Worm Watch 
Scientists seek opportunities to foster interest in science through outreach that engages High School (HS) students in genuine scientific inquiry while producing high quality data that contributes to the efforts of university laboratories. Teachers struggle with authentic science and inquiry-based teaching methods to improve their students' understanding of science, yet most have not participated in research projects themselves. The "Worm Watch" project is a collaborative research program with two UNH research groups and 18 NH HS biology teachers from 9 different schools. The research-related project focuses on initiating and generating proof of principle for two complementary projects that share several key elements of infrastructure, methodology, intellectual and practical skills.
1. Nematode Biodiversity
There exists renewed interest in understanding global biodiversity. Nematodes are one of the most diverse yet least characterized groups of animals and have become the focus of an NSF-funded effort to develop the "Tree of Life". The Thomas lab hosts a global effort to characterize the diversity of this phylum. As a critical part of this program, we must expose young future scientists to the largely unseen world of nematodes, and engage their help in expanding our knowledge of diversity and cultivate future work in this field.
2. Functional Genomics
In stark contrast, one particular nematode, Caenorhabditis elegans , is very well characterized. The genome of C. elegans is completely sequenced and the current challenge is to understand how a genome controls an animal's biology. The consequences of mutating the ~20,000 genes in the genome have been observed. However, many traits are the result of defects in more than one gene, and the systematic solution, even at the bi-genic level, requires each gene to be mutated in turn, and the result of ablating each of the ~19,999 others in this context examined. Many more hands are needed. The experiment is "parallelizable" and technically accessible to HS students and teachers, and thus they could contribute as proto-scientists in an approach to a fundamental research question that is central to current biomedical thought. The methodology is "RNA interference", a robust and facile technique used extensively in the Warren Lab. In this project, we will commence by screening for genes that interact with a mutation in gly-2, a step of glycoprotein synthesis that controls the spreading of primary cancers in mice and humans.