Students Share Yearlong Research at First RPS Research Symposium

Rutgers Prep’s Science Department hosted its first RPS Research Symposium on Monday, May 18, bringing students, families, faculty, and guests together in the Dining Commons for an afternoon of student research.

The event featured work from students in our Waksman, Advanced Waksman, Biotechnology, and Materials Science courses. After several opening presentations to the full group, attendees moved from poster to poster, where students explained their research, described their methods, and answered questions about their findings.

Students in the Waksman Research Program and Advanced Waksman Research Program shared work connected to molecular biology, genetics, and bioinformatics. Through Rutgers Prep’s partnership with the Waksman Institute of Microbiology at Rutgers University, students take part in research that more closely resembles the work of practicing scientists than a traditional lab assignment.

Their projects included research on metabolic responses in Landoltia punctata, microplastic degradation by Pseudomonas putida across different temperatures, the role of ferredoxin-NADP+ reductase in photosynthesis, and the function of proteins and enzymes involved in plant and cellular processes.

Biotechnology students presented projects connected to the course’s focus on health, disease, conservation, and biodiversity. Projects included “Determining Wolbachia Presence in Arthropods From Dry vs. Moist Environments,” “Analyzing Panda Fertility Using ELISA,” “Tiny Bacteria, Big Impact: Does Wolbachia Prefer Flying Arthropods?,” “LacZ CRISPR-Cas9 Gene Editing Technology,” and “BacTalk: Cell Signaling.”

The symposium also included a Materials Science project titled “From Insulator to Conductor: Mapping the Percolation Threshold in Wax-Graphite Composites.”

Taken together, the presentations showed the range of research happening in Rutgers Prep’s science classrooms and the depth of understanding students developed over the course of the year.

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