Technology (NCSSSMST),

which now counts over 100 members

nationwide.

In 2009-11, the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics conducted several phases of a comprehensive Economic Impact Study. The following paper describes the overall results of the study and provides a detailed overview of the methodology.

Economic Impact: Methodology and Overall Findingsby Karen Dash, North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics

25Economic Impact Statement: Methodology and Overall Findings

A Multi-Phased Approach to the NCSSM Economic Impact Study

With governments across the country seeking to understand the impact of their expenditures, the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics conducted a series of related studies to understand the return on taxpayer investment in the school and its gradu-ates. The NCSSM Economic Impact Study was built upon several founda-tional analyses, which are described briefly below.

Alumni Survey Each fall, the North Carolina School of Science and Math-ematics conducts a detailed annual survey of its various alumni classes. Information collected includes data regarding their post-secondary edu-cation, career path, and continued involvement in the Science, Technol-ogy, Engineering, and Math (STEM)

fields. Prior to 2009, only reunion

classes and recent graduates who’d

completed their first year of college

were surveyed. With the 2009 sur-

vey, all alumni were able to access

the survey on the alumni website and

through alumni communications.

Tuition Waiver Analysis In Decem-

ber, 2009, NCSSM worked with a

Board of Trustees member to exam-

ine the return on the state’s investment

in a tuition waiver program with the

University of North Carolina (UNC)

system. For the NCSSM classes grad-

uating from 2004 to 2010, the state of

North Carolina waived tuition fees

for any NCSSM graduate enrolling in

one of the other 16 UNC campuses.

Due to state budget shortfalls, the NC

legislature ended the program with

the graduating class of 2010.

NCSSM Economic and Social Im-

pact Survey In March-April, 2010, the

school conducted a special survey of

its graduates to understand the deeper

economic and social impact of their

contributions to the state of North

Carolina. Its findings were published

in an internal white paper.

North Carolina High School Gradu-

ates Survey In May, 2010, under the

leadership of an NCSSM Foundation

Board member, a research team of

UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School

(KFBS) students conducted a random

telephone survey of 226 North Caro-

lina high school graduates to provide

a context for the NCSSM Economic

and Social Impact Survey. The KFBS

team combined the findings from the

NCSSM Economic and Social Impact

Survey and from the NC high school

graduates into an Economic Impact

Study.

IMPLAN Analysis A professor at

Western Carolina University, whose child attended NCSSM, conducted a separate study of the NCSSM Eco-nomic Impact on the local region,

excluding alumni metrics. The study

included an estimate of the expected economic impact of the proposed construction of the school’s Discov-ery Center.

Highlights Of Overall Findings

The North Carolina School of Sci-

ence and Mathematics provides an enormous boost to the local, state, and

national economies. All told, in 2009, the latest year for which complete data is available, the school’s employ-

ees, students, and graduates pumped approximately $521 million into the

North Carolina economy.

The school’s original mission to culti-vate and retain the best of North Car-

olina’s STEM talent for the benefit of the state has been soundly successful

by any number of measures:

Driving the Economy

The North Carolina School of Science

and Mathematics spending contrib-

utes nearly $22 million to the North Carolina economy, including $1.1 mil-

lion in taxes. Spending in 2008-09 by NCSSM and its 220 employees and

650 students created or maintained

154 additional jobs. As the school continues to expand enrollment, its economic impact on the region will continue to grow. NCSSM alumni re-

siding in North Carolina pump nearly

$500 million into the state’s economy annually.

Over their lifetimes, each cohort of NCSSM graduates who reside in

North Carolina contributes between

From 2008-11, Karen Dash served as the first Director of Institutional Research and Extended Programs at the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics. She now manages a strategic consulting firm, Karen Dash Consulting. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Karen Dash, Karen Dash Consulting, 9406 Scratch Court, Wilmington, NC 28412 Contact: [email protected]


$48.4 and $66.8 million in taxes to the state’s treasury. This figure does not include additional revenues accru-ing from the thousands of part-time NCSSM students whose advanced preparation through NCSSM’s Dis-tance Education program resulted in increased lifetime earnings.

At least forty-five NCSSM alumni hold patents and 104 own companies, including five companies that employ over 500 people.

Over 20% of alumni report household incomes of $100,000-150,000, with another 14.6% reporting household incomes over $200,000.

Other Impacts to North Carolina, the US, and the World

On a larger scale, NCSSM graduates contribute integrally to the advantages

that science and technology confer

on the general living standards of the United States.

According to President Obama’s STEM Commission report issued in

September, 2010, “Since the begin-

ning of the 20th century, average per capita income in the United States has

grown more than sevenfold, and sci-ence and technology account for more

than half of this growth.

In the 21st century, the country’s need

for a world-leading STEM workforce and a scientifically, mathematically,

and technology literate populace has

become even greater, and will contin-

ue to grow —Particularly as other na-

tions continue to make rapid advances in science and technology.” (Presi-

dent’s Council of Advisors on Science

and Technology, 2010).

As a public institution, the school’s

impact can be measured in non-mon-etary terms as well. Many of the in-

vestments made in NCSSM students

are returned to the people served by

NCSSM graduates within their pro-

fessional careers, over one-fourth of which are in education or medicine.

