UMBI'S SciTech LESSONS TO SPAN BIOTECH WORLD

TORONTO, Can. (BIO2002)-After reaching some 30,000 students and teachers with hands-on laboratory programs in marine biotechnology since 1995, the Science Education Technology Program (SciTech) of the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute is planning to expand its biotech education and training programs to include hands-on laboratory lessons in medical, agricultural and genomic biotechnology, Jennie Hunter-Cevera, UMBI president announced here today.

In anticipation of the new programming, SciTech also has launched a new web site to help teachers stay up on activities of the expanded SciTech Educational Program and for students to build on their experiences after visiting UMBI.

To view the new web site, click on: (www.umbi.umd.edu/~scitech).

"One goal of expanding the SciTech programs is to introduce the many, diverse applications of biotechnology to future scientists through real-lab experiences," explains Hunter-Cevera. "At the same time, we create an educational setting that encourages training to meet the needs of the rapidly growing biotechnology industry and enhance public understanding of biotechnology issues."

The laboratory programs and teacher training are offered in partnership with Maryland Sea Grant. They have been written by trained educators and based directly on current research at UMBI's Center of Marine Biotechnology. The lessons are aligned with the Maryland State Department of Education Core Learning Goals in order for teachers to easily assimilate them into their particular curricula.

The expanded SciTech laboratory sessions will be based on research of UMBI's four other centers: Center for Advanced Research in Biotechnology in Rockville; Center for Agricultural Biotechnology in College Park; and Medical Biotechnology Center, and Institute of Human Virology in Baltimore.

Some of the new laboratory sessions will feature concepts, issues and experiments in food biotechnology and in biotech-related sciences being applied to environmentally safe pest controls, ecology and the environment, proteins and genomics.

The laboratory sessions are designed to help teachers challenge and engage their students in learning about the biosciences and to understanding the scientific process.

"It is a unique and excellent program that I recommend to any teacher," says 8th grade teacher Kathleen Roberts of Highlandtown Middle School in Baltimore, Md. Roberts' class recently attended "DNA Extraction," a laboratory in which each student isolates and compares DNA of fish, crabs, bacteria and fruit. Another Roberts class took "Plankton in the (Chesapeake) Bay," an intensive investigation of microbes and other small life. "I don't mind as many trips as possible to get the kids exposed to the biosciences. The setting stimulates their thinking," says Roberts. Another lesson, on oyster anatomy, was selected by the Maryland State Department of Education for assessing students in high school biology and the National Science Teachers Association SciLinks Project cites the web-based oyster lesson developed by partner Maryland Sea Grant as a superior resource for teachers.

During a "Meet the Scientist" component of a typical laboratory session, the students become familiar with careers in biotechnology though a discussion with a UMBI researcher. Students also capture take-home/school photographs and video with microscopes provided by sponsor Olympus America Inc. And, wireless laptop computers allow students and teachers to build individual knowledge from the lessons and concepts of the hands-on laboratories. "The simplicity of each laboratory lesson and the translation of UMBI research are the key features. Teachers return to the classroom with new activities and lab materials to excite and engage their students," adds Adam Frederick, Marine Education Specialist, who has been with the program since its inception.

Schools from 20 of 23 counties across Maryland (250-miles wide), Baltimore City, and six surrounding states have traveled to the Columbus Center for the in-lab lessons. Also, in more than 30 countries, interactive lessons developed by partner Maryland Sea Grant have been downloaded, a total of more than 800 times, from the Internet.

Hunter-Cevera adds that the student and teacher laboratory sessions are shaped and enhanced by the very wide range of on-going UMBI research-from developing AIDS vaccines and therapeutic drugs to studies of electronic medical diagnostics, or from disease immunity genes in insects and plants to the atomic structures of key proteins in laundry detergents and the influenza virus, just to mention a few examples. She adds that the support of UMBI's work by the state legislature and globally by grants and contracts from a wide diversity of industry and government research groups are also dynamics of its school-enriching SciTech programs.
In addition to student lab sessions, SciTech offers hands-on workshops for teachers to reinforce their understanding of biotechnology. For example, the "Microbes for Hire" workshop equips teachers with laboratory materials to help their students explore applied microbial ecology. The teachers conduct experiments on biofilms, a sort of slime that develops as bacteria attach to surfaces underwater, forming a foundation for a diverse community of aquatic life. They also explore concepts of bioremediation, a world of bacterial enzymes that can help clean up pollutants.

SciTech also is working with the Baltimore City Public School System on a training program for its High School Science Teachers. This program will prepare the teachers to conduct a number of hands-on labs in their classroom through the use of a "loaner lab" that will be sent to the participants of the program.

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The University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute was mandated by the state of Maryland legislature in 1985 as "a new paradigm of state economic development in biotech-related sciences." With five major research and education centers across Maryland, UMBI is dedicated to advancing the frontiers of biotechnology. The centers are the Center for Advanced Research in Biotechnology in Rockville; Center for Agricultural Biotechnology in College Park; and Center of Marine Biotechnology, Medical Biotechnology Center, and the Institute of Human Virology, all in Baltimore.