Spreading the word that research is doable is in Mike Yerky's DNA

Tall, long-haired, and dressed in black, Mike Darwin Yerky looks like a rock star. His appearance also fits with his informal moniker: road warrior.

Yerky travels in a minivan—packed with pipettes and gel rigs—to schools in upstate New York and beyond as the mobile division of the Cornell Institute for Biology Teachers (CIBT). Supported by an HHMI grant, CIBT brings college-level labs to high schools, conducts workshops for science teachers in Cornell's hometown of Ithaca, and runs a lending library where cash-strapped teachers can borrow expensive equipment.

A primatologist from Switzerland, Yerky took the middle name Darwin when he became a U.S. citizen days before his 40th birthday. Each year, he shares his love of science with about 2,000 students from special education groups, advanced placement classes, and everything in between. In November, he visited the Cuyahoga Valley Career Center, a vocational school in Brecksville, Ohio. His mission: teach a room full of half-interested teens how to do DNA electrophoresis, a sophisticated technique that uses an electric current to separate DNA strands in a gel slab for analysis.

"We usually get people who are not that secure in how they teach science, and they soak up stuff like sponges. They exchange information and experiences. So you see them progress in their confidence level. 'Oh, yeah, I can do that now!'"

MIKE YERKY

"I don't think I can do this," says a girl named Danielle, as she uses a pipette to extract DNA from a microfuge tube. She and her classmates from nearby Garfield High School are visiting the career center as part of a health careers field trip.

"Yes, yes, you can," says Yerky, talking her through step by step. "Nice. See?" This is progress. Earlier, Danielle had been whispering and giggling with her friends, but Yerky managed to keep her and the rest of the class in check with some droll remarks delivered in his Teutonic accent.

"If you're between six and seven milliliters after adding the alcohol, you're in good shape," he announced at one point. "If you're way up, to 14, you may need to lay off the booze a little bit next time."

Sheri Zakarowsky, a science teacher at the career center who teaches anatomy for health careers, biochemistry for the culinary arts, and physics for engineering technology, had invited the suburban high school students for the day to gauge interest in a biotech program she hopes to start next year. She says she was pleased by the students' interest in Yerky's training.

Teachers in Ithaca

Zakarowsky met Yerky when she attended CIBT's two-week workshop last summer. Every year, 40 to 50 new teachers go through the program. Shorter workshops during the school year attract another 50 or so. "It was grueling," Zakarowsky says. In one lab, she and other teachers performed DNA analysis on insects to determine the prevalence of parasitic bacteria. "But I learned a lot."

Yerky enjoys seeing the teachers come into their own during their time away from the classroom.

"We usually get people who are not that secure in how they teach science, and they soak up stuff like sponges. They exchange information and experiences. So you see them progress in their confidence level. 'Oh, yeah, I can do that now!'"

Illustration: VSA Partners

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