Commitment to STEM

As an incubator of the state’s most promising STEM talent, NCSSM ap-pears to encourage a greater share of its brightest students to pursue STEM degrees than that share among other schools with academically-motivated students. Among the top quintile of all US high school graduates, 13.8% pur-sue STEM degrees, while just above 50% of NCSSM alumni receive a de-gree in the STEM fields, or over 3X as many (Lowell, Salzman, Bernstein, & Henderson, 2009). Among all col-lege students, only 10.7% majored in STEM in the 2008-09 academic year, roughly 1/5 the rate at which NCSSM graduates study STEM (National Center for Education Statistics, 2011).

Half of NCSSM graduates hold a master’s degree, and 25% a doctorate.

Over 13% of alumni are employed in the medical field, and more than 500 care for patients in North Carolina’s top 10 hospitals.

Commitment to North Carolina

Ties to North Carolina run deep. Nearly 60% of NCSSM alumni still reside in North Carolina and nearly 35% work in North Carolina orga-nizations. Of those NCSSM alumni who live out of state, 92% visit North Carolina annually.

Commitment to Education

Annual alumni surveys consistently show an interest and commitment to education at the elementary, second-ary, and post-secondary levels. Nearly 14% of all alumni, the largest share, are currently employed in education.

One fourth of all NCSSM alumni teach at some point in their careers; in fact, currently, alumni teach at 15 of the state’s largest universities. Nearly

40% of NCSSM graduates who teach provide education in the STEM fields.

Commitment to Service

Nearly 64% of alumni volunteer for

community or social organizations

on a weekly basis. By contrast, 39.7%

of North Carolina residents volunteer weekly.

NCSSM Outreach

NCSSM’s dual mandate to provide

STEM education to teachers and stu-

dents from across the state has reaped

tremendous benefits. Students in rural parts of the state who could not access

advanced courses are served by NC-

SSM’s Distance Education and Ex-

tended Programs Division, and North Carolina’s teachers receive intensive

professional development training.

Such STEM outreach provides eco-

nomic benefits to the state as well.

A 2004 study in the Review of Eco-nomics and Statistics suggests that

advanced math classes in high school can increase a student’s future earn-

ings by between 3.1% and 6.5% (Rose

and Betts, 2004). As with the NCSSM residential students, increasing the

earning power of North Carolina’s fu-ture workers across the state translates

into higher tax revenues for North

Carolina.

Over its history, NCSSM outreach programming has provided profes-

sional development to more than

4,000 North Carolina teachers, pri-

marily in the subjects of science and

mathematics.

As the largest provider of K12 out-

reach programs to North Carolina,

NCSSM offers honors and Advanced

Placement credit courses to more than

500 part-time students from 30 North Carolina schools.

NCSSM’s online program, which

awarded its first certificates of comple-


tion in 2009, offers over 15 honors and Advanced Placement courses to over 180 students annually. An additional 2,500 students at over 50 schools re-ceive high quality enrichment pro-gramming annually.

Each summer, over 400 students and educators come to the Durham cam-pus for educational programs and pro-fessional development.

METHODOLOGY

Alumni Surveys

NCSSM annually prepares two sur-veys for its alumni: first, a survey of approximately 20 questions for its graduates who’ve just completed their first year of college (“One Year Out” survey); and second, a survey of ap-proximately 34 questions for older alumni. Special appeals go out to NC-SSM graduates celebrating their 5th, 10th, 15th, 20th, 25th, and soon, 30th reunions to complete the survey.

The surveys are distributed via an electronic link to alumni’s email ad-dresses. A second HTML link is post-ed and available at the alumni website. Several gentle email and e-newsletter reminders leading up to reunions en-courage alumni to complete the sur-vey. The survey is constructed so that, upon completion and submission, the respondent is automatically routed to the NCSSM Alumni webpage.

Over the last three years, NCSSM has streamlined the survey in order to make the most effective use of respon-dents’ time. The balance between the school’s desire for as much useful in-formation as possible and the need not to overwhelm or alienate the respon-dent is constantly weighed. Questions with more measurable, actionable out-comes have replaced others that did not provide information upon which NCSSM could act to improve the ex-

periences of students or alumni.

Over the last three years, on average,

65 of the approximately 320 members

of the NCSSM graduating class (20%)

that has completed its first year of col-

lege responded to the “One Year Out” survey. Over that same time period,

an average of 133 reunion alumni

annually have completed the “Older

Alumni” surveys. In 2009 and 2010,

an additional 147 and 92 older non-reunion alumni completed the “Older

Alumni” surveys, respectively.

Tuition Waiver Analysis

In December, 2009, an NCSSM Board

of Trustees member, Henry Kuo, worked with NCSSM to measure the

economic impact to North Carolina of the NCSSM-UNC tuition waiver.

Implemented in 2004, the tuition

waiver aimed to increase the percent-age of NCSSM graduates attending

University of North Carolina institu-tions. The goal of the waiver program

was to increase the likelihood of stu-

dents with specialized skills remain-ing in North Carolina and contribut-

ing to the North Carolina economy. Prior to the grant, approximately 58%

of NCSSM graduates enrolled in the

state’s public university system. With

the tuition waiver, an average of 80% of NCSSM graduates attended UNC

schools.

