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Throwing it back to those first ochem labs 📖 #unintentionallymatching #throwbackwednesday #andrewsstem #aucardinal15 (at Andrews University Science Complex)

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AU STEM SPOTLIGHT: Zach Reichert's Experiences @ Mayo

Zach Reichert shares how he spent his summer as an undergraduate researcher at the prestigious Mayo Clinic.

Many STEM students at Andrews University pursue a Pre-med track; they hope to, someday, become physicians, diagnosing and treating patients around the world. But a small handful of our Pre-med students are interested in going a step further by obtaining dual MD/PhD degrees, mainly to branch towards the research aspect of medicine.

Zach Reichert, a junior, spent his summer as an undergraduate researcher at the prestigious Mayo Clinic. The title of his project was, “The Functional Role of Acute Inflammation in Zebrafish Spinal Cord Regeneration,” and it helped him to get a better understanding of a career path incorporating both science, and medicine.

He describes the lessons he learned from his time researching under professionals: “Every experience I had at Mayo will help me in the future – learning new and cutting-edge techniques, attending graduate lectures and seminars, presenting updates at weekly lab meetings, networking with other scientists, attending Neurology and Neurosurgery grand rounds, developing a poster and a presentation, and more. The experience of learning the dynamics of a research lab and interacting with a diverse group of people was invaluable.”

STEM promotes Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU), and Andrews University is blessed to have faculty that invest heavily in research. Zach recommends REU opportunities because they allow students to “gain experience working day-by-day in a real world setting.” Specifically, the Mayo program was for rising juniors interested in “utilizing scientific findings to treat disease,” but any STEM students could easily find opportunities for their own field of interest! So don't wait and plan early!

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AndrewsSTEM recently visited the growing business within the Physics Department. Founded in 1977, Physics Enterprises has been active within the university, assisting multiple facets of the school by giving technical experience to the various student workers and contributing financially to the department. When asked about the benefits of Physics Enterprises, Ron Johnson, Director of PE, gave input saying, “PE benefits students with income and experience in a technical business. It benefits depts. of the University with financial support of their projects. It benefits the science education community by supplying quality, affordable equipment for laboratories and demonstrations. And it benefits our distributors by providing a reliable source of this equipment for them to sell to their customers.” 

The most in-demand product is the Force Plate, “a bathroom like scale”. This device allows students to measure static forces or display the wave-shape of dynamic forces applied to the unit. David Kang, a student worker in charge of assembling and testing the Force Plates can be seen in the pictures above showing off the preliminary parts that are later soldered and inserted into the force plates. "We assemble and test them here, then we send them off to a distributor who sells them to educational institutions."

Six main products are manufactured within the business, ensuring thousands of equipment being commissioned. But almost 20,000 voltage and current probes have been put together under an independent contract with one of the distributors. Physics Enterprises is hopeful that the development of the business will further expand their goals to provide effective laboratory equipment while giving students hands-on experience.

Examples of popular PE products are:

Adiabatic Gas Law Apparatus - A tool used to demonstrate the ideal gas laws simultaneously under adiabatic and isothermic conditions. Click here to watch a demonstration.

Diffusion Cloud Chamber - While most cloud chambers require the use of dry ice, PE manufactures units that work by simply being plugged into a source of cold running water. Click here to watch a demonstration.

Force Plate - A dual-acting scale that measures exerted forces from the sensitive ranges of 850 N to the more intense maximum of 3500 N. Force Plates can be seen in the pictures above. 

Wave Motion Demonstrator - This unit is designed to create mechanical waves so that students are able to learn about properties of waves in a tangible demonstration. 

Click the hyperlinks to learn more about each of the PE products! 

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