Amid One Pandemic, Students Train for the Next (NYTimes + Video + Student Publication)

Researchers have banded together to find safe, virtual ways to teach the principles of microbiology and epidemiology.

Teresa Bautista, a student at the High School for Environmental Studies in Manhattan, collecting goose dropping samples at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx. Christine Marizzi/BioBus

By Katherine J. Wu
Jan. 21, 2021, 5:00 a.m. ET

On a crisp afternoon in November, Teresa Bautista ventured into Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, N.Y., on the lookout for feces. It didn’t take long for Ms. Bautista, 17 — and, to her chagrin, her white Puma shoes — to hit some serious pay dirt.

Speckled all across the park’s grass was the greenish glint of goose droppings, which Ms. Bautista eagerly swabbed and swirled into a tubeful of chemicals. “This was my first time digging into poop,” she said. “It was really fun.”

Article continues in The New York Times. Read the press release for more information and check out the documentary short “Feathers Gone Viral” produced by Christine Lin.

The first publication from our BioBus New York City Virus Hunters community science program is out! Our research team composed of high school students, veterinarians, seasoned virologists and bird rehabilitators discovered interesting viruses in NYC pigeons! Read the publication to learn about their research.