The Tuition Waiver Analysis esti-

mated the revenues returned to North

Carolina’s treasury through the tax-able earnings of NCSSM graduates

who remain in North Carolina. The

revenues gained from retaining ad-

ditional NCSSM graduates in North

Carolina through the tuition waiver were compared to the costs of educat-

ing NCSSM students at NCSSM and

with the tuition waiver. The study

suggested that, for a $3.7 million in-

vestment in the UNC tuitions of each

NCSSM graduating class, the state re-ceives an additional $18.3 million over

the $48 million already collected from

NCSSM alumni in yearly taxes.

To estimate lifetime incomes, the anal-

ysis utilized federal government esti-mates of the average income of 2009

college graduates as well as the aver-

age annual income increase for bache-

lor’s degree holders. The assumptions

are conservatively calculated; accord-ing to the Bureau of Labor Statistics,

STEM degree holders generally enjoy

higher lifetime earnings (U.S. Bureau

of Labor Statistics, 2007). The study assumed a 40-year working/taxpay-

ing life.

The two largest UNC campuses,

UNC-Chapel Hill and North Caro-

lina State University, provided their estimates of the share of their gradu-

ates remaining in North Carolina. Es-timates of the state’s weighted average

tax rate aided in the calculation of

revenues accruing to North Carolina.

NCSSM Economic and Social Impact Survey

In March-April, 2010, 1,012 alumni

responded to the school’s special Eco-nomic and Social Impact Survey. The

survey was distributed in the same

manner as the NCSSM alumni sur-

veys. The 10-question survey included queries about volunteering, income,

and, for those who hadn’t responded

to the alumni survey, company owner-

ship and patents.

North Carolina High School Graduates Survey

In spring, 2010, under the leader-ship of NCSSM Foundation Board Member Randy Myer, a professor at UNC-Chapel Hill’s Kenan-Flagler Business School (KFBS), MBA stu-dents conducted a telephone survey of 226 North Carolina residents who had, at a minimum, graduated high


school. They compared their data to that compiled in the NCSSM Alumni

and Economic Impact Surveys. Ideal-

ly, the KFBS survey would have cap-

tured graduates of top high schools in

North Carolina, but the results argue persuasively for the value of the NC-

SSM degree.

The KFBS survey showed that the

household incomes of North Caro-

lina residents who had not attended NCSSM were about half those of NC-

SSM graduates living in North Caro-

lina. NCSSM graduates had much

higher levels of academic achieve-ment as measured by post-secondary

degrees, and were significantly more likely to be employed in the teaching

profession and to volunteer their time

to community organizations.

IMPLAN Analysis

To calculate direct and indirect eco-

nomic impacts resulting from the op-eration of the NCSSM facility, West-

ern Carolina University professor, Dr.

Inhyuck “Steve” Ha, utilized the IM-PLAN (IMpact Analysis for PLAN-

ning) software to construct a model of economic impact. The software cal-

culates the direct and “ripple effect”

of NCSSM spending within the local

and regional economies.

Using the inputs of 2008-09 NCSSM

data regarding wages paid and goods

and services purchased, the IMPLAN

model estimated the Direct Dollar im-

pacts (wages and supplies) and multi-plier effects based on the type of direct

expenditures.

For example, one type of multiplier

effect estimated are Indirect Dollars,

dollars spent on goods or services to

replenish or improve Direct Dollar

purchases. Another type of multi-

plier effect is Induced Dollar spend-

ing, or that spending from increased

household wages that resulted from

increased spending on Direct or Indi-rect goods or services.

The IMPLAN analysis suggested that

NCSSM’s 2009 direct impact on the

North Carolina economy was $15.7

million, with indirect impacts of near-ly $3 million and induced impacts of

$2.8 million, for a total effect of $22

million. Further, purchases by NC-

SSM employees and students gener-

ated or maintained another 154 jobs in the state. As the school increases

enrollment, the direct, indirect, and

induced impacts on North Carolina’s

economy will continue to increase.

Expansion of the school’s physical

campus will also provide a tremen-dous boost to the North Carolina

economy. The Discovery Center, now

in its planning stages, would reno-vate and expand the current facilities

and add residential, classroom, and outdoor space. Campus square foot-

age would be increased by half. The

construction of the Discovery Cen-ter would increase

the impact seven-fold, to $154 mil-

lion. The facility’s

expansion would create more than 1,000 new jobs

annually during

the construction

phase.

Resulting Economic Impact Statements

Brock Winslow, NCSSM Vice Chancellor for Institutional Ad-vancement, Randy Myer, Entrepre-neurship Professor of the Practice, UNC Kenan-Fla-

gler Business School, and members of the NCSSM communications team including Lauren Everhart, Aaron Plourde, and Joyce Ventimiglia, ag-gregated elements of the aforemen-tioned studies and surveys into differ-ent communication vehicles, which are distributed widely.

CONCLUSION

As all publicly-funded institutions be-come increasingly subject to concerns about the effective use of taxpayer dollars, a comprehensive Economic Impact Statement can highlight the enormous return on investment — both in monetary and non-monetary terms — that a specialized secondary school provides its state’s economy. In developing such a statement, it is im-perative that schools broadly consider their impact on numerous constitu-encies not ordinarily served by other schools or institutions.

