The second floor of Innovation Academy hosts the Biotech Lab supervised by Bob Kuhn, Honors Biology and Biotech teacher, and the DNA Club sponsor. Under Mr. Kuhn’s leadership and guidance, students in the DNA club perform research in biology at a high level. They also have the opportunity to contribute to the scientific discovery process and present findings to peers and public through symposiums and publications. This year, the DNA club has expanded to 40 kids, with two teams from last year attempting to get their research published in a peer reviewed journal.
The DNA Club is funded through grants from the IA PTSO, the IA Foundation, and monetary contributions through the City of Alpharetta. It also receives lab material support through Zymo Research Laboratories (over $2000) and mentor/collaborative support listed in the document below. The DNA Club has two projects that will partner with Rucker Farm, not far from IA. They are also excited to use our campus grounds for a number of projects this year.
This week, the DNA Club was awarded a Chrysalis Research Grant from the Entomological Society of America ($1000) for our upcoming pollen analysis project to identify local plants our campus honeybees are using to forage. We will compare these findings to pollen collected at nearby Rucker Farm.