Biotech workshops aim for excitement

SPIN CYCLE- Simi Valley High School science teacher Guiseppina Lubrano drops tubes containing insect intestines into a centrifuge during a recent workshop for local secondary school science teachers at Moorpark College. Making science class thrilling in schools isn't an easy task, but it's crucial to the future of the country, according to Marie Panec, a Moorpark College biology professor and member of the Oak Park Unified School District Board of Education.

"Other countries graduate more students in what we call the STEM fields- science, technology, engineering and math- than we're graduating in all fields," Panec said. "We have to try to turn kids on to science in a way that science is really meant to be done. If we don't do this we are simply going to lose our edge and will have repercussions in the future, not only in terms of the economy but in terms of human potential."

Panec recently led a team of community college and secondary school educators, planning and running four biotechnology workshops for area high school and middle school science teachers. The goal is to provide education and resources to help teachers incorporate hands-on opportunities for students within the constraints of meeting state science education requirements.

"State standards are so rigid with what teachers have to cover that it takes all of the excitement out of science, which needs to be hands-on and exploratory. It's no wonder kids aren't interested," Panec said.

Thirty teachers from 14 schools throughout Ventura County participated in the classes, which were offered Saturdays for four weeks in April and May.

Topics included organism identification and disease detection and treatment. One exercise was the extraction of DNA from strawberries.

Corresponding informational handouts were distributed for teachers to use in their classrooms.

"This exercise takes all of 20 minutes. All you have to do is get some strawberries from the grocery store, pull the DNA out of them and talk about what DNA is and what it does. Kids can begin to think about why DNA is important," Panec said.

Joel Tiefel, a college prep chemistry teacher at Moorpark High School, attended several of the workshops to obtain new ideas and techniques to help his students.

"Part of the fun and excitement involved in these sessions, in addition to the labs, has been the interaction with other teachers and the mutual sharing of ideas," Tiefel said.

To develop the courses, Panec worked with fellow Moorpark College biology professors Mary Rees and Paul Kores and lab technician Mary Swenson; Jeanne Grier, School of Education director at California State University Channel Islands; and Debby West, Oak Park Unified School District science specialist.

The team pulled material from their own classes and from the work of biotech scientists. Panec, Rees and Kores taught the workshops.

Equipment that was purchased for the courses is available for the teachers to borrow for use in their classrooms throughout the year.

"In these teachers' classrooms, science won't simply be something you read about in the news; now it's something the students can actually do," Rees said.

Panec hopes to continue offering the workshops annually. She is applying for both state and federal grants, which would help pay for the classes and provide additional support to show teachers how to incorporate what they've learned into their lesson plans.

"Hands-on experience is the best way to generate enthusiasm (among students) for a possible career in science or engineering," Rees said. "Hopefully this is just the first step toward an exciting career in biotechnology or bioengineering."