One lunchtime last semester, students Dylan L. ‘27 and Kara K. ‘27 slipped into the lab to check on their fruit flies. In Fly Genetics & Molecular Biology, experiments don’t pause for the block schedule! Dylan and Kara’s latest cross held the possibility—never a guarantee—of producing a precise genetic sequence that could be stabilized over fly generations and studied for its resemblance to human genes.

In this course, Lick-Wilmerding students engage in rigorous, real-world research as collaborators with Stanford University, working to create a genetically unique fly line. If successful, their Drosophila flies will be housed in Indiana University’s research repository, where scientists use fly genomes to study human disease. 

Clearly, “Fly Sci” is not your average biology class. Under the guidance of teacher Christine Wilkinson, students are learning and applying college- and graduate-level research skills and contributing to ongoing research efforts to understand, treat, and cure disease. 

That day in the lab, Dylan and Kara got unexpected news: all of their flies had white eyes, not the red eyes they had been working to engineer. While the result wasn’t what they had hoped for, each cross—successful or not—provides data and insight, as students work toward achieving a specific genetic profile. Their response to seeing white-eyed flies? First, disappointment. Next: Resolve to try again. Iterate. Test and observe. Be persistent. 

Through this class, Fly Sci students are experiencing what it’s like to be working scientists. Their experiments are not merely theoretical practice of skills they might use some day in the future. Rather, they are working at the intersection of academic rigor and real-world application, as they engage in authentic, iterative research. This is meaningful, engaging learning at its best, and the students can feel the difference. As Kara puts it:

“In the lab, we really get to demonstrate the information we have learned. Knowing that I’ll be applying the information in actual research means that I seek to understand the information in a different way.”

And Dylan adds:

“My favorite part of Fly Sci is being on my feet so much, doing hands-on novel research at the lab bench. I’ve never had a science class where I learn a new concept in the first 20 minutes and immediately apply it moments later.”

Fly Sci students will also take their learning beyond the lab: this Spring, they'll present their findings at Stanford’s annual conference, where they will rub shoulders with scientists and researchers doing similar work, both sharing with and learning from experts. 

This is what happens when students are given real work that has a tangible impact. In Fly Sci, students don’t just learn about genetics— they practice it, wrestle with it, and return to the lab day after day because the work matters. They leave the course not only with new knowledge, but with a deeper understanding of what it means to do science (and other endeavors) uncommonly well.