Community outreach

The general public often sees research universities as isolated entities that lack strong relationships with their surrounding communities. This perception, whether deserved or not, has given the universities the unfortunate image of ivory towers of academic isolation. In some cases, this has led to an under-representation of minority students in the sciences. To change this perception and increase the diversity in the sciences, it is increasingly important for scientists to initiate and participate in outreach projects involving the community at large.

At the University of California, Los Angeles, we are trying to address this issue in collaboration with the African American Male Achievers Network (A-MAN). Established by Hal Walker, a laser-systems specialist who collaborated on NASA's first manned Moon mission, and Bettye Walker, a long-time Los Angeles educator, A-MAN was set up to increase the presence of minority students in the natural and physical sciences.

At Los Angeles, we have focused on teaching local middle- and high-school students what it is like to be a scientist at the university, by inviting them to work with us in the lab. We have introduced the students to the fundamentals of biological research, and have nurtured their natural curiosity through scientific experimentation. This year, we have performed experiments ranging from the analysis of bacterial morphology to DNA isolation and analysis. The students have even learned how to grow protein crystals for use in X-ray crystallography.

It is inspiring to see the students' enthusiasm and natural curiosity blossom during our weekly sessions, and it is gratifying to hear them exclaim “cool!” when we demonstrate new experiments.

Experimental procedures that seem standard to most working scientists take on a new life when students do them for the first time. We hope that our work with these students will encourage them to continue their pursuit of scientific discovery, and as a result, increase the diversity of the next generation of creative scientists.

Science can only benefit from creating such bonds between the university and the surrounding community. Together, these bonds are likely to form long-lasting relationships that will undoubtedly foster scientific progress.

http://www.aman.org

http://www.doe-mbi.ucla.edu/AMAN/index.html