Strathmore student does university research

Times Contributor 

 

Alison Wilson, a Strathmore resident who attends the EDGE school in Calgary during the school year, was chosen to be part of the HYRS program this summer. HYRS is a program that gets Grade 11 students into real university labs to give them a taste of the research aspect of going into the sciences. 

“It stands for the Heritage Youth Researchers Summer program and across Alberta we place, well this year it turned out to be forty-nine students,” said Dwayne Brunner, Media Relations Manager at Alberta Innovates – Health Solutions, “so 22 at the U of A, 22 at the U of C and five at the U of L in labs and it’s a real hands-on experience.” 

Students must apply for these positions and are chosen based on a combination of their grades, teacher recommendations and a personal essay. They also must have completed some 20 level sciences and Math 20 and have an 85 per cent average or higher. The students work for six weeks on their research and produce a scientific poster that they then present at the end of the program. 

“The intent of the program is such that we give the students that hands-on research experience so that when they go back and finish Grade 12 this year, when they enter university next … fall that maybe research is one of the possibilities they consider.”

Alison just began her research on July 4 and is excited about doing research in a real lab for the first time. She was encouraged by a teacher to apply for the program but has always been interested in heath sciences. 

“I’ve always been interested in the brain and researching different ways to develop therapy for different mental disorders, OCD, anxiety and things like that, I just thought it would be a good experience to find out if I’m interested in that, or if there’s anything else I’d like to pursue,” says Wilson.

Students are paired with Masters or PhD students who act as their lab supervisor and they work on the projects together. Wilson says she was surprised by the enthusiasm in the lab. 

“I love working with my lab supervisor, just because he’s so knowledgeable about what we’re researching and he’s so passionate … he loves teaching and he doesn’t mind explaining it to me multiple times because he is just so passionate about what he does,” says Wilson. “I’m just enjoying learning so much.”

Currently, with her lab supervisor, Wilson is researching different treatments for sleep apnea, looking at the effects of oxygen and carbon dioxide levels and receptors in the brain, and despite the pressure of doing real research, she’s having a great time. 

“It’s overwhelming to be in a real lab, the technologies they use, it’s so different from high school doing little labs,” says Wilson. “It’s just so cool, there are so many different aspects, it’s not just bio, you’re mixing solutions and setting up electrical circuits and it’s really fun.”

Students in the program also attend different tours and lectures about different aspects of science, which could help them in choosing which universities to apply to in Grade 12. 

Wilson says she’s having fun and learning about how research is done.Hher favorite parts are the experiments. 

“Starting an experiment and actually seeing how it worked, (my lab supervisor) explained what he thought was going to be the outcome, but it was cool seeing the results for yourself.”

The program has been running for 14 years, and while many of the students in the program go on to be physicians, many also decide to continue with research. 

“Some of (the students) have stayed in the research track and they’re just now completing their masters and their PhD level courses and will go on and hopefully become lead investigators in their own labs here in Alberta, it’s kind of cool,” says Brenner. 

While Wilson isn’t sure if her future holds research or med school, after one week in the program she’s sure about one thing. 

“I definitely think I’m going to stick with the brain.”