NEW ELEMENT; MENTOR LAB TEAMS PROMISING YOUNG SCIENTIST WITH A TEACHER.

Byline: Phil Davis Staff Writer

Sixteen-year-old Negin Sohrabi is shy about her frequent use of the word ``cool.'' It's not a word she'd normally choose to describe science.

Pete Sampras is cool. ``Dawson's Creek'' is cool. Science is, as she carefully puts it in the vernacular of adults, ``not very interesting.''

But, the Tarzana high school junior admits spending all summer working on experiments in a UCLA genetics lab - research that might ultimately help unlock the mysteries of cancer and other diseases - was pretty cool. She and her mentor, science teacher Dan McDonnell, worked together at the molecular genetics lab at the University of California, Los Angeles, Medical Center in a pilot program that puts students and teachers on the cutting edge of science.

``I had a lot more fun than I thought I would,'' Sohrabi said. ``My teacher showed me something about science I didn't see. It's interesting.''

Her reaction elicits cheers and a few sighs of relief from educators who have so often watched as uninspiring teaching and social pressures discourage students from choosing science as a career. Ron Stevens, a UCLA professor of microbiology and education, said he has attended teaching conferences where educators admitted they were so bored in their high school science classes they switched career goals.

``It's a big issue,'' said Stevens, who worked with McDonnell to create the student-teacher-researcher partnerships. ``This is when career decisions are being made. If you lose a student at this stage, they may never come back to science.''

Sohrabi and McDonnell proved the partnership can work. The plan impressed officials at the Maryland-based Howard Hughes Medical Institute, who awarded UCLA a $475,000 grant to continue the program. The money will enable 24 other student-teacher teams, most from the Los Angeles Unified School District, to sharpen their science skills in UCLA research labs over the next four summers.

The unique program is a spinoff of several other programs that link both teachers and students at universities and high schools.

McDonnell, who has taught science in the San Fernando Valley for his entire 12-year career, has devoted several of his summers to brushing up on his science skills with fellowships at several Southern California universities, including UCLA.

Last year, he and Stevens worked together on a project to customize UCLA's medical problem-solving software, called IMMEX, for use in high schools. The university also loaned educators 40 laptop computers so students in low-technology schools also could benefit. McDonnell brought a student along to help on that project. The partnership was such a success McDonnell and Stevens decided to apply for a grant to bring in even more students and teachers. Sohrabi was enlisted for the pilot project.

She's an A student, but McDonnell said she was chosen more for her motivation and personality. He plans to enlist future students whose grade point averages may not be stellar, but show the potential to excel.

``I see the cream of the crop get chances all the time,'' McDonnell said. ``The student I modeled the program after is a 3.4 student and may not get into UCLA. And she just did tremendous. It's a willingness to learn you want to see.''

It's also crucial that student and teacher have a rapport.

``I've seen teachers where it's pretty much soldier and general, and that doesn't work,'' McDonnell said. ``At this point you're both learning. It's a good opportunity for students to see that teachers don't know everything.''

A lot of the research they work on won't be in textbooks for years.

``It's a connection with real-world science,'' Stevens said. ``This is just so much richer than reading it in a textbook.''

Jackie Purdy, assistant principal of counselors at the Sherman Oaks Center for Enriched Studies, agreed. She praised McDonnell, who teaches science at the school, for constantly pushing to better himself and his students.

``He works to take his students beyond the limits of high school science,'' Purdy said. ``That's what being a good teacher is all about - taking kids beyond where they are. He gets them fired up.''

McDonnell has brought in researchers to talk to his classes. And this summer, he was delighted to find a fluorescent green mold, something he thinks will be a little more interesting to students than the standard white mold.

This week, McDonnell and Sohrabi, who is now his teaching assistant, will set up a simpler version of an experiment they worked on this summer at UCLA. It involves studying the way a particular gene works in a yeast sample.

At UCLA, the study of how the gene works - called expression - might help decipher the mysterious way cancer cells reproduce out of control. In high school, counting yeast colonies gives the students something to see and do instead of just reading about it in a textbook.

Sohrabi, who was invited to continue working in the UCLA lab four days a week, will also begin her own experiment in McDonnell's class - using molecular biology techniques to identify real and imitation crab meat in sushi.

``She's going to be a great teaching assistant,'' McDonnell said.

And maybe, he hopes, one day she'll be a great teacher.

Sohrabi isn't sure about her future plans. She's planning to apply to the top universities, but before that there's a full load of 11th-grade classes, piano practice, debate club and a little daydreaming about tennis great Pete Sampras.

But, she said, ``teaching is definitely an option.'' Maybe even a ``cool'' option.

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos

PHOTO (1 -- cover -- color) Valley teacher and student team up in UCLA program designed to inspire and educate.

(2) Teacher Dan McDonnell and student Negin Sohrabi, both of Sherman Oaks Center for Enriched Studies, work side by side in a genetics lab at UCLA Medical Center.

Evan Yee/Staff Photographer