Exploring education through Extension: Faculty member transforms biochemistry into fun and accessible lessons

Exploring education through Extension: Faculty member transforms biochemistry into fun and accessible lessons

Friday, December 13, 2024

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When Ashley Mattison thought about her future, she knew she wanted to wear orange.

A third-generation Clemson University graduate, the symbolic color brought her from the valleys of Tennessee and South Carolina to the plains of Stillwater, Oklahoma.

Now an assistant professor in the Oklahoma State University Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Mattison has a dual role in teaching and as an OSU Extension specialist.

"My goal for our OSU Extension programming in the biochemistry and molecular biology department is to make science more accessible," Mattison said.

Mattison's role allows her to focus on K-12 STEM education and making advanced concepts understandable, she said.

"You can't learn biochemistry until you know biology and chemistry," Mattison said. "My hypothesis is we can actually teach our kids that. We just have to find the right words."

Extension education is a new direction for Mattison, she said, having spent a significant time as an undergraduate researcher.

The summer before her freshman year, Mattison was accepted into Clemson University's Experiences in Undergraduate Research Exploration and Knowledge Advancement program, or EUREKA!, a five-week program for honors students.

"They bring incoming freshmen onto campus early, and they get to do research with a faculty member," Mattison said. "That inspired me to start pursuing the research side of things as opposed to the medical, forward-facing doctors' side."

During EUREKA!, Mattison met Kerry Smith, a professor in Clemson's Department of Genetics and Biochemistry. Mattison asked if she could continue conducting research in his laboratory.

"She just asked, and from there she never left the lab," Smith said. "She really enjoyed what she was doing.

In the lab, Mattison collaborated with Smith and his wife, Cheryl Ingram-Smith, who was also one of Mattison's mentors. The team worked on cloning genes, encoding enzymes, sequencing DNA, and researching pathogenic fungi.

"She's a very positive person," said Ingram-Smith, now an associate professor of genetics and biochemistry at Clemson. "She just makes you happy when you're around her."

Dedicated to her research, Mattison sought advice from Smith about how to interpret results and the next steps to take, Ingram-Smith said.

Close to 100 students have worked in Smith's lab, but even 13 years after her graduation, Mattison still stands out among them, Smith said.

After graduating from Clemson in 2011 with a bachelor's degree in genetics, Mattison moved to College Station, Texas, to pursue a doctoral degree in genetics at Texas A&M University.

During the first year of her doctoral degree program, Mattison served as a teaching assistant, which she enjoyed, she said.

"I am very extroverted," Mattison said. "I get motivation and excitement from interacting with other people."

After her first year at TAMU, however, Mattison spent the rest of her time in a laboratory.

It's a blessing because it means that my principal investigator was very well funded, so he was able to fund me on a research assistantship," Mattison said. "But with my passion and enjoyment of teaching, it was something I missed those last couple years of graduate school."

Once Mattison obtained her doctoral degree in 2017, she joined her husband, Scott Mattison, in Oklahoma and began her orange teaching career at OSU-Oklahoma City.

After spending most of her undergraduate and doctoral studies in a lab, teaching was a different path for a researcher like her, Mattison said.

"It was really a great change getting to go back into the people-focused side of science," Mattison said.

While at OSU-OKC, Mattison taught the Introduction to Biology course and oversaw curriculum and the hiring of faculty.

"I loved being able to focus on and deliver a quality Introduction to Biology class," Mattison said. "But, doing the same thing over and over can be very repetitive."

After three years at OSU-OKC, Mattison transitioned to teaching at the University of Central Oklahoma, where she diversified her subjects.

"I got to teach genetics courses and microbiology courses," Mattison said. "Having a diversity of courses was just really nice to focus on engaging all the different parts of my brain."

The more Mattison taught, the more she thought about making science accessible and understandable, she said. Math and science are logical to Mattison, she added, but she knows that is not the case for everyone.

Ensuring the information and terminology she uses is easily understandable is important to Mattison because she understands people come from varied backgrounds, she said.

"There are all different backgrounds coming into an intro biology class, some of whom want to do science, but most students are taking the course to complete the general education requirement," Mattison said.

After a year at UCO, Mattison felt her orange roots pulling her back to OSU, she said, but this time the pull was coming from Stillwater.

Mattison began her role as assistant professor in August 2023.

"For the teaching component, I'm teaching a lot of our biochemistry courses for our majors as well as our Survey of Biochemistry for non-majors," Mattison said. "With the OSU Extension portion, I'm working with 4-H and OSU Extension offices."

One of Mattison's favorite aspects of working for OSU Extension is how seamlessly the curriculum translates to her current work, she said.

"Instead of teaching undergraduates and focusing on that level of education, we're focusing more on making the information accessible," Mattison said.

Despite being new to her position, Mattison wasted no time helping develop Enzyme Explorers, a curriculum for 4-H educators to teach to Cloverbuds, children ages 5 to 8.

"Enzyme Explorers came out of a conversation I was having with fellow OSU Extension specialist Kelly Wardlaw," Mattison said. "I was talking to her about where to start as a biochemistry-specific specialist in extension. There wasn't a predecessor to model something after, so it was 'OK, that door is wide open.'"

She knew exactly where she wanted to begin with her curriculum, she said.

"My kiddos are actually 8, 4 and 4," Mattison said. "It's an age group I'm familiar with, so I figured why not start there."

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the world shut down, so Mattison had to find ways to entertain her children, she said, and used science to help conquer the task.

"I just did tons of science experiments with them, and they loved it," Mattison said.

Mattison's children played a crucial role in helping develop the Enzyme Explorers curriculum, she added.

"It's really great because I get to test their understanding of concepts," she said. "If my 8-year-old does not understand what I'm saying, then I know it may be difficult to understand."

Since Cloverbuds are too young to be official 4-H members, their activity options are often limited, Mattison said, but she's looking to change this.

"The Cloverbuds group doesn't have much science, technology, engineering and math exposure because STEM education is dependent on having some level of previous exposure," Mattison said. "They get left out because they don't have the background knowledge."

With this in mind, Mattison approached Wardlaw, who is an assistant OSU Extension specialist for 4-H Youth Development, to bring her idea to life.

Teaching a complex subject like biochemistry to young students can be challenging, but Mattison's experience with her own young children makes it more manageable, Wardlaw said. As students grow, availability of educational resources increases, she added.

"Not many people take up the challenge of trying to teach enzymes to kindergarteners or first graders, but Ashley did," Wardlaw said.

Over the summer, Wardlaw had a group of interns travel to various counties and teach STEM workshops, including Enzyme Explorers, she said.

"They got really great feedback and positive comments," Wardlaw said. "Even the volunteers, educators and other adults said they learned something, too, which is really cool."

Mattison and Wardlaw are working on grant applications to help fund the expansion of Enzyme Explorers and future curriculum.

"The goal is to have some other modalities through which students can be exposed to these topics, as well," Mattison said.

Mattison hopes to keep developing curriculum that helps to destigmatize science as an overly complex subject, she said.

"When you hear that first piece of jargon, it causes a thought of, 'Oh, maybe I can't do this,'" Mattison said. "You can, and it's our job to find ways to make science more approachable."

Story by Reagan Conrad | Cowboy Journal

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