SCHISTOSOMIASIS
Sierra Jackson is a senior at the Global Studies Academy at Clements High School where she is highly involved in her community. She has taken on an abundance of AP classes from Human Geography to Chemistry, and has also continued her passion for volunteering and martial arts. Sierra has worked as a karate instructor for the past four years and has also been the President of the Key Club. She is an active member of the Girls in Computing Club and the Science National Honor Society where she explores her passions in biology, coding, and engineering. She has further pursued these themes by earning a scholarship for the NASA High School Aerospace Scholars Program where she led a team in designing a Martian greenhouse and habitat unit.
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Sierra has been working with Dr. Daniel Wagner at Rice University to locate amino acid sequences in various animals as a part of the project on schistosomiasis.
Student: Sierra Jackson
In School Mentor: Robin Sparwasser
Off Campus Mentor: Dr. Daniel Wagner
Robin Sparwasser is the Pre-AP Biology and PALS teacher at Clements High School. She has had many years of experience in teaching biological science to students and has connections with people in the industry that have worked with Schistosomiasis in the past.
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Mrs. Sparwassers dedication to her PALS classes have given her a wealth of logic on how to teach a variety of students with different abilities and at different ages. She has been an integral part in helping make the Spring Action plan accessible to all.
Dr. Daniel Wagner is an associate professor in BioSciences at Rice University. He has earned his Ph.D. at the Genes and Development Program at the University of Texas Health Science Center and has published numerous papers chronicling his many studies in developmental biology.
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Dr. Wagner has focused his research in the last few years on specific developmental events and processes including cell differentiation and angiogenesis. He is studing this processes using the zebrafish embryo with the express intent of understanding the essential processes that may be misregulated in humans.
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Recently, Dr. Wagner has begun working on an experiment involving schistosomiasis and the Biomphlaria glabrata snail, and since, has invited me on to do some primary research.​
