News and Events

Biotech Booms at Somerville High

October 1, 2009

By Matthew McGrath

Chris