Two girls, Aaryaa Chiney and Amaya Baez appear standing and giving interview. Text below them read, "Aaryaa Chiney. Biotechnology SAE, Bergen County Academy FFA, New Jersey" and " Amaya Baez. Biotechnology SAE, Bergen County Academy FFA, New Jersey" respectively.
Aaryaa: My name is Aaryaa Chiney, I go to Bergen County Academies, and my FFA chapter is Bergen County Academies’ FFA. Amaya: My name is Amaya Baez, and I go to Bergen County Academies, and I’m in the Bergen County Academies’ FFA chapter. Amaya: An SAE is like an independent project that you have to undertake.
A laboratory with some equipment on the table appears. Later, a lab technician drops liquid into a small container (vial) using a micropipette. Another lab technician closes the vial. The lab technicians are in the laboratory attire.
Aaryaa: So, our SAE is the research SAE, and specifically, we’re working in microbiology and biotechnology. Amaya: Our SAE specifically focuses on finding the different types of bacteria that live in the tank water, the coral tank water of the aquarium that we’re partnered with, and the Atlantic Ocean where they source their water from.
A lab technician takes the water from a bottle using a swab and wipes it on a Petri dish. The other technician who holds the Petri dish then closes the Petri dish. The lab technician closes the bottle and disposes the swab. The above visual reappears in zoom effect.
We want to see sort of the differences in the microbiomes of these two different tank waters to see if the coral are growing up the same if there is something that benefits the coral that is in one place and not the other. We did this by swabbing the water itself and making Petri dishes and growing colonies, and then using these colonies to purify the DNA and do PCRs and get the genomic sequencing.
A piece of laboratory equipment with Warning: High Voltage labels appears. Later, a lab technician opens a new pack of swab, takes one out from it. The other technician opens the vials and place them on its stand. The lab technician takes some liquid from the Petri dish opening it using the swab and gives it to the other technician. The other technician opens a vial and drops the liquid in it.
Aaryaa: Learning how to do all these processes, it was a very steep learning curve. There was a lot of reading scientific literature online; we use a lot of the resources that we have at the school; we have so many research mentors that we could go to. But after the first few times that we did all of these protocols, and we kind of got practice, now it’s second nature.
Back to back clips of different views of the lab showing the devices, gloves, goggles, and other equipment in it appears.
Aaryaa: I’ve definitely learned so much throughout this SAE. Definitely in hard skills, like lab skills, and learning how to program machines, learning how to deal and work with bacteria and all of the chemicals that we’re working with.
The visual of Aaryaa Chiney and Amaya Baez standing and giving interview reappears. Following, the image of technicians working in the lab reappears.
But also, I’ve learned more transferable skills that I can take with me in my college and career. Like communication, talking to adults, talking to people who know more than me, and trying to learn from them.
The lab technicians loosen the pipetting button of the micropipette, takes some solution, and drops it into a test tube. The visual of Aaryaa Chiney giving interview appears followed by which the visual of Aaryaa Chiney and Amaya Baez standing and giving interview appears on a full screen.
Amaya: I really learned how to, like, stand up for myself and just be able to do what I want and be independent because with our SAE, there was no one holding our hand and like guiding us through it; we really had to think of our own solutions. Aaryaa: I don’t think you need to have exposure to any kind of agriculture or farm living to be in an SAE.
The nameboard which reads, entering S. Hackensack, Bergen County, appears. Following by it, a lab technician drops some liquid from a small container into the vials placed in their stand using a micropipette.
The place where we live it’s a very close suburb to New York; it’s very suburban-urban. But we’re still doing this SAE. I think you just need to have like a passion for agriscience and science, in general, to be successful; because you can always learn about agriscience, you can always teach yourself. You don’t need that prior exposure, but I think you just need the passion.
Aaryaa Chiney and Amaya Baez standing and giving interview reappears on the full screen. Later, the lab technicians try to open a bottle having some water. Aaryaa Chiney and Amaya Baez reappears on the full screen.
Amaya: Being in a STEM school, there’s like a lot of boys and not that many girls. But it’s important to like have community. Me and Aaryaa have each other, and we are able to enjoy that with each other, and we’re able to say like, “Hey, look at all these great things that we’re doing,” and we’re doing them together, and we’re doing them on behalf of the whole gender.
A lab technician operates equipment in the lab. Another lab technician opens the equipment, places a vial inside it, and closes the equipment, other lab technician presses a switch in the equipment. Two lab technicians operate a device and adjust the settings in the device. Some wires are connected on it. Later, a lab technician drops some liquid into a vial using a micropipette.
Aaryaa: Yeah, and I come from a family where, you know, my mom is in STEM, my sister is in STEM. So that’s really been like a big help to me and a big inspiration that, you know, I can do whatever I want, I can go into STEM even though I’m a woman, and even though it’s a pretty big male-dominated field, and I think having so many girls and FFA and having Amaya and having friends who experience the same things is really helpful.
Amaya: I’m really thankful that I got to be in FFA, and I got to learn about how broad agriscience truly is and that I got to have the opportunities to learn about myself and learn about the world and the people around me. So, thank you, FFA!