204 E-News Points of Pride

[wvhsparent]

204 E-News: Points of Pride, 10.16.07
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Genetics Class in Chamber Magazine
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The cover story of the current issue of "Commerce," published by the Naperville Chamber of Commerce, features teacher Elaine Modine's science class at Waubonsie Valley High School. The article examines how students are preparing to be members of tomorrow's workforce. Elaine's students are part of a select group conducting real-time research for the Human Genome Project.

The article is online at www.ipsd.org/Uploads/news_16259_1.pdf

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Student Scores Perfect ACT
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Sean Mills from Neuqua Valley High School achieved a perfect score on his ACT. He was one of only 46 Illinois students out of a total of 136,000 to achieve a 36 -- the highest possible composite score.

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Soccer Coach of the Year
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Waubonsie Valley girls soccer coach, Julie Bergstrom, was named Girls Soccer Coach of the Year by the Illinois High School Association. Julie's selection was based on the positive work she has done with the athletes in her program. Last year Waubonsie Valley's team won the state championship title.

[momof3]

wvhsparent said:

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Genetics Class in Chamber Magazine
===============================

The cover story of the current issue of "Commerce," published by the Naperville Chamber of Commerce, features teacher Elaine Modine's science class at Waubonsie Valley High School. The article examines how students are preparing to be members of tomorrow's workforce. Elaine's students are part of a select group conducting real-time research for the Human Genome Project.

The article is online at www.ipsd.org/Uploads/news_16259_1.pdf

iirc WV is on a very short list of high schools in the country that participate - the only one in IL

hshgp.genome.washington.edu/map_of_sites.htm

Mapping DNA

DAVE NEWBART

In a lab in Waubonsie Valley High School this week, students from Naperville and Aurora are making a tiny, yet significant, contribution to the massive Human Genome Project.

The 25 students in science teacher Elaine Modine's genetics, bioethics and biotechnology class began sequencing a segment of the largest chromosome in humans Monday. The students are the only ones in the state involved in the actual mapping of the human genome, Modine said. Only about 70 high schools in the country have similar programs.

The students will send their results to GenBank, a government database for DNA sequencing. They also will send the information to a professor at the University of Washington in Seattle who is studying the role genetics play in nicotine and drug addiction.

"It's incredible for high school students to be doing this," said Katherine Knight, chairwoman of the department of microbiology and immunology at Loyola Medical School in Maywood, whose department is assisting the students.

Waubonsie got involved in mapping human DNA last year, two years after Modine attended a workshop in Minneapolis run by the High School Human Genome Project at the University of Washington.

The project provides DNA templates for students to analyze as part of the national Human Genome Project being run by the Department of Energy and the National Institutes of Health.

The DNA the students are analyzing is from chromosome 1, which is being studied by University of Washington medical geneticist Carl Ton. Ton is trying to determine if there are genetic determinants that predispose certain people to nicotine or drug addiction.

Monday, with the help of a scientist from Knight's lab, the students performed a series of chemical reactions and used a special machine to separate strands of DNA fragments that eventually will become a readable code that resembles marks on a piece of paper.

After the students finish their work Wednesday, Waubonsie will have mapped 2,400 of the more than 3 billion base sequences, or DNA building blocks, believed to be in the human genome.

Most students said they were excited to be involved in such a hands-on experiment, even if they were a little nervous about making mistakes. (Just in case, the work is further analyzed by computers at the University of Washington.)

"We're making a a real contribution to the world," said Scott Van Iten, 17, of Naperville. Amy Koupal, 17, also of Naperville, said, "This isn't something you do in most science classes."

"I'm interested in finding out ways to help people with genetic disease," said Laureen Drowley, 17, of Aurora. "It's rare to be able to do this. It's wonderful."

Copyright The Chicago Sun-Times, Inc.
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.

[wvhsparent]

Mrs Modine is who got my daughter interested in Biology and played a big role in her choice to go pre-med.
She is an awesome teacher!