[Source: Bryanna Botham, Tucson Citizen] — While most Tucson teens are enjoying the lazy days of summer, others are interns at research laboratories. Over the past five weeks, nine students have spent their days working as research interns in eight University of Arizona science laboratories. They are participants in the K-12 Engaging Youth in Science Toxstart internship program. “It’s a lot of work, but in the end it was rewarding,” said 17-year-old Tiffany Lee-Chan, a KEYS intern who will be a senior at Canyon del Oro High School next year.
The KEYS program is a collaboration between the Southwest Environmental Health Sciences Center and the BIO5 Institute at UA. Students spent 30 hours each week in the lab, trying to find out how outside factors cause diseases. They presented and explained their findings to UA faculty at the College of Pharmacy on Friday.
Daniel Sotelo, 18, who starts at UA in the fall, studied genetic variance in flat-tailed horned lizards. Sotelo, who graduated from Sunnyside High School this year, said the KEYS internship was time well spent. “I know I made the right choice. I don’t know where else I could’ve gotten the knowledge I got,” said Sotelo, who hopes to be a pediatrician. “Not many people get this experience.” [Note: To read the full article, click here; photo source, Tucson Citizen.]