Biotechnology Institute News Digest
January/February 2007
The News Digest looks at the world of biotechnology education, with Institute news, links to recent articles and a schedule of upcoming events. The News Digest is published by the Biotechnology Institute, the national organization dedicated to biotechnology education.
In this issue:
- Education Conference Application Deadlines Fast Approaching
- Reaching out to Teachers in Massachusetts
- Wyeth Scholars Program Gets Underway
- Dow AgroSciences and Lilly to Support BioDreaming Poster Competition
- Working with the Georgia Biotechnology and Education Communities
- Operation Biotechnology Funds Teacher-Leader Program Attendance
- Illinois Teacher Professional Development Flourishing
- New Teacher’s Resource Guide Published
- Your World Issue Focuses on Biofuels
- Institute People in the News
- Biotechnology Education News Headlines
- Events and Professional Development Sessions
Education Conference Applications Deadlines Fast Approaching
The Biotechnology Institute’s 2007 Conference on Biotechnology Education, which will be held in Boston, May 3-6, integrates the Institute’s core programs into a unique national conference that offers professional development sessions for teachers focused on best practices and linked to education and skill standards. For students and early career scientists, the conference offers a minority mentorship program and a research competition, both of which introduce them to the biotechnology industry.
To attend the conference, qualified teachers, students, postdoctoral fellows, and early career scientists may apply through one of the Institute’s core programs. Deadlines for program applications are fast approaching:
- National Biotechnology Teacher–Leader Program (Application Deadline: February 2) The Teacher-Leader Program provides teachers with the skills, strategies and knowledge to spread awareness of biotechnology to their students and peers.
- Genzyme-Invitrogen Biotech Educator Award (Application Deadline: February 16). The award recognizes exemplary educators at the high school level that have positively impacted students’ understanding of biotechnology.
- Dow AgroSciences-Lilly BioDreaming Poster Competition (Submission Deadline: March 2). K-12 students are invited to submit a poster to showcase their artistic talent and their commitment to the public understanding of the promises and challenges of biotechnology.
- sanofi-aventis International BioGENEius Challenge (Submission Deadline: Extended to February 28!) The challenge is an annual competition for high school students that recognizes outstanding research in biotechnology.
The application period is now closed for the Minority and Indigenous Fellows Program, which pairs industry Mentors with graduate students, post-doctoral researchers and early career scientists from underserved populations. Amgen, lead sponsor of the program, will be hosting the Fellows at its Cambridge facilities on May 4. Other program highlights include visits to the Whitehead Institute/MIT, Harvard Medical School and MassBay Community College.
For information about the programs and the Conference on Biotechnology Education, visit http://www.biotechinstitute.org/events/annualconference/annual_conference.html
Reaching out to Teachers in Massachusetts
The Institute has received grants from Serono, Inc., and the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education (MBHE) to deliver a professional development program for biology, chemistry, physics, and general science teachers from low-income communities in Massachusetts. The Serono and MBHE grants will be leveraged to deliver a joint program that brings state-of-the art biotechnology education to middle school and high school students and better prepare them for careers in the dynamic biotechnology industry. Serono, Inc., a Rockland, Massachusetts-based biotech company, has awarded the Institute $75,000 to bring professional development opportunities to 10 science teachers from high schools and middle schools in Boston’s South Shore. The Biotechnology Institute will partner with the Massachusetts Biotechnology Education Foundation (MassBioEd) to recruit and identify the teachers and to inform the teachers of MassBioEd's BioTeach program. A three-year grant of $150,000 from the Massachusetts Board of Higher Educations Board’s Improving Teacher Quality Higher Education Partnership Grant Program will be used to design and implement a three-year professional development program, called the Biotechnology Teacher Instruction Collaboration (B-TIC), for high school and middle school science teachers from the Fall River and New Bedford school districts.
Wyeth Scholars Program Gets Underway
The Biotechnology Institute and Wyeth have formed an innovative professional development program for high school teachers that allows leading Wyeth scientists to share their biotechnology expertise with science educators in nearby communities. The Wyeth Scholars Program calls for the scientists to mentor new teachers, called Wyeth Scholars, from schools near Wyeth locations in Princeton, New Jersey, and Collegeville, Pennsylvania. A particular focus of the project is to serve schools with diverse student bodies. The scientist and teachers will work together for a period of one year, culminating with the Wyeth Scholars participating in the Institute’s Teacher-Leader Program. Wyeth has made a commitment to support to support the program for up to four years, with an inaugural grant of $125,000 for the first year.
For more information, see http://www.biotechinstitute.org/news/news_detail.php?news_id=40.
