North Cook News

Rep. Randy Hultgren (R-IL) recently took part in two meetings with recipients of the second STEM Scholars program, which allows high school students to serve as ambassadors to their communities to demonstrate the possibilities available through science, technology, engineering and math, according to a release from Hultgren.

“At our first meeting at Elgin Community College, we got to know each other and met with ECC President Dr. David Sam and the science faculty before we launched into our hands-on microbiology activity using microscopes and slides,” Hultgren said in the release. “The complexity of the work required the students to rely on each other for help. ECC faculty said the slides were some of the best they had seen in years!”

The students also had the opportunity to learn from scientists at FONA International in Geneva, who taught them about food flavoring science and the food flavoring industry.

Representative Randy Hultgren (IL-14) | Courtesy of hultgren.house.gov

“Students competed to build free-standing structures with pipe cleaners, and engaged in a series of hands-on sensory food science experiments to answer such questions as, How does fat content affect the taste of chocolate milk, and How does sugar density affect viscosity or liquid stacking?” Hultgren said in the release. “We finished the day with a group tour of the different labs at FONA.”