Lowell, B Lindsay, Salzman, Hal, Bernstein, Hamutal, Henderson, Everett. (2009) Steady as She Goes? Three Generations of Students through the Science and Math Pipeline. Institute for the Study of International Migration, Georgetown University, Heldrich Center for Workforce Development, Bloustein School of Public Policy, Rutgers University, and The Urban Institute.

President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. (2010). Prepare and Inspire, K-12 Education in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) for America’s Future.www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/.../pcast-stemed-report.pd

Rose, Heather, and Betts, Julian R. (2004). The Ef-fect of High School Courses on Earnings. The Re-view of Economics and Statistics, 86(2): 497–513.

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2007). BLS Occupa-tional Outlook Quarterly. Spring 2007, 29.

REFERENCES


Effects of Di-butyl Phthalate (DBP) on Developing Medaka Embryos

Plasticizers are chemical additives that en-hance plastic flexibility. They are ubiquitous environmental contaminants and are com-monly found in river and lake waters (Fromme et al 2002). The present study aimed to inves-tigate the effects of a water-soluble plasticizer, dibutyl phthalate (DBP) on developing Me-daka (Oryzias latipes) embryos. Three concen-trations of DBP (5μg/L, 25μg/L, and 45μg/L) were used to treat groups of 10 eggs, and death,

developmental stages, and any morphological abnormalities were observed for 5 consecu-tive days. Embryos with asymmetrical eyes and missing eyes were observed in the DBP groups. In addition, dose-dependent mortality and developmental delays were also observed. 45μg/L and 25μg/L were lethal by the 5th day. The results indicate that DBP poses an envi-ronmental hazard to developing fish.

ABSTRACT

by Sherry Tang, North Carolina School of Mathematics, Durham, North Carolina

INTRODUCTION

plaStiCizerS are CheMiCal additiveS that enhance the flexibility of plastic products. The most common plasticiz-ers are phthalates, which are used in polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastic prod-ucts. Plasticizers are found in nearly all plastic products, including medical devices, toys, tools, wall insulation, and paint (Shin et al. 2002). Plasticiz-ers are reported to be ubiquitous envi-ronmental contaminants because they leak out over time into the environ-ment (Marcilla et al, 2003; Singletary et al. 1997). Consequently, plasticizers can be found in waste dumps, river wa-ter, and purified drinking water (Liu et al, 2008; Barnabé et al. 2007). Plasti-cizers have received wide attention be-cause they have been reported to mim-ic the natural estrogen 17-β-oestradiol and induce developmental irregulari-

ties, decreases in sperm counts, and feminization of male characteristics (Ohlson and Hardell, 2000; Wong and Gill, 2002).

In addition, there are direct correla-tions between occupations with high PVC exposure and occurence of tes-ticular cancer (Ohlson and Hardell, 2000). Many such studies focus on exposing the study animals by feeding diet dosed with plasticizers. However, more and more evidence points to the fact that plasticizers are contaminants often present in water sources. With the wide spread plasticizer contami-nation, it is clear that studies on the embryonic development of aquatic or-ganisms are necessary in order to gain further insights into the effects of plas-ticizers. This study aims to investigate the effects of a water-soluble plasti-cizer, dibutyl phthalate (DBP), on de-veloping embryos of Oryzias latipes.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Study Organism

Japanese Medaka (Oryzias latipes) embryos were used in this experiment to assay the effects the plasticizer DBP may have on development of fish em-bryos. Medaka embryos are widely used in such studies because they have a clear chorion that allows easy ob-servation and their fairly long period of development allows observations of many stages during development, even with a large gap between obser-vations. In addition, studies on Me-daka embryos have been standardized according to a summary by Iwamatsu (Iwamatsu, 2004), thus description of the developmental stages can be done consistently, and any abnormalities can be described in reference to Iwa-matsu’s description of normal devel-

31Effects of Di-butyl Phthalate (DBP) on Developing Medaka Embryos

Sherry Tang is currently a freshman at Duke University intending to major in biology as a pre-med student. Some of her extracurricular interests include community service, tutoring, visual arts, and music. She volunteers regularly in the Durham, NC neighborhood tutoring middle and high school students in science, math, and music. In addition, she also plays the piano, flute, alto-saxophone, and Chinese folk instruments.

opment. Embryos were obtained from Dr. David E. Hinton’s labora-tory in Duke. The Embryo Rear-ing Medium (ERM), a water-based multi-salt solution, was made for these embryos according to the rec-ipe obtained also from Dr. Hinton’s laboratory.

Experimental Design

Healthy embryos were treated in dif-ferent solutions all made from ERM. For a negative control, only ERM was used. From literature and preliminary data, it has been shown that ethanol can cause a variety of adverse effects on developing Medaka embryos (Oxe-ndine et al, 2006), so ethanol was used as a positive control to reference pos-sible abnormalities that could be ex-pected. A concentration of 2.5% etha-

nol was chosen based on preliminary data. Three concentrations of DBP were used. The highest concentration was selected from literature describing the river water concentrations of DBP (Fromme et al, 2002). A lower 25μg/L and 5μg/L dose were chosen. During the first trial of the experiment, 5 glass jars containing 10 eggs each were used in each group. During the second trial, 10 such jars were used for the DBP groups. The eggs were observed for 5 consecutive days, once per day, in order to see any dead embryos, the developmental stages, and any observ-able morphological abnormalities. In order to avoid repeated disturbances, only one jar was observed each day and solution changes were performed on the other jars.

