9/23/10. SMART stands for Students Modeling a Research Topic. Messmer's SMART Team 2010/11 is off and running with the biggest team so far in its 4 year history. The team competes in a long season from September to April or May. Below is a description of what a SMART Team is about.
After learning about basic protein structure and how to use the computer modeling program, students are paired with a researcher in the medical field to learn about their research and build a protein of interest to them. Through this process, students are exposed to cutting edge science and get a glimpse of how real research is conducted. The final products that students produce are the physical model of the protein, a written abstract, and a poster that tells the molecular story of the importance of their protein.
Students get the chance to present their model and poster at the Medical College of Wisconsin in the spring. This process gives students a chance to meet and network with many professionals in the medical and research field and is a great thing to be able to put on a college application. The team advisor is Science Teacher Carol Johnson.
The 6 members of last year's team went all the way to California to present their model and protein. Here is a link to the 2009/10 SMART Team presentation:
