When I was 8 living in rural southwestern Pennsylvania I had an old paleontology book from the late 1800's picked up at a local flea market. Inside the thin pages were incredible drawn pictures of fossil trilobites, fish and other creatures. I would spend time privately tracing the pictures on thin tracing paper and wondering what they were and where they came from. This was the first time I can remember being interested in something scientific.

In 1978, when I was 12 years old living in Virginia, my 7th grade life science teacher set up a number of microscopes with dishes of liquid. I had never looked through a microscope and liquid looked clear except for maybe a few specks I could make out here and there. She said there were organisms in that liquid and that if I looked through the microscope I would be able to see those organisms. She said they were nothing like I had ever seen before and that they all came from a pond nearby. I peered into the microscope and saw Volvox, the colonial green algae and was immediately blown away. How could a simple machine allow me to see an unknown world? It was the defining moment in my life where science became a life long passion.

More than 40 years later we have the ability to investigate deeper to the lives of organisms through their biodiversity and symbiotic relationships using DNA technology at multiple scales. My overall goal is to excite students like I was excited 40 years ago.

My name is Bob Kuhn and I have been a Georgia educator for over 22 years, primarily teaching high school students. DNA Club was born at my former school, Centennial High School in 2018 and continues its run in 2022 at Innovation Academy. where I currently teach biotechnology.