High School Teacher Biotechnology I Summer Academy, 2009
On June 22-26, 2009 on the Southeast Campus of Tulsa Community College, six high school science teachers and one college instructor were introduced to a number of biotechnology activities during a twenty-five hour academy. This was the third year to offer this course of study to teachers in the northeastern region of Oklahoma. The academy was taught by Diana Spencer, PhD, and she was assisted by Donna Kline, SEEDBEd Project Assistant. The academy was held in the DNA Lab of the Health Sciences and Biotechnology Learning Center.
The seven participants included teachers from Jenks High School, Owasso Mid High School, Broken Arrow South Intermediate, Cascia Hall Preparatory School, Tulsa School of Arts and Sciences, and Bacone College. The teachers exhibited a varied background with primary teaching emphasis in the fields of biology, chemistry and physics. The applications submitted by the participating teachers included schools with a self-reported minority component of 20% to 70%. The workshop was financed through the National Science Foundation Advanced Technological NSF-ATE grant: Stimulating Enthusiasm, Exploration and Discovery through Biotechnology Education (SEEDBEd). The teachers received a $200 stipend for completion of the workshop.
The agenda and activities were very similar to that described in the Biotechnology I Summer Academy of 2007 and 2008. The activities were aligned with the Oklahoma Priority Academic Student Skills, Project 2061 Benchmarks, the National Association of Biology Teachers Science Standards, and the National Science Education Standards. Lab activities included using biotechnology laboratory instruments, extracting DNA, various assays, DNA electrophoresis and analysis, and Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). Web and Internet studies were included. These studies gave the teachers background and materials to introduce agricultural biotechnology, microarrays,basic alignments of nucleotides and proteins, ligation of target molecules into vectors, introns, exons, reading frames, and database mining from the National Center for Biotechnology Information. In a similar field trip as the 2007 and 2008 academy, the participants traveled to the Oklahoma State University’s Agricultural Research Station in Bixby, Oklahoma with Drs. Brian A. Kahn and Lynn Brandenberger presenting their research work.
The Friday afternoon grant workshop was presented by Heather Jones through Muskogee Public Schools; the connection was created through Teresa Grissom, Tulsa Public Schools Gear Up Project Director and certified grant specialist. Techniques for finding grants and specific strategies involved in writing grants were shared. From the SEEDBEd presenters, teachers were also given a written copy of the materials necessary to equip a lab and perform a “cut” DNA lab activity. Vendors and catalog numbers were shared. Teachers were presented with certificates at the conclusion of the academy.