Methods

Healthy eggs were screened and only eggs from stage 10 ± 1 were used. The eggs were placed into the 20ml glass jars with a glass micropipette. All treatment solutions were made from ERM solution: the 2.5% ethanol by diluting 95% ethanol (Sigma-Aldrich) and the DBP solutions by adding cal-culated amounts of 99% DBP (Sigma-Aldrich) into ERM. Aliquots of 5ml of each solution were then added to each glass jar, and the jars were sealed and placed into a sealed plastic con-tainer for isolation and incubation at around 22 ± 1oC. Embryos from each group were observed under a dissec-tion microscope in a small glass petri dish that facilitated observations. For

careful observation, the eggs were rolled around with micropipettes.

JMP 6.0.3 was used for statistical analysis of data collected from the experiment. The average develop-mental stages from each group were compared using ANOVAs and means comparisons using student’s t test and Tukey-Kramer’s test with an alpha level of 0.05. The same was done on the observed morphological abnor-malities.

RESULTS

For both the first and the second trial, no embryos died in the control group. The mortality rate was highest for the 45μg/L treatment group, fol-lowed by the 25μg/L group and then the 5μg/L group (see Figure 1). The 2.5% ethanol group was higher when compared to the control group. The developmental stages reached by all of the DBP groups on the fifth day were significantly lower than the con-trol group (F4,342=38.23, p<0.0001 from ANOVA; Dunnett’s with con-trol, p<0.05 for means comparisons). The means comparisons reported significant differences between the control and the DBP groups for the second trial (p<0.05). The trend in development seen in both trials was consistent, so data from the two trials were combined for statistical analysis as summarized in Figure 1, Figure 2, and Figure 3 on the previous page.

Figure 4 shows the average devel-

Figure 1. Analysis of variance

Source DF Sum of Squares Mean Square F Ratio Probability > F

Treatment 4 3202.390 800.597 38.2343 <0.0001

Error 338 7077.465 20.939

C. Total 342 10279.854


opmental stage of the embryos during trial 1. No data is shown for the fifth observation for the 25μg/L group be-cause all embryos were dead by then. Similarly, no data is shown for the 45μg/L group past the second observa-tion because all embryos had died. No data points were taken if no embryos were alive by that observation (Figure 4). The same graphical technique was used for the second trial. The embryos in the second jar of the 45μg/L group were all dead on the second observation, and such was the case for the third, fourth and fifth jars, so no data value was available after the first observation for the 45μg/L group.

0

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Figure 4. Average developmental stages of embryos during trial 1. All embryos were at stage 11±1 during the initial observation (day 0).

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Figure 5. The average number of embryos that showed asymmetrical eyes during development with both trials combined. .

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Figure 6. The average number of embryos that had no visible eyes during development per jar with both trials combined. The value from day 3 for the 25μg/L group is lower because the mortality was too high.

Morphological abnormalities observed were also recorded. The data obtained from the two trials were consistent, so the two sets of data were combined. The average number of eggs with a specific deformity was calculated from 2 jars for the control groups and 3 jars for the DBP groups. In both trials, some embryos with asymmetrical eyes (one eye lower than the other) and some embryos with no visible eyes were observed. As Figure 5 shows, the 2.5% ethanol group had a higher average number of embryos with asym-metrical eyes when compared to the control. The 5μg/L group showed a higher average number when compared to the 2.5% ethanol group in all observations. All observed embryos from the 45μg/L were dead by the second obser-vation, so no data was collected from that point on. The average number of embryos no visible eyes was also calcu-lated and is displayed in Figure 6. In both figures, the bars that are labled with different letters are statistically differ-ent according to a Tukey-Kramer test with p<0.05. For ex-ample, bars labeled “b” are statistically different from those labeled “a”, but ones labeled “a,b” are not statistically dif-ferent from “a” or “b”

Only the DBP groups showed such morphological abnor-malities for both trials. The 5μg/L group showed a signifi-cant difference in the average number of abnormal embryos

Figure 2. Difference matrix; c is the control group

c e 5 25 45

c 0.000 2.446 4.355 7.719 11.001

e -2.466 0.000 1.910 5.273 8.555

5 -4.355 -1.910 0.000 3.363 6.645

25 -7.719 -5.273 -3.363 0.000 3.282

45 -11.001 -8.555 -6.645 -3.282 0.000

Figure 3. Positive values show pairs of means that are significantly different

Level Abs(Dif)-LSD p-value

c -1.61 1.0000

e 0.796 0.0011

5 2.715 <0.0001

25 5.631 0.0000

45 8.159 0.0000

33Effects of Di-butyl Phthalate (DBP) on Developing Medaka Embryos

Barnabé, S., I. Beauchesne, D. G. Cooper, and J. A. Nicell. 2007. Plasticizers and their degradation products in the process streams of a large urban physiochemical sewage treatment plant. Water Research 42: 153-162.