Dow AgroSciences and Lilly to Support BioDreaming Poster Competition
The Institute has announced a partnership with Dow AgroSciences and Eli Lilly and Company to encourage K-12 students across the nation to showcase their artistic talent and their understanding of the promise and challenges of biotechnology. The two leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies will be cosponsoring the 2007 Dow AgroSciences-Lilly BioDreaming Poster Competition with commitments of $50,000 each. First implemented by the Biotechnology Institute in 2004, the national poster contest educates young people about biotechnology and its immense potential for solving human health, food, and environmental problems and offers powerful images of a world made better through biotechnology. In 2006, more than 800 students from 81 schools in 26 U.S. states and Canadian territories submitted posters for the BioDreaming Poster Competition.
For information about the competition, see http://www.biotechinstitute.org/programs/biodreaming.html
Operation Biotechnology Funds Teacher-Leader Program Attendance
“Operation Biotechnology” is a new teacher training program from the Institute that is funded by a three-year grant of $824,660 from the U.S. Department of Education’s Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) program. In addition to supporting a significant amount of curriculum implementation teacher training in Chicago Public Schools, the program will support the attendance of 15 teachers-leaders to the National Biotechnology Teacher-Leader Program. The teachers will attend the four-day professional development program in Boston and also benefit from additional online training and access to web-based tools that allow them to collaborate and communicate about curriculum and instruction innovations. Over three years, Operation Biotechnology will train 1,385 teachers and impact more than 34,625 students around the country. To apply for a full-paid scholarship in the program, contact Scott May at smay@biotechinstitute.org.
Working with Georgia’s Schools and Biotechnology Community
DeKalb County School System Superintendent Crawford Lewis, Georgia Biomedical Partnership (GBP) Chairman Russell Medford and Board Member David Dodd, and Institute President Paul Hanle announced plans to develop a program in which the Georgia bioscience community can assist the school system to improve life sciences education in DeKalb County. The plans, announced at the 2007 GBP Awards Dinner on January 12, call for life sciences workshops for teachers; materials and lesson plans to enhance existing bioscience curricula; industry mentors for teachers and students; contributions of laboratory supplies; and summer internships and camps for teachers and students. The DeKalb County School System, the 32nd largest in the United States, is home to 102,000 students from more than 140 different countries. Nearby Atlanta will be the site of the 2009 Conference on Biotechnology Education and the BIO International Convention.
Illinois Teacher Professional Development Flourishing
The Biotechnology Institute and iBIO Institute will offer three teacher professional development workshops for middle school and high school teachers and university faculty this winter in Illinois. The sessions will be held at the Southern Illinois Research Park in Carbondale (February 26); EnterpriseWorks at the University of Illinois in Champaign (February 28); and Science + Technology Park in Skokie (March 2.) The workshops provides educators with the skills, strategies and knowledge to spread awareness of biotechnology to their students and peers, while learning about biotechnology, acquiring new skills, and gaining confidence through hands-on sessions and site visits with local biotechnology companies. The workshops are part of the BIO 2006 Education Legacy Program in Illinois and they are supported by a grant from the Illinois Biotechnology Industry Organization (iBIO) and the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. To apply for a full-paid scholarship to attend one of these workshops, contact Ann Reed at the iBIO Institute at ann.reed@ibioinstitute.org.
New Teacher’s Resource Guide Published
The Biotechnology Institute has published the Teacher’s Resource Guide funded by the Pfizer Foundation. The guide is the culmination of a four-year effort to produce a set of comprehensive materials to accompany the Pfizer exhibit Genome: The Secret of How Life Works. The guide can also be used by teachers who are not only able to attend the exhibit with their students. The materials have been field-tested nationwide in diverse socio-economic populations in both formal and informal education institutions and contain a suite of high quality materials for teachers of all levels of experience and expertise. Background material on the related science, as well as pedagogical information, is included. This allows teacher-leaders to choose information tailored to their levels of experience and expertise to facilitate student learning. The Institute continues to provide professional develop programs at the host museum sites for educators. The next program will be held at the New York Hall of Science, New York, NY, on March 10. For an application to the program, visit the Institute web site at http://www.biotechinstitute.org/resources/genome.html.A limited number of free copies of the guide are available. Postage and handling is $6.50. If you would like a copy, please contact the Institute at kframe@biotechinstitute.org. A PDF version of the guide and more on the exhibit can be found at http://www.biotechinstitute.org/resources/genome.html.
