San Marcos High School And Texas State University Partner

During the summer of 2016, San Marcos High School teacher Mark Stedman and freshman student Phoenix Orta participated in a grant project funded by the National Science Foundation with Dr. Hong-Gu Kang and Texas State University. They worked in Dr. Kang’s high-tech genetics lab learning to manipulate plant genes to discover how and why certain genes move.

According to Stedman, who is a SMHS Biology teacher and the Science Department Chair, the grant was acquired by Dr. Kang and Texas State University with two main goals:

• To professionally educate teachers in a particular area that is growing rapidly so the teachers can provide the latest information and techniques to their students in the classroom.
• Students can gain cutting-edge experience and skills to assist them in developing their own experiments and better prepare them for regional science fairs.

Because of the involvement of Stedman, San Marcos High School received over $6,000 worth of genetic technology that will enable students to learn how to manipulate genes on their campus.

Stedman said, “Our intention is to further develop a relationship between our school and Dr. Kang’s lab and continue to offer training to interested students.”