Dalgaard, M., U. Hass, A. Vinggaard, K. Jarfelt, H. Lam, I. Sorensen, H. Sommer, and O. Ladefoged. 2002. Di(2-ethylhexyl)adipate (DEHA) induced developmen-tal toxicity but not antiandrogenic effects in pre- and postnatally exposed Wistar rats. Reproductive Toxicol-ogy 17: 163-170.

Fromme, H., T. Kuchler, T. Otto, K. Pilz, J. Muller, and A. Wenzel. 2002. Occurrence of phthalates, and bisphe-nol A and F in the environment. Water Research 36: 1429-1438.

Iwamatsu, T. 2004. Stages of normal development in the medaka (Oryzias latipes). Mechanisms of Develop-ment 121: 605-618.

Liu, H., W. Den, S. Chan, and K. T. Kin. 2008. Analysis of trace contamination of phthalate esters in ultrapure water using a modified solid-phase extraction procedure and automated thermal-desorption-gas chromatogra-phy/mass spectrometry. Journal of Chromatography A 1188: 286-294.

Marcilla, A., S. Garcia, and J. Garcia-Quesada. 2003.

Study of the migration of PVC plasticizers. Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis 71: 457-463.

Ohlson, C., and L. Hardell. 2000. Testicular cancer and occupational exposures with a focus on xenoestrogens in polyvinyl chloride plastics. Chemosphere 40: 1277-1282.

Oxendine, S., J. Cowden, D. E. Hinton, and S. Padilla. 2006. Vulnerable windows for developmental ethanol toxicity in the Japanese medaka fish (Oryzias latipes). Aquatic Toxicology 80:396-404.

Shin, S., H. Jeon, Y. Kim, T. Yoshioka, and A. Okuwa-ki. 2002. Plasticizer leaching from flexible PVC in low temperature caustic solution. Polymer Degradation and Staility 78: 511-517.

Singletary, K., C. MacDonald, and M. Wallig. 1997. The plasticizer benzyl butyl phthalate (BBP) inhibits 7, 12-dimethylbenz[a]anthracene (DMBA)-induces rat mammary DNA adduct formation and tumorigenesis. Carcinogenesis 18: 1669-1673.

Wong, S., and S. Gill. 2002. Gene expression changes induced in mouse liver by di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate. Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology 185: 180-196.

SAS. 2006. JMP Student Edition, Statistical Discovery: Re-lease 6.0.3 SAS, Inc. NC

REFERENCES

when compared to both of the control groups. Embryos in the 45μg/L group were all dead by the third observation, so no data was collected from the 3rd day.

DISCUSSIONS AND CONCLUSIONS

The data suggest that DBP slows the development when compared to the control group. The differences were especially visible during the fourth and fifth days after treatment. The 45μg/L and 25μg/L doses were both lethal; all embryos were dead either by the second day or the fifth day. It was apparent that DBP seems to lead to asymmetrical and missing eyes. In-terestingly, the asymmetrical eyes also

showed in the 2.5% ethanol group in addition to in the 5μg/L and 25μg/L groups, which suggest that some mor-phological characteristics or organs maybe especially susceptible to envi-ronmental contaminants.

The embryos dosed with DBP showed two types of morphological abnor-malities. While some embryos devel-oped asymmetrical eyes, where one eye was placed higher than the other on the head, other embryos had no visible eye structure even though they were able to continue growth. This experiment also showed that doses of 45μg/L and 25μg/L were lethal to the embryos. Although the two trials showed consistent morphologi-cal abnormalities in the DBP groups and sometimes also the 2.5% ethanol

groups, further studies must be done in order to draw more conclusions. In addition to employing a larger sample size, further studies can be done to link the morphological abnormalities observed to possible genetic mutations or gene regulation changes. DNA tak-en from the embryos with deformities can be screened for differences com-pared to the DNA taken from the con-trol groups. In addition, studies em-ploying knock-out strains of Medaka embryos can be used to test if the de-formities are from genetic mutations, gene regulation changes or gene ex-pression changes. Such studies would help pin point the possible source of the visible deformities and help us bet-ter understand the effect DBP has on developing Medaka embryos.


Using Enzymes to Improve Antibiotic Effectiveness on Staphylococcus epidermidis Biofilm Removal

The effectiveness of five different enzymes as treatments against Staphylococcus biofilm growth was measured in the presence of an-tibiotics and alone. Protease was the least ef-fective enzyme in biofilm removal with all an-tibiotics, and pectinase was the most effective with dicloxacillin and clindamycin. Also, di-cloxacillin was the most effective antibiotic. S. epidermidis was resistant to ciprofloxacin ex-cept in the presence of amylase and pectinase. Overall, there was a statistically significant dif-ference among the treatments on biofilm ab-

sorbance (ANOVA; df=23; F=2.06; p=0.009). Because of limited growth in the biofilm assay, no significant difference was found between the treatment groups and the control. How-ever, a zone of inhibition study found that planktonic growth was unaffected by enzymes but inhibited by all antibiotics tested. Results support that enzymes may aid in antibiotic ef-fectiveness against biofilm growth, and more extensive testing is warranted to explore why the impact differs in the biofilm structure.

