By Michelle Lawson
After an animated discussion and three rounds of voting, the decision was final: the first case study for the University of Massachusetts Amherst freshmen would be on the increase of antibiotic-resistant strains of syphilis.
So how did eight Williston students happen to be involved in this decision on a recent rainy Saturday morning?
I’ll start at the beginning.
At 8:15 a.m. last Saturday, the students in the advanced integrated science course (AIS) at Williston hopped on the bus and headed to UMass. Our plan was to spend the morning with the first-year college students who were beginning the integrated concentration in science program (iCons), led by Professor Scott Auerbach. In previous years, Professor Auerbach has led a workshop at Williston for the AIS students, but this year we wanted to travel to UMass and immerse ourselves in the integrated science program.
Professor Auerbach started the iCons programs five years ago to bring students together from different science disciplines and address problems from a multidisciplinary perspective. Over their four years of college, the iCons students work in small groups to come up with scientific solutions to global problems.