For the past four years, New Haven seventh graders have been getting a taste of genetics -- sometimes literally -- from Yale graduate students via the Science Education Outreach Program.

Designed to get students excited about science and to give them a chance to interact with real scientists, the outreach program features in-school laboratory sessions run by about 15 graduate students from the departments of genetics, immunobiology, pharmacology, molecular biophysics and biochemistry, and biology. Currently, the program operates at two schools: Troupe Magnet Academy of Sciences and West Hills Middle School.

The program was started by Paula Kavathas, professor of genetics and immunobiology at the School of Medicine. Her two daughters attended West Hills Middle School, and the Yale researcher wanted to give an extra boost to the science program there. Also, she says, "there is a feeling in this country that scientists should interact and help improve science education, so I believed that with a little bit of effort we could do something worthwhile."

The program is aimed at seventh graders, she says, because at that age, "science is still not an uncool thing to do. They're still very enthusiastic, and yet they're advanced enough that we can do things that are a little more advanced and really make use of the expertise and knowledge that the graduate students have."

The labs focus on genetics, with sessions illustrating such concepts as how genes and the environment determine human characteristics, how genes are arranged on chromosomes, how chromosomes divide, how DNA stores genetic information and how differences in DNA can be observed.

The decision to focus on genetics was inspired, in part, by the fact that Kavathas' expertise is in genetics. In addition, the organizers believed that since genetic issues such as DNA typing are often in the news, that branch of science would be most relevant to students. Furthermore, most seventh-grade science classes include a two-month section on genetics, so the laboratories fit nicely into the classroom curriculum.

Kavathas worked with graduate students Cathy Branda, Jessica Kosa, and Anne Chew to develop three labs: one focusing on phenotype/genotype, another on chromosomes and mitosis, and a third on DNA.

Each lab starts out with a short presentation led by a graduate student and usually involving volunteer students from the class. Then the classes break up into groups for hands-on work.

The graduate students use a variety of materials and techniques to keep the students interested. Steel wool is used to illustrate how tightly DNA is packed in a chromosome. The Yale lab leaders wrap toilet paper and string around the young student volunteers to demonstrate the process of mitosis, or cell division. Fruit flies and worms are brought into the classrooms as illustrations of how organisms found in everyday life are used in science laboratories to study genetics.

Using equipment found in real labs to separate DNA on the basis of size, the seventh graders can observe the resulting DNA patterns under ultraviolet light to analyze DNA typing.

The students even get to find out if they are "supertasters" by sampling a chemical imprinted on special paper. The chemical tastes bitter only to those rare individuals with the heightened "supertaster" genes. Using blue food coloring and a flashlight, students can also observe the number of fungiform papillae (containing taste buds) on their tongues, a method developed by Dr. Linda Bartoshuk from the department of surgery for her research on taste.

In the early years of the Science Education Outreach Program, the graduate students had to scurry to find the supplies and equipment they use in the classroom labs -- borrowing the dissecting microscopes needed to look at worms from Yale's biology department, for example. This year, however, the microscopes and supplies used by the graduate students were donated by a student's grandfather who is head of the Eugene Lange Foundation.

In addition to giving seventh graders a chance to learn about genetics, the Science Education Outreach Program gives graduate students the opportunity to learn how to communicate scientific ideas to people who aren't scientists. "They're challenged to present science in a way that's exciting for the kids, because if they don't do a good job the kids start doing other things and don't pay attention," says Kavathas, adding that the Yale students also get instant satisfaction when the youngsters show their enthusiasm. She notes that the graduate students learn a lot by watching each other make the presentations.

The program also provides the middle school students and teachers with a resource for their questions about the field. "There's always some new facet that I learn from going around in the groups," says Elizabeth Vigliotti, who teaches seventh- grade science at Troupe Magnet Academy of Sciences. "Genetics is always changing, so the textbooks are outdated." Working with the Yale students helps her stay aware of the "cutting-edge" of genetics research, the teacher says.

The Science Education Outreach Program also helps change the middle school students' image of scientists by showing them that researchers are regular people that they can interact with, notes Vigliotti. "Nobody that comes in here looks like an old nerdy person," she says.

Vigliotti also points out that many of the students in her class may not take biology in high school, so this is their last chance to learn about genetics. "These are the kids that are going to have to make decisions -- legal decisions -- about genetics." She often tells the students that "it's not going to be my generation" that decides the moral and legal questions of such issues as cloning. "I say, 'It's going to be you guys. You need to know about this so you can make educated decisions, even if you don't end up in genetics,'" says Vigliotti.

-- By Alka Agrawal