Press release from Washington Township Public Schools
Washington Township High School senior George Gerber recently was named a 2019 New Jersey Governor’s STEM Scholar. The program, which is a public-private partnership among the Research & Development Council of New Jersey, the Governor’s Office, the New Jersey Department of Education and the Secretary of Higher Education is a highly competitive program open to New Jersey students in grades 10 through Ph. D. level.
Gerber was nominated for the program by teacher Shannon Hornibrook and school counselor John Tortoriello.
The selected STEM scholars will participate in four conferences throughout the year that aim to mentor, educate and inspire the participants by introducing them to accomplished STEM professionals and successful STEM companies, academic institutions, and government research organizations. The program also provides avenues for students to participate in discussion panels and face-to-face meetings, field trips to research and development facilities, and other various internships and professional opportunities.
In addition, STEM scholars will conduct team research throughout the year regarding various STEM-related topics, and the program will culminate with the presentation of their findings. Gerber’s team will research CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats). CRISPR is an exciting area of study showing great promise in health-related areas. Specifically, the team will engage in the following activities: extract and purify genomic DNA from soil samples; amplify CRISPR using PCR; gel electrophoresis; extraction of CRISPR band from the gel; ligation and cloning; and sequence analysis of CRISPR.
