Fairbanks STEM Science Lab Summer Camp
Scientific Research using C. elegans with Fiona Sweeney
Week of June 10th
Limited to 10
$300
8-4

This program is for middle and high school students who wish to be introduced to the world of scientific research. Participants will be introduced to topics that are essential to scientific research, such as ethics, lab safety, scientific method, and experimental design. Students will also experience how a research lab operates and learn some of the advanced techniques used in STEM investigations by completing an experiment on C. elegans from start to finish. At the end of the week, each student will give a short presentation about their experience for parents and guest scientists.

Fiona Sweeney
STEM Lab Advisory Committee
STEM Science Lab Leader
St. Johnsbury Academy Class of 2019
John Hopkins University Class of 2023
New Hampshire Academy of Science Participant
AAAS Presenter

Fiona Sweeney is a Senior at St. Johnsbury Academy and will attend Johns Hopkins University in the fall, where she plans to study Molecular and Cellular Biology on a Pre-Medical Track. Fiona has been involved with the New Hampshire Academy of Science since 2013. She has been an American Junior Academy of Science Fellow since 2015, and she presented her research at the AAAS conference in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019. She is currently working on an AP Research Capstone project at St. Johnsbury Academy that observes patterns of colonization of the gut microbiome of C. elegans using fluorescence microscopy.

In 2018, Fiona competed as an individual student at the Vermont Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Fair at Norwich University. She won five awards, including two scholarships, for her research. Her project, "The Effects of Microbiome Diversity on Stress Response in C. elegans Strains with HIF Mutations," won a silver medal, a Norwich University NextGen scholarship worth $20,000, a partial scholarship of $1,000 to the New Hampshire Academy of Science Summer Research Program, a certificate of recognition from Regeneron, and an invitation to apply to Regeneron's Student Talent Search. She also qualified as a finalist for the Genius Olympiad competition, an international competition in Sustainability, Ecology, Human Ecology, and Human Health Innovation.

Fiona was one of two recipients of the RIT Innovation and Creativity Award at St. Johnsbury Academy in May 2018 and has been selected as a Semifinalist in the 2019 National Merit Scholarship Competition. In a statement about Fiona's achievements, St. Johnsbury Academy Headmaster Tom Lovett said, "The fact that Fiona entered this contest [Vermont STEM Fair] and completed her research all on her own speaks volumes about her dedication, talent, and passion in science…. At a time when we are striving to encourage young women to explore STEM fields, Fiona's achievements are inspiring. She and her family should be very proud. Her headmaster and teachers certainly are!"

Fiona was previously employed by the New Hampshire Academy of Science as an assistant to their summer research program in 2017.

Please contact Leila Nordmann at the Fairbanks Museum & Planetarium with questions: lnordmann@fairbanksmuseum.org

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