Citrus College students gathered on Wednesday for the STEM Research Symposium, where they explored STEM programs, student research and internships.
The event, held Sept. 9 in the Campus Center, gave students an opportunity to learn about research projects and explore how STEM experiences can support their academic and career goals.
One of the projects presented was “Application of Ribosome Display to Assess the Fitness of SARS-CoV-2 Variants,” which examined how surface proteins from different COVID-19 variants bind to human cells.
Anadalay Galindo, who worked on the project, said the research focused on identifying genetic and structural changes that could make some virus variants more successful at entering cells.
“If a human cell’s surface proteins are the lock, then a virus’ surface proteins are a lock pick,” Galindo said. “The goal was to see what evolutionary changes make it so the lock pick is more successful from other variants.”
Galindo said the opportunity gave her a better understanding of what scientific research requires. “This research experience gave me a taste of just how much time and patience it takes just to complete a procedure,” Galindo said.
Another project at the symposium, presented by Nataly Flores, focused on students’ scientific thinking skills during open laboratory experiments. The project examined how students use scientific thinking when they receive less guidance from their professors, along with how they develop their problem solving and reasoning skills.
The research focused on a common challenge in science labs: Students may understand concepts taught in class but struggle to apply them independently when they are given less support.
Flores’ project shows the importance of giving students opportunities to work through scientific problems on their own.
