TREX is a research program for high school seniors and recent graduates in the Rio Grande Valley.
You work alongside Texas A&M scientists on an ongoing study of lead in local soil, water, and plants, learn how research is done from start to finish, and can contribute to a paper submitted for publication.
Seminars, sampling activities, and writing workshops at SciTech, Med High, and Rising Scholars Academy. Sign up for the Spring TREX program here.
Sign up for the Spring programTwo weeks of full-time research at the Texas A&M Higher Education Center at McAllen for graduating students. The application opens closer to the date.
Learn more
TREX is a Texas A&M University program that partners with students and teachers at STISD schools. It is funded by a grant from the National Institutes of Health, so there is no cost to participate.
The current study focuses on lead exposure. Counties in the lower Rio Grande Valley have historically had some of the highest rates of children with elevated blood lead levels in Texas, and the sources are not well mapped. TREX students collect soil, water, and plant samples near their homes and schools, learn how the results are analyzed and interpreted, and help write the manuscript reporting the findings. Students who contribute to the writing are eligible for authorship when it is submitted.
Many students never meet a working scientist or get a clear picture of what research careers involve or pay. TREX connects you directly with Texas A&M researchers in medicine, public health, and engineering so those careers stop being abstract.
Reading primary research, designing studies, collecting and interpreting data, and writing up results. The skills TREX teaches are the ones actual researchers use every day.
TREX pairs Texas A&M faculty and graduate students with STISD teachers and students over the long term, not for a one-off visit. Many students stay involved for more than one year and return as near-peer mentors.
The lead study is real science with a local purpose: mapping exposure risk in South Texas communities. Student findings can contribute to the scientific literature, with students as co-authors.
Meet with Texas A&M scientists and your teacher through the spring semester. Read and discuss primary research papers, learn the toxicology of lead, and design a study of your own. The long-term plan is to grow this into a full two-semester course students can take for college credit.
Collect soil, water, and plant samples across the Valley using the same protocols the research team uses, record where each one came from, and see the results mapped alongside everyone else's.
Help write the manuscript that reports the study results. Students who contribute are eligible for authorship, which is unusual to have before graduate school.
If you are 18 and headed to college in the fall, spend two weeks in July at the Texas A&M Higher Education Center at McAllen working on the project full time. The internship includes a stipend, breakfast and lunch, and a career panel with Texas A&M graduate students.
The summer internship runs in two strands: TEST (Toxicology Education & Science Training), the classroom side where you build sampling, analysis, and writing skills, and TREX (Toxicology Research & Education Exchange), the field side where you lead your own sampling and test your own hypotheses. Together they take you through the full cycle of research: hypothesis, data, communication.
Each team picks its own research question, plans where to sample, spends field days collecting, and presents its work to mentors at the end of the two weeks.
Does soil around La Gloria Landfill contain higher concentrations of lead closer to the landfill?
Over two field days the team collected 18 soil samples, two at every mile, starting at the landfill gate and working around its perimeter. The landfill sits on the Gulf Coast Aquifer System, so lead in nearby soil could point to a risk for groundwater too.
Are heavy metal levels higher in neighborhoods next to commercial areas than in isolated ones?
The team used Tres Lagos as a control, then sampled four neighborhoods behind strip malls, a grocery store, and a shopping plaza. In each one they took samples at points stepping farther from the business to see if lead levels drop with distance.
Does the age of a park's infrastructure affect lead in its water?
The team sampled the drinking fountains and the lake or decorative fountain at Tres Lagos Park, built around 2017, and at Archer Park in downtown McAllen, one of the oldest parts of the city, where older pipes are more likely.
Questions about eligibility, the summer internship, sampling, or the seminar series? Email the program team.
A record of each TREX group, from the first semester in 2023 to the most recent summer internship.
Each spring, Texas A&M researchers present their current work. Talks are open to students, teachers, families, and the community. Some past topics:
What TREX students have said about the experience.
Each intern wrote a testimonial for their team's final presentation. Here is part of each one.
As someone who lives in Matamoros, I rarely have opportunities to participate in research because of limited resources, distance, and financial barriers. The TREX program made this experience possible by providing the support I needed to fully participate, allowing me to focus on learning and growing as a researcher.
While gathering the samples in the field required a lot of hard work, doing it together as a team made the entire process incredibly rewarding and allowed us to analyze real-world environmental impacts firsthand.
It gave me the opportunity to conduct hands-on environmental research, gain insight into the research process with seminars led by PhD students and physicians, and better understand how research can address real-world issues affecting communities like our own Rio Grande Valley.
My team chose to study the differences between public parks and how their age may influence lead levels. Through this project, we gained valuable experience conducting fieldwork, collecting and analyzing data, and communicating scientific findings as a team.
This summer, I worked with Dr. Cannon and Brittni Whitfield through the TREX program, gaining hands-on environmental health research experience that strengthened my passion for science and inspired me to pursue a career in medicine.
All this couldn’t have been possible if it weren’t for the new friendships made and amazing mentors who helped guide us.