ABSTRACT

by Carmen Candal, Rockdale Magnet School for Science and Technology

INTRODUCTION

BiofilMS are CoMMunitieS of BaCteria that infeCt in-

dwelling medical devices; some biofilms are pathogenic,

causing diseases (Donlan, 2001). Biofilms have developed

antibiotic resistance because they are covered in extracel-

lular polymeric substances (EPS) that form a matrix made

up of polysaccharides and proteins (Cloete et al, 2010).

This matrix helps protect the cells inside the biofilm and

facilitates communication between the cells through physi-

cal and chemical signals (What is Biofilm, 2005). The

EPS matrix is strong, making it difficult to break down.

Therefore, new effective methods of biofilm removal are

desperately needed. Because the EPS matrix is made up of

polysaccharides and proteins, a possible method is to use

enzymes such as polysaccharases and proteases to disrupt

and break down the matrix structure. This was the focus

of this study.

The purpose of this experiment was to use certain enzymes to break down the matrix of the biofilm Staphylococcus epidermidis in order to make antibiotics more effective. The antibiotics were then applied to the biofilm, and it was observed if they became more effective in the removal of the biofilm. The research hypothesis tested was that if dif-ferent kinds of enzymes were applied to the biofilm Staph-ylococcus epidermidis, then antibiotics would be able to remove the biofilm more effectively.

METHODOLOGY

This experiment measured the amount of Staphylococ-cus epidermidis that can be removed through the use of enzymes and antibiotics. The treatment group consisted of biofilms that were treated with enzymes alone, those that were treated with antibiotics alone, and those that were treated with a combination of both. These enzymes included amylase, cellulase, emporase, pectinase, and pro-

35Using Enzymes to Improve Antibiotic Effectiveness on Staphylococcus epidermidis Biofilm Removal

that came in contact with the S. epidermidis bacteria was

soaked in a 10 % bleach solution.

RESULTS AND DATA ANALYSIS

Part 1. Zone of Inhibition Study

For this project, a zone of inhibition study was done to

compare the effects of the treatments on planktonic bac-teria growth to those on the biofilms. This allowed for

the antibiotic effectiveness to be verified. Most treatments

showed a large zone of inhibition, meaning the concentra-

tions of the treatments inhibited growth. However, the en-zymes had no zones of inhibition, so they had no effect on

the growth of the bacteria on their own. The most effective treatment was the dicloxacillin only, which almost com-

pletely inhibited the growth of the bacteria. Each enzyme

was also tested with each antibiotic. An interesting obser-vation was that the addition of enzymes did not alter the

growth of planktonic bacteria. Each antibiotic performed similarly with enzymes when compared to the control of

the antibiotic alone.

Part 2. Biofilm Growth Study

The mean biofilm absorbance and standard deviation for each treatment group was calculated. The groups treated

with protease and a combination of dicloxacillin and pro-tease showed the highest average absorbance, meaning

the most biofilm was present in these groups. The groups

treated with dicloxacillin only had the lowest average ab-sorbance as well as the lowest standard deviation, meaning

there was the least amount of variance in this group. The

tease (Orgaz et al, 2006). The control group consisted of biofilms that received no treatment. Antibiotics used in this experiment included clindamycin, ciprofloxacin, and dicloxacillin. The dependent variable of this experiment was the amount of biofilm that was removed through treat-ment, which was determined by measuring the absorbance of the biofilm solutions (Merritt et al, 2005).

The first step of this project was to grow the biofilms for S. epidermidis by modifying the microtiter plate biofilm as-say (Merritt et al, 2005). In this experiment, bacteria were grown in 24-well plates and allowed to incubate at 37 de-grees Celsius for five days. After the incubation period, the treatments were added. After allowing the biofilms to incu-bate for another 24 hours, the wells were washed to get rid of planktonic bacteria. The remaining bacteria (biofilms) were then stained with crystal violet solution and shaken dry. After 24 hours, 70% ethanol was added to each well to detach the stained biofilm. The solutions from each well were then transferred to a cuvette, and the absorbance was measured using a SpectroVis and Vernier probe.

A separate part of this experiment included a zone of in-hibition study. This was done to observe planktonic bacte-ria growth and verify antibiotic effectiveness. The bacteria were grown on nutrient agar plates, and each treatment of enzymes, antibiotics, and all combinations of both were streaked onto the plates. After incubation, the zones of in-hibition were measured.

Aseptic technique was used throughout the experimenta-tion. All enzymatic solutions were filter-sterilized, and fil-ter-sterilized distilled water was used in making the antibi-otic solutions. After the experiment was finished, anything

Student Researcher Q &A Carmen Candal has selected to attend the University of Georgia starting Fall 2012. She plans to study Animal Sciences as a step towards her goal of becoming a veterinarian. When asked about her experiences, Carmen shared the following tidbits to help future students.

Q: What advice would you give to students developing their first research projects?A: I would suggest that students start by reading broadly on an area that interests

them and then get more specific. I also found success by expanding on work that I had done before.

