Trends In Education
RESEARCH
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Dr. Steven Hammer, master instructor of biological sciences, and student
Alexander Goodkind use the inverted fluorenscence quantum cellular
microscope that shows detailed cellular structures called organelles. Dyes
make the structures stand out.
“The microscopes are state-of-the-art, and all the tools we
have in the lab are brand new,” he says. “You can take a flash
drive and plug it into a microscope and take a 10-second
video and a snapshot of what you are seeing.”
Marshall, now a senior, says he can foresee a future generation
of students having all of this at its fingertips, and leading
scientists coming in for seminars to teach them.
From May to November of last year he held an internship
at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agriculture Research
Station in Fort Pierce. He has been working under Dr. Scott
Adkins in the plant pathology department and loves doing
anything he can to help the scientists track down plant viruses.
That the STEM center is in St. Lucie County made a big
difference to Marshall. “I would have to commute to Boca
Raton otherwise,” he says.
Carroll also stayed on the Treasure Coast because of IRSC.
He was about to go to FSU or Stetson on scholarships to get
the remaining two years he needed to get a bachelor’s degree
in molecular biology, but when IRSC began offering a fouryear
degree in biology he stayed, first attending classes at the
Mueller campus in Vero Beach and now at the STEM center
in St. Lucie West. He has already been accepted to pharmacy
school at one university but has two more interviews coming
up for the four-year Pharm.D. degree.
The state’s community colleges were originally set up to provide
a post-high school education within 30 minutes of each
student’s home; the new STEM center is furthering that aim.
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