Your World Issue Focuses on Biofuels
The Fall 2006 online issue of Your World: Biotechnology & You, the educational biotechnology magazine for 7th-12th grade students, is available online. The issue, which focuses on biofuels, helps students explore the technology, science, and the growing career opportunities in this emerging field. The magazine, published twice a year, is a curriculum supplement for teachers who want to bring biotechnology to life in the classroom. Each issue of the full-color magazine combines balanced, in-depth information on a single biotechnology topic by looking at the science of biotechnology and its practical applications in health care, agriculture, the environment, and industry. Issues also come with an online teacher’s guide that links to the National Science Education Standards and provides tips on how to use the magazine and additional labs and exercises.
The full version of the issue can be downloaded for free at http://www.biotechinstitute.org/resources/your_world_magazine.html.
Institute People in the News
Submit your news to communications@biotechinstitute.org.
Briar Ballou, science department coordinator at Handsworth Secondary School in North Vancouver, British Columbia, and 2002 and 2003 Teacher-Leader, was awarded a 2006 Certificate of Excellence by the Prime Minister’s Awards for Teaching Excellence. The elite award is given to only 50 teachers each year and includes all subject areas. Ballou was the only science teacher from BC given this award. A financial award of $1,000 is provided to the recipient’s school or teaching institution to fund, under the recipient’s direction, professional development, equipment, resource materials, website development, teaching aids, or other tools to improve teaching and student learning
Scott May, the Institute’s vice-president for systems and curriculum, was elected to serve a three-year term on the board of directors of the Triangle Coalition for Science and Technology Education. The Triangle Coalition is a Washington D.C.-based nonprofit organization comprised of more than 100 member organizations with representation from three business, education, and scientific and engineering societies. The Triangle Coalition's mission is to bring together the voices of government, business, and education to improve the quality and outcome of mathematics, science, and technology education. It focuses its action in three major areas: advocacy, communication, and programmatic efforts to advance science, mathematics, and technology education for all students.
Janelle Kawamoto has joined the Institute as director of student programs. She was previously manager of student programs at MdBio, a nonprofit organization focused on advancing bioscience in Maryland. Kawamoto is responsible for managing and coordinating all student programs including the sanofi-aventis International BioGENEius Challenge, the biotechnology research competition for high school students; the Dow AgroSciences-Lilly BioDreaming Poster Competition, the national poster competition for K-12 students; and Your World: Biotechnology & You, the biotechnology education a magazine for 7-12th graders.
Biotechnology Education News Headlines
Below is recent biotechnology education news. See more news at http://www.biotechinstitute.org/news/.
Athens Tech Planning to Meet Demand for Biotech Careers. Athens Technical College may build a new $16 million biomanufacturing and life science building on campus to meet growing demand for biotech careers. "There are still many areas of biotechnology that we are not able to be involved in," says Athens Tech President Flora Tydings. "As the industry changes, we change." (Athens Banner-Herald, 1/18/07.)
Biotech Jobs in Massachusetts to Keep Growing. The bedrocks of Massachusetts' economy -- biotechnology, healthcare, computer technology, and financial services -- are all slated to become even bigger job generators in the near future. They offer a wide range of employment, good pay, and, surprisingly, job security. Getting some of these crack jobs is not easy; they demand specialized training and often advanced degrees. But for young learners or midcareerists seeking a change, there are a few large openings into these industries that don't require another lifetime of learning or a mountain of debt. (Boston Globe, 1/7/07.)
Pennsylvania Vocational Tech Students Work in Biotech.
Johnstown vocational technology students may be among the first in the nation doing stem cell research for a major pharmaceutical company’s project. The students in Rosalind Servinsky’s biotech program at the Greater Johnstown Career and Technology Center are studying fat stem cells for Lampire Biological Laboratories of Everett. The students’ work grew out of Adventures in Biotechnology, sponsored by the Pittsburgh Tissue Engineering Initiative. The 10-year-old tissue engineering organization was founded to establish Southwestern Pennsylvania as a hub for research, education and commercial development of tissue-related therapies. School programs like Adventures in Biotechnology are designed to introduce
students to the growing industry. (The Tribune-Democrat, 12/30/06.)
Events and Professional Development Sessions
See http://www.biotechinstitute.org/events/event_list.php for events and information.
To submit your event, go to http://www.biotechinstitute.org/news/intake.html.
If you enjoy the News Digest, please forward a copy to friends and colleagues. To unsubscribe from this mailing, please send an email to communications@biotechinstitute.org with the subject line “unsubscribe.”
For more about the News Digest and to sign up for a free subscription, visit http://www.biotechinstitute.org/news/news_dig.html.
If you enjoy the News Digest, please forward a copy to friends and colleagues. To unsubscribe from this mailing, please send an email to communications@biotechinstitute.org with the subject line “unsubscribe.”
For more about the News Digest and to sign up for a free subscription, visit http://www.biotechinstitute.org/news/news_dig.html.
|