Q: What was the most rewarding part of the research process? A: I feel better prepared for college and can see how research is applicable to the real-world. My mom said that she sees posters just like the ones I’ve presented when she is at the CDC. Presenting my work has helped me become more confident and improved my communication skills.


group treated with protease only showed the most variance.

The average absorbance of biofilms that were treated with enzymes only compared to the control were calcu-lated. The absorbance of the biofilms treated with prote-ase (0.842) was much higher than any other group, and biofilms treated with cellulase showed the least absorbance (0.0745). For antibiotics alone, dicloxacillin was the most effective, and these biofilms had the lowest absorbance. In contrast, ciprofloxacin was the least effective antibiotic, and these biofilms had the highest absorbance, as shown in the following figures.

Figure 1 shows the average absorbance of biofilms treated with a combination of clindamycin and enzymes com-pared to biofilms treated with clindamycin only and the control. The graph shows that the biofilms treated with a combination of clindamycin and protease had the highest absorbance, and the biofilms treated with clindamycin only had the lowest.

Figure 2 shows the average absorbance of biofilms treated with a combination of ciprofloxacin and enzymes com-pared to biofilms treated with ciprofloxacin only, as well

as the control. The biofilms treated with ciprofloxacin and emporase had the highest absorbance, and those treated with ciprofloxacin and amylase had the lowest.

Figure 3 shows the average absorbance of biofilms treated with a combination of dicloxacillin and enzymes com-pared to biofilms treated with dicloxacillin only, as well as the control. There was not much variance between these groups, except in the biofilms treated with dicloxacillin and protease, in which the average absorbance appears to be much higher than in the rest of the groups. Those biofilms treated with dicloxacillin only had the lowest absorbance.

Several trends were observed in the results. For instance, biofilms treated with protease, whether alone or in combi-nation with another antibiotic, had the highest absorbance (Figures 1, 2, and 3). This most likely means that protease may actually aid S. epidermidis biofilm formation rather than inhibit it. Biofilms treated with dicloxacillin, whether alone or in combination with some enzyme, had the low-est absorbance (Figures 2 and 5). This most likely means that dicloxacillin is the most effective antibiotic of those tested in biofilm removal. Ciprofloxacin was the least ef-fective antibiotic in reducing the absorbance of the biofilms (Figure 2).

For this experiment, an ANOVA test was used for infer-ential statistics to test for significance. A p-value of 0.05 was used, and the degrees of freedom were 23. The value calculated from the ANOVA test was 0.009. Because this is less than 0.05, the null hypothesis is rejected. Therefore, there was a statistically significant difference in biofilm growth by treatments of antibiotics and enzymes. Fur-ther post-hoc tukey tests show that each enzyme actually increased biofilm growth as increased absorbance was ob-served when they were added to the antibiotic treatment compared to the antibiotic alone.

0

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Figure 1. Average absorbance of biofilms treated with Clindamycin and enzymes

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37Using Enzymes to Improve Antibiotic Effectiveness on Staphylococcus epidermidis Biofilm Removal

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS

The purpose of this experiment was to determine if there was a significant difference in the treatments on the growth of biofilms. The results from the ANOVA test showed that there was a significant difference in the absorbance of bio-films receiving varying treatments of antibiotics and en-zymes (df=23; F=2.06; p=0.009). However, there was not a significant difference when compared to the control group. In other words, the biofilms treated with enzymes and/or antibiotics did not have a significantly lower absorbance than the biofilms that received no treatment. Therefore, the methods of biofilm removal used in this experiment were not effective.

The biggest problem in the experiment was getting the bio-films to grow and adhere to the well plates. There would appear to be a biofilm forming, but when the wells were stained, the biofilms would wash out. To try and fix this problem, the biofilms were allowed five days to incubate instead of the normal 48 hours. This was done to give them more time to grow and adhere to the surface of the well plates so quantifiable data could be collected. This method worked, and some quantitative results were collected, mak-ing it possible to use descriptive and inferential statistics to analyze the data.

To further the research, a wider variety of enzymes and antibiotics could be used. To apply this to more relevant medical applications, these methods could be used to try and overcome antibiotic resistance in pathogenic strains of bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus rather than the non-pathogenic S. epidermidis.

Cloete, T.E., de Kwaadsteniet, M., Botes, M., & López-Romero, J.M. (2010). Nanotechnology in wa-ter treatment applications [pp. c. 200]. Retrieved from http://www.horizonpress.com/nanotechnology

Donlan, R.M. (2001). Biofilms and device-associ-ated infections. Emerging Infectious Diseases, 7(2), Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/eid/vol7no2/donlan.htm

Merritt, J.H., Kadouri, D.E., & O’Toole, G.A. (2005). Current Protocols in Microbiology, 1B.1.1-1B.1.17. doi: 10.1002/9780471729259.mc01b01s00

Orgaz, B., Kives, J., Pedregoa, A.M., Monistrol, I.M., & Laborda, F. (2006). Bacterial biofilm removal using fungal enzymes. Enzyme and Microbial Tech-nology, 51-56. Retrieved from http://www.aseanbio-technology.info/Abstract/21020581.pdf

What is Biofilm? (2005, May 25). Retrieved from http://www.bionewsonline.com/n/what_is_bio-film.htm

REFERENCES


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