The University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff’s 4-H program recently partnered with Sathish Ponniah, associate professor in UAPB’s Department of Agriculture, to fulfill the deliverables of a grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR).
Participants included Danny Sission, Aniyah Ferguson and Destiny Hines from Watson Chapel High School, Jamesha Moten and Catriece Watson from Pine Bluff High School, and Aiden Johnson and Tyrek Williams from Friendship Aspire Academy.
Ponniah and his graduate students spoke to 4-Hers from area high schools about DNA and taught them how to extract DNA from sweet potato plants. The students also learned how to make the medium needed to grow disease-free sweet potato slips, according to a news release.
The U.S. National Science Foundation’s EPSCoR program pursues a mission to enhance the research competitiveness of targeted jurisdictions by strengthening science, technology, engineering and mathematics capacity and capability through a diverse portfolio of investments from talent development to local infrastructure, according to the release.
For details on the program, visit https://new.nsf.gov/funding/initiatives/epscor.