As a rising senior in high school, TREX was one more step forward in achieving the future that I want.
Before the program, I thought research was mostly about finding answers. Instead, I learned that it starts with asking good questions and working together to solve real problems.
The mentor-student interactions, the hands-on activities, the independence of making our own hypothesis, testing it, and making a presentation on it, the feedback, the kindness and generosity received from our supervisors.Summer 2026 participantExit survey, asked what they liked best
I really liked the hands-on activities, such as collecting soil samples from all over the RGV!Summer 2026 participantExit survey
I enjoyed the hands-on research experience. I had never conducted my own experimental research in high school where I had to go and collect the data myself. It was really fun because I got to use my own data.Summer 2026 participantExit survey
One of the most rewarding facets of TREX was the experience gained through this community science project. Gaining knowledge on environmental health and then contributing by addressing these often ignored issues was eye opening.Summer 2026 participantExit survey
Collaborating closely with my teammates over the past two weeks highlighted the importance of teamwork in developing a strong research project.Summer 2026 participantExit survey
Through the Texas A&M TREX internship, I was able to work with my peers to create a functional app for scientific data collection. I gained firsthand experience in research methodology and the data collection process, and learned how to code using MIT App Inventor to design a tool that could gather and organize real-world data effectively.Diego AguilarTREX participant
Being in the TREX program has prepared me for my future career path and has changed my perspective of my community in a positive way.Athalie GutierrezSummer 2025 internship
TREX has given me the opportunity to use my research to benefit my community and improve the lives of people living here.Andre HernandezSummer 2025 internship
TREX has revealed the impact the school ecosystem can have on its students and allowed me to sharpen my skills in coding and software engineering to build preemptive measures to combat these threats and improve student health, environment, and performances.Serene FengTREX participant
TREX student citizen scientists collect soil, water, plant, and paint samples across the Rio Grande Valley and submit them to Dr. Cannon's lab at Texas A&M for lead testing. Students and community members can both contribute.
Where to sample, how deep to go, and how to bag and label it.
See the instructions Protocol · WaterHow to take a grab sample from a body of water.
See the instructions Protocol · PlantsHow to collect leaves and plant material for trace metal testing.
See the instructions
One rule sits behind every step below: trace metal testing can be thrown off by tiny amounts of contamination from dirty hands, dusty surfaces, or rusty tools. Careful handling is what makes your sample usable.
Taking more than one sample per area gives more reliable results. Label every tube or bag before you collect anything.
This is a grab sample: a snapshot of a body of water's chemistry at one point in time.
Plant samples are leaves or other plant parts collected for trace metal testing.
Field safety. Sampling happens in Texas heat. Drink water before you feel thirsty, take shade breaks, wear a hat and sunscreen, and use the buddy system so you can watch each other for signs of overheating. If you or anyone else feels faint, weak, or nauseous, stop and move to a cool place. Check the forecast before heading out, and if you see lightning and hear thunder within 30 seconds of each other, get inside a building or a hard-topped vehicle.
The spring program is for students at the partner schools, SciTech, Med High, and Rising Scholars Academy, coordinated through your teacher. The summer internship is for graduating students who are headed to college and are 18 or older at the time of the program.
Two weeks in July, 9:00 am to 3:00 pm daily, at the Texas A&M Higher Education Center at McAllen, 6200 Tres Lagos Blvd, McAllen, TX 78504.
No. TREX is funded by a grant from the National Institutes of Health, so there is no cost to participate. Summer interns have received a stipend and daily breakfast and lunch.
A media release form and an informed consent form for the program surveys, plus the participant checklist for the summer program. These are signed and returned to the TREX team, and you will be able to upload them through this website.
Field sampling happens outdoors in Texas summer heat. Bring water and drink before you feel thirsty, wear loose light clothing, a hat, and sunscreen. Gloves and sampling supplies are provided. If you feel faint, weak, or nauseous at any point, tell someone and get to shade right away.
Parking for the summer program is in the 12th Man lot. Pick up a parking pass from the attendant at the lot entrance.
Participants who complete the program surveys receive a Certificate of Completion. Students who contribute to the research manuscript are eligible for authorship when it is submitted for publication, and your name on the sampling data lives on in the public dashboard.
Teacher facilitators run the spring program sessions at their school with content provided by the TREX team, select and enroll interested students, take attendance at each session, and help coordinate field sampling and the writing workshop.
Send them to the sign-up form on this website. Registration collects each student's name, school, personal email, and a recent photo so the Texas A&M team can recognize students when they visit in person.
Any student who appears in photos needs a signed media release on file. Collect these at the start of the program, before photos are taken, and submit them through the website upload page.
Send the TREX team a quick message before building anything or making commitments to students. Ideas from teachers are one of the best things about this program, and a short heads-up means the team can confirm what the NIH grant allows, so no student is promised something the program cannot deliver and no work goes to waste.
Only the activities defined in the NIH grant. The program cannot fund outside opportunities, other programs, or individual requests, however worthwhile. When in doubt, ask the TREX team first, before a student's expectations are raised.
