By Susan Peterson

Gazette Staff

High school biology teacher Julie Snyder used to haul a dozen jugs of distilled water weekly from a local store to her car, and then to her classroom on the third floor of Cambridge Rindge and Latin School. Distilled water is needed for experiments, and this was the only way for her to get it.

Now, she just turns a faucet in the school's newly renovated biology laboratory, which was dedicated Monday afternoon by a gathering of Harvard professors and Cambridge Rindge and Latin School teachers.

Snyder's students can also measure light waves with a new spectrophotometer, sterilize their instruments with an autoclave, and take care of flammable materials in vented acid cabinets. A video microscope is hooked up to a camera and TV, and there are seven new Macintosh computers in the lab.

The cost for the up-graded lab was about $140,000, and paid for by part of a grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, under the guidance of Harvard's Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology. The grant enabled the school to purchase this equipment and renovate the lab to help students advance their biology skills and do more complex experiments. Another part of the grant helps Harvard students and upgrades lab equipment in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology.

Howard Hughes grants also offer $2,300 stipends to six Cambridge Rindge and Latin School juniors and seniors in the Advanced Placement biology program to conduct summer research in Harvard's Molecular and Cellular Biology laboratories.

The grants are awarded through the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's outreach educational programs. Harvard biology professors also teach at the high school once a month.

The renovation grant also funds a technician who helps with lab setup, enabling Julie Snyder to devote more time to her students.

Her time will be well spent. The high school's science program already has a good track record of preparing its Advanced Placement students, several of whom go on to Harvard College each year.

Stephen Harrison, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and director of the program, noted the dedication it takes to teach science.

"This is part of our effort to establish a long-term program," he said. "We're pleased to help."

Mandana Sassanfar, the Institute's Outreach Program Coordinator at Harvard, said the program helps raise the standard of science education.

"So many of these students receive higher test scores and some college credit because of the program," she explained.

Harrison visited the new multi-room laboratory at the high school on Monday to meet with his colleagues on the renovation project, including Snyder and Cambridge Rindge and Latin School Principal Edward Sarasin.

Speaking to the assembled crowd, Sarasin said, "You have no idea of the profound impact you have on the students. Without exception, one senses two things: the development of a love of science and being excited about the inquiring experience."

One high school student at the gathering learned she had been selected as an intern in the Harvard labs this summer. When asked why she had applied for the internship, senior Elizabeth Rice exclaimed, "I just love science."