Hope Bogart, right, digs up a soil sample at Gilbert Cellars in Yakima, Wash., Wednesday, July 27, 2022, to take back to the Yakima Valley College lab and analyze for nematodes.
Instructor Claire Carpenter looks into a microscope to analyze part of a soil sample for nematodes in a lab at Yakima Valley College Wednesday, July 27, 2022.
Aspen Scott, left, analyzes soil with instructor Claire Carpenter at Gilbert Cellars in Yakima, Wash., Wednesday, July 27, 2022.
Instructor Claire Carpenter, center, walks with students Hope Bogart, right, and Aspen Scott through the vineyards at Gilbert Cellars in Yakima, Wash., to collect soil samples at different sites Wednesday, July 27, 2022.
Hope Bogart pours water into a soil sample in a lab at Yakima Valley College Wednesday, July 27, 2022.
Aspen Scott looks into a microscope to analyze part of a soil sample for nematodes in a lab at Yakima Valley College Wednesday, July 27, 2022.
Hope Bogart, right, digs up a soil sample at Gilbert Cellars in Yakima, Wash., Wednesday, July 27, 2022, to take back to the Yakima Valley College lab and analyze for nematodes.
Instructor Claire Carpenter looks into a microscope to analyze part of a soil sample for nematodes in a lab at Yakima Valley College Wednesday, July 27, 2022.
Aspen Scott, left, analyzes soil with instructor Claire Carpenter at Gilbert Cellars in Yakima, Wash., Wednesday, July 27, 2022.
Instructor Claire Carpenter, center, walks with students Hope Bogart, right, and Aspen Scott through the vineyards at Gilbert Cellars in Yakima, Wash., to collect soil samples at different sites Wednesday, July 27, 2022.
Hope Bogart pours water into a soil sample in a lab at Yakima Valley College Wednesday, July 27, 2022.
Aspen Scott looks into a microscope to analyze part of a soil sample for nematodes in a lab at Yakima Valley College Wednesday, July 27, 2022.
Summer is usually a quiet time for schools. Pencils are put down, books are closed and hard-earned vacation is taken by students and teachers alike.
And while the word “quiet” aptly describes most of Yakima Valley College’s campus, it cannot be applied to the second floor of the Glenn Anthon Building, where several teams of students and teachers are spending their summer ensconced in labs conducting an array of research projects.
Nineteen students are participating in YVC’s Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE), where they work closely with instructors on research projects of their choice. The goal is to foster hands-on learning in STEM fields using a combination of field and lab work.
Roselbi Roman, Abibatou Sarr and Angel Avila are working with Dr. Matthew Loeser, a biology instructor, on Tiny Earth, a course that focuses on antibiotic discovery. Alondra Vaca is working with instructor Shawn Tseng on the organic chemistry part of that project.
“It’s been exciting, working with all these machines,” Roman said. “Here, I get to be hands-on and learn techniques.”
Roman, Sarr and Avila are learning to use basic methods and tools by testing bacteria with antibiotics. This summer, they will go into the field near Cowiche Canyon and collect soil samples and seek out antibiotic-producing bacteria. Vaca will identify antibiotics using a high-pressure liquid chromatography machine.
The project is a direct application of knowledge in a stimulating environment. Vaca feels she learns better in a lab environment than in a classroom. She sees real-world examples of concepts she has studied.
“In class, I don’t feel like I’m learning (in the same way),” Vaca explained. “In research, you’re applying everything.”
Tseng added that the best way to understand how science works is to participate in research. It allows students to practice the scientific process — every result allows researchers to better understand what they’re working on.
“My goal is to expose students to research,” Tseng said. “You come in, you find nothing and that’s normal, but that’s still helpful.”
Research projects also fit into the career goals of many students. Roman, Sarr and Avila plan to work in the medical field. Avila is particularly interested in studying bacteria in surgical operating rooms, and this research is applicable to his career focus.
Even when the research topics aren’t directly connected to professional fields, the skills students learn can be beneficial. Aspen Scott and Hope Bogart are working with instructor Claire Carpenter and studying soil productivity in orchards grown through conventional and organic methods. They have measured nitrate levels, soil pH, cell respiration and carbon in the soil. Now, they are counting nematodes, which are small, microscopic roundworms.
Bogart and Scott are both planning to attend veterinarian school. While their work collecting and analyzing soil samples may not be linked to veterinary work, they both feel the experience is valuable.
Working on a research project may better position them to get into competitive veterinary schools. It also lets them use different types of lab tools, like pipettes, microscopes and glassware.
“It’s so cool how simple everything is when you’re used to it,” Bogart said.
Scott also praised the problem-solving and detail-oriented aspects of research. When studying nematodes, the team uses a complex system of filters over the course of 24 hours.
They’ve tested and constructed much of that system, improvising with milk filters and plastic cups when their budget is stretched too thin. Scott feels that type of effective improvisation could be applicable to work as a rural veterinarian.
Instructors enjoy working with smaller groups of students and granting them more power over their work. Carpenter has collaborated with Bogart and Scott in constructing experiments and conducting background research. The three work largely as equals and are learning together as they go.
Loeser pointed out the value of that collaborative and hands-on environment.
“The opportunity in student research is to learn through making mistakes,” he said. “Students take ownership over samples … we’re colleagues in this.”
Student research isn’t only for student learning. The knowledge created can serve the community in many different ways.
Vaca is interested in how pesticides and antibiotics are used in agricultural work after seeing them used in fields in the Valley. She wants to see how over-usage effects human health. Heavy use of antibiotics in agriculture and medicine have led to bacteria being increasingly resistant to antibiotics.
Uncovering new antibiotics through the Tiny Earth Project will increase our antibiotic arsenal.
Scott, Bogart and Carpenter are learning more about the differences between organic and conventional agriculture. While their contributions may feel small, they may still be revealing regarding the environmental effects of organic agriculture and the carbon storage capacity of soil.
“It’s subtle, whether agriculture is a net benefit or cost,” Carpenter said.
Bogart added that she is enjoying the challenge to her preconceptions of organic agriculture. The group is working directly with local growers. Their study of nematodes emerged from questions asked by the owner of the orchard they are studying.
Sometimes, those community benefits can be even more immediate. Aldo Hanel is a Washington State University graduate student conducting a study on earwigs with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He and the student researchers from YVC are moving earwigs from orchards where they are pests to orchards where they eat pests.
Hanel and student researchers then study some of the effects of earwigs. The methods and knowledge they learn about trapping and relocating are then given to farmers throughout the Pacific Northwest.
In past years, up to 30 students have participated in SURE, which has existed since 2012. The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted enrollment, but according to YVC’s Community Relations Director Dustin Wunderlich, the program has grown in its 10 years.
Wunderlich added that the goal of the program is to increase diversity in STEM studies — science, technology, engineering and math — by providing opportunities for student populations underrepresented in those fields.
Editor's Note: A quote from this article has been updated.
Jasper Kenzo Sundeen’s reporting for the Yakima Herald-Republic is possible with support from Report for America and community members through the Yakima Valley Community Fund. For information on republishing, email news@yakimaherald.com.
Nineteen students are participating in YVC’s Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE), where they work closely with instructors on rese…
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