Mount Sinai brings fish experiment to East Harlem students
NEW YORK - A public school partnership proven to spark interest in science among young students is in New York City for the first time this year. Mount Sinai's Black Family Stem Cell Institute is hosting the BioEYES experiment at schools across East Harlem.
At PSMS 108, Mount Sinai's school program coordinator Auset Taylor introduced sixth grade students to genetics, using zebrafish. Described as a "model organism," zebrafish eggs hatch within one week of breeding. The project allows students to see the growth cycle from start to finish.
"They're like, oh, our grandchildren," Taylor said of the students' fish eggs. "They're growing and they get to see them change from the first day versus a couple of cells … into like a larval fish that will be swimming around in the petri dish."
BioEYES chose zebrafish because they share 70% of human DNA. Students track which traits the new fish take on, much like Mount Sinai's own researchers. Unlike humans, though, zebrafish have some special abilities beyond our own.
"If they cut up a fin, they'll make a new one," Taylor explained. "In another organism, we might learn some traits or maybe learn some techniques that we can use to treat human diseases."
The Black Family Stem Cell Institute is working to find ways to fight ailments that disproportionately affect the Black community, like diabetes and high cholesterol.
"I thought that they only did like, you know, hospital things like go work on surgeries and everything," sixth grade student Dominicia Howell said. "I never thought that you guys would be researching things like fish and reproduction, so I thought that was cool."
The institute's goal is to garner interest in the neighborhoods that need healthcare the most, and diversify the next generation of researchers. BioEYES began in Philadelphia 20 years ago. Mount Sinai partnered with the RTW Charitable Foundation to bring the program to New York students. More than 500 students at six East Harlem schools have been able to dive into the experiment.
"It will set them up for more success in the future because they had exposure to this," six grade science teacher Ashlyn Koga said, "and because they had hands-on experience with it, it's harder for them to forget."
Meeting students at their level of interest allows the lessons to click.
"In the future, like maybe I want to guess whether my child would look like me or my husband," Howell said.
The children are learning science for life.
To learn more about the BioEYES program, click here.
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