In my last blog post I discussed some of the research I learned about this summer during my internship. A valuable part of observing research was considering how the research process enabled employees to grow within their positions. And isn’t this what we want out of our education system more than anything; to find a way to enable our students to grow in their role as students?

It was very exciting to consider the research and innovation that employees contribute to their everyday work duties. For example, when working with greenhouse employees I met an employee who has recently completely restructured pest control within the greenhouses onsite at RTP. As sealed as the greenhouse is, pests are still able to find their way into the greenhouse and interact with plants. After spending a significant amount of time spraying for the pests, an employee successfully piloted a program that uses biological control agents to eradicate the greenhouse of pests. Due to the success of this program, the greenhouse is only conducting 8% of the sprays that it was performing prior to the introduction of biological control agents. What was so neat to me about this situation was that conducting the sprays was one seemingly small aspect of this employee’s job; yet, he took it upon himself to think about alternatives to the time consuming practice and make a positive change.

Learning this new information was accompanied by a few challenges. I still do not feel like I have a strong comprehension of the process that occurs when using agrobacterium for the transformation of plants. Scientifically, I have seen diagrams and listened to a few employees describe it. Unfortunately, it did not work out that I had an opportunity to spend time at the innovation center where this takes place. The innovation center is crucial because it is the starting point of all of the research that is conducted. Once plants have been deemed successful enough they are transplanted and moved to the greenhouses at the RTP site in addition to some greenhouse space that Bayer has leased at Duke University for further testing. If the plants are successful in the greenhouse, they can be transplanted to actual fields. Without spending time at the innovation center I feel like I know that I have missed on some of the cutting-edge research taking place at Bayer CropScience.

While I may have missed out on some of the DNA and plant research taking place, I had no shortage of exposure to the research being conducted to ensure bee care health. Bayer is passionate about bee care health due to the connection of bees as pollinators. I had the opportunity to visit a bee research facility in Clayton, North Carolina as well as the onsite bee research center at RTP. In all cases, research is constantly being done to determine the decline of bee populations. At this point many contributing factors have been identified: queen failure, genetic weakness, parasites, pesticides, diseases, beekeeping practices, weather patterns, and nutrition access. Varroa and tracheal mites have devastated bee hives. Bayer has been researching solutions for the varroa mite by designing an apparatus at the entrance of a bee hive that removes mites from afflicted bees before they enter the hive. To help solve the mite problem one strategy has been to improve management practices. It has been determined that the best management practices are intensive and constant of keeping hives free of mites.

I had the opportunity to attend a Bayer hosted training for local beekeepers to inform them about how to manage their hives based on the most current research. Another example of public outreach from the research that has been conducted is the “Feed a bee” campaign. Lack of food for bees has been cited as a cause of declining bee populations so Bayer started a campaign by offering wildflower seeds to individuals and organizations to provide food for bees. Partners of the project include the NC Department of Transportation (planting flowers on medians and shoulders of interstates) and golf courses. These examples of public outreach demonstrate that it is not just research that is important, but also how research translates into practice. In these instances, I was surprised to see the public outreach connections created from scientific research. I would be curious to learn about other examples of public outreach driven by scientific research in this way from other companies.

While the preceding examples capture just a few of the many exposures to scientific research that I encountered this summer, they were examples that stood out during my experiences. Another connection that I made throughout my research observations was the importance of lab safety throughout the many lab settings that I encountered. I found this emphasis reassuring of the time teachers spend in in middle grades and high school emphasizing lab safety. The practices for science and engineering outlined by the Next Generations Science Standards framework make a lot of sense when I consider the research that I observed and the research that continues to occur. The practices, if followed with accountability and fidelity, will lead students to be successful in settings where research takes place. I hope that partnerships such as Kenan Fellows between education and industry continue to grow to make stronger connections where both sides can continue to exchange ideas and learn from each other.