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MassBioEd's LSCD Program Creates Interest in Life Sciences Careers
June 25, 2009 |
by Lynnea Olivarez
As part of the BioTeach grant program, eight schools in Massachusetts participated in MassBioEd’s Life Science Career Development (LSCD) program this past year.
“Our LSCD program helps educate students about the skills needed to pursue careers in the life sciences after high school,” said Suzanne Grillo, MassBioEd’s Manager of Outreach. “By taking career development exercises out of the classroom and onto college campuses and biotech company facilities, students can see for themselves the exciting careers the life sciences industry can offer them.”
All schools participating in the LSCD program must develop strong teams comprised of representatives from administration, guidance counselors, career specialists and science teachers. This leadership team is responsible for formulating a plan that best utilizes the LSCD funds for specific students.
Biology students are identified by the respective leadership team in their school. These students are then placed in a cohort group of 25 to 50 who are in ninth or 10th grade. Most students stay in a cohort and, thus, participate in career development activities throughout their high school career.
Each school’s leadership team is also responsible for coordinating life sciences career exploration activities and events. The team must also evaluate the effectiveness of the activities and events to determine if participating students have become more interested in pursuing a career in biotech—the program’s ultimate goal.
Eight high schools across Massachusetts received LSCD grant funding during the 2009-2010 school year. If you are a BioTeach teacher, you can click here to view PowerPoint presentations of activities during the past year from each participating LSCD school:
Students participated in the Atlantic Salmon Egg Restoration Program, sponsored by the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife. They cultivated salmon eggs and released the young fish on May 13.
The leadership team established a working relationship with EMD Serono. A student group toured EMD’s Rockland, Mass., facilities and subsequently participated in a job shadow day, learning firsthand about careers in biotechnology.
LSCD cohort students conducted their own ELISA (enzyme immunoassay) lab to determine the presence of antibodies to HIV in the blood or oral fluids. One of the high school’s own science teachers led the lab.
Proactive students in the school’s cohort have created their very own club, the Biotechnology Association. The club’s mission is “to arouse interest in the upcoming field of biotechnology” by exploring biotech careers, engaging in labs and going on field trips.
The leadership team developed a career presentation, “College and Career Planning: Careers in Biotechnology,” and showed it to the school’s participating students. Students have also conducted various labs, visited colleges, heard guest speaker lectures and gone on field trips to biotech companies. The school has additionally integrated biotech labs into all biology classes and has created a full-year biotechnology course.
The leadership team established many relationships with local colleges and biotech companies. Students benefitted from these relationships by taking field trips to the Mass Bay Community College, the UMass Stem Cell Center, Abbott Labs, Tufts Biomedical Labs and Genzyme Labs. The school’s science club also has grown over 50 percent since its inception.
Students took part in the Lakeville State Crime Lab in February. Interest in this subject was so high that the leadership team helped create a brand new forensics course.
The leadership team helped develop two full-year biotech courses. The team has also worked diligently with Tufts, where student cohorts are soon to participate in two groundbreaking projects: “The Undiscovered Microbe,” in which students will culture and classify environmental microbes from local soil samples, and “Where Do We Come From?,” in which students will extract, sequence and analyze mitochondrial DNA and compare their samples with others from all over the world.
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