Kamiak High School forensic teacher Maggie Lewis was recently awarded a prestigious MJ Murdock Partners in Science grant. The program pairs high school science teachers with a mentor to work on cutting-edge science research in an academic lab over the course of two summers and helps teachers take what they learn into the classroom to promote hands-on science education.
Lewis will help the University of Portland’s Dr. Angela Hoffman analyze soil from a Spanish island in the Mediterranean.
“We’ll be studying soil bacteria obtained from Mallorca that have been found previously by Dr. Hoffman to produce antibiotic compounds,” Lewis told The Herald. “The plan is to work on identifying these bacteria through genetic sequencing and also to manipulate them to see if we can increase the potency of their products.”
It’s a familiar partnership. Hoffman was Lewis’ mentor several years ago. “So I’m really excited to partner with her again and come full circle.”
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