Camarria Williams, a Chicago middle schooler, has uncovered a cancer-fighting compound in goose poop. The droppings that the 13-year-old collected contained a novel compound that scientists at the University of Illinois Chicago found to be toxic to human skin and ovarian cancer cells. STEM Program For Underserved Communities Williams made the discovery while attending the Chicago Antibiotic Discovery Lab—a 14-week STEM outreach program at the Boys and Girls Club in partnership with the University of Illinois Chicago. In a class assignment, she learned how to isolate bacteria and program a robot to catalog and track antimicrobial activity. She was drawn to the program for its unique hands-on experiences for local STEM students. “We walked around and they had these chemicals, and they were working on something. It was just fun,”
Tag Archives: Education
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Arkansas’ Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and California’s Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom have little in common ideologically, but the two have both been vocal supporters of an idea that’s been rapidly gaining bipartisan ground in the states: Students’ cellphones need to be banned during the school day. At least eight states have enacted such bans over the past two years, and proposals are being considered in several more states this year. Here is a look at the push by states for such bans. The push for cellphone bans has been driven by concerns about the impact screen time has on children’s mental health and complaints from teachers that cellphones have become a constant distraction in the classroom. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy, who has called on