From the very first day of the school year, the honors and AP biology classes have had one date drilled into their brains—February 28th. This was the date of the much-anticipated Genetics Conference, at Maine West High School. The speaker, Sam Rhine, is an expert on genetics and biology, and is an internationally renowned speaker who took national tours and spoke about genetics. The conference was packed with college level material that was hot off the press.
When asked about her feelings about the conference, Mrs. Emmett, AP and honors biology teacher, said, “I have taken the biology honors and advanced placement biology classes to Sam Rhine’s Genetics update conferences each year for the past five or six years. The material he presents is absolutely amazing and always is on the cutting edge of the field. Dr Rhine is a gifted speaker and explains the latest discoveries in genetics long before these discoveries get into the textbooks.”
The months leading up to the genetics conference were spent learning about many of the concepts to be covered at the conference, and the students eagerly awaited the arrival of February 28th. On that Tuesday morning, the honors and AP biology kids lined up in the spine at 7:20 AM, ready to begin a day packed with more facts about genetics than the students could have ever fathomed.
The conference lasted four hours with a ten-minute snack break and a 90 second stretch break, but to the surprise of the students, the time flew by as Sam Rhine, the speaker, passed on valuable and relevant information about the genetics field and its ever-changing uses in the world. Dr. Rhine covered many complex topics, including genes and the development of the human fetus, genes and the development of cancer, and genes and the development of new stem cell technologies.
Mrs. Emmett had promised her honors kids that they would be able to understand almost 80% of everything presented at the conference, but the students were skeptical. However, after the conference, many were pleasantly surprised to find that they understood genetics better than they thought they had. Junior Katie Bialas stated, “For a college level lecture, I was surprised to find that we knew most of the material that was covered.”
The information was presented in a very logical manner and lent itself to easy note taking. Students came out of the conference with over ten pages of notes and more information about the use of genetics than they ever thought they would get of the conference.
Junior Lauren Janek’s final thoughts on the conference were that “[it] was really interesting. I learned so many scientific advancements that I’d never even heard of before! It was a once in a lifetime experience!” Her sentiments mirrored those of many other honors and AP biology students who were very grateful for this experience.