Week of June 12

 

This week, we met with Dr. Olga Tsyusko-Unrine who discussed her career journey and her work using c.elegans to identify mechanisms by which environmental contaminants exert their adverse effects. 

 For our weekly activity, we worked again on our planters by first selecting the medicinal plants that are grown and used within our assigned global region.  We then identified the medicinal properties of each of these plants and discussed these with the rest of the group.  Finally we planted them into our containers.  Dr. Swanson took them home and will care for them and we will see them again in July.  After we finished planting, we will tie dyed our lab coats.

SURES Week of June 5

 This week, the SURES participants met with Dr. Ellen Hahn who talked to us about her career journey, her activities in health policy, especially her work in advocating for  smoke-free environments, as well as her research on radon exposure.

On Thursday, Dr. Sara Police joined us and talked to us about her work on developing a global gardens at the University of Kentucky campus.  We were then assigned a global region and started to prepare planters that would represent each global region.

SURES 2023 Week of May 29

 

On Tuesday, we met with all of our near-peer mentors at a speed networking session.  With 22 people all talking at the same time, it was a very noisy, but exhilarating affair.   For our Thursday session, we learned how to do Theatre Improvisation with one of our local actors, Heather Baumann.  We learned the value of these types of techniques which include incorporating "Yes...and....into our conversations to promote collaboration and how to better connect with each other.   On Friday, we joined the Department of Biology for a cook-out and enjoyed meeting more summer researchers.  We were also matched up with our near-peer mentors and had a chance to meet them in person.  

SURES 2023--At the Beginning

 On May 22, we welcomed our 2023 SURES cohort.  Our participants hail from a number of institutions including the University of Kentucky, Georgetown College, Eastern Kentucky University, Idaho State University and Tulane University.  This year, we were pleased to be able to provide on-campus housing in one of our residence halls.  We spent the orientation getting to know each other, getting re-acquainted  with the research process and completing required research training.  During our scavenger hunt, we checked out the native plants in Mathews Garden, visited the Johnson Center where we can do a variety of physical activities and received goody bags from Environmental Health and Safety.  When we returned, we worked on our artistic abilities as well as our teamwork and leadership skills by collectively drawing a horse.  After our orientation, we then met with our faculty mentors to get started on our independent research projects.  

Our Finale-The Poster Session

 Our program culminated in a poster session where we were able to describe the efforts of all of our hard work over the summer.  Our participants summarized their experiences in this Video.  Great job, Everyone!

Video

Week of July 18-Results from the soil analyses and painting our projects

 On Thursday, Dr. Jason Unrine joined us to report back on the lead levels from our soil samples.  The concentrations of lead in our samples ranged from 27.96 to 44.90 mg Pb/Kg soil.  These levels are well within the distribution of background soil lead in Kentucky and well below EPA screening levels-Background soil lead levels.  The mean levels that have been found in Kentucky are 29.2 mg Pb/Kg.  After a brief discussion of these results, we then engaged the creative sides of our brains and painted our projects.

Earlier in the week, the SURF students met with Dr. Vrushali Angadi who discussed her work in voice function and rehabilitation.  The SURES students met with Dr. Cetewayo Rashid who described his career journey and his research investigating the health outcomes in the offspring following maternal exposures to endocrine disruptors.

Week of July 18-Poster Planning and Culinary Medicine

 This week, the SURF students were joined by Mr. Trace Jolly who discussed why he decided to go to graduate school and his research using zebrafish as a model to develop new cancer therapies.  The SURES students met with Dr. Ellen Hahn who is the director of the University of Kentucky Center for Appalachian Research in Environmental Sciences.  She also leads a research effort called BREATHE.  She told us about her successes and challenges in making changes in policy to improve our health.

On Thursday, we first met to work in groups discussing our posters.  We then went to The Food Connection where chef Tanya Whitehouse taught us to make different sauces from the herbs that we have been growing in our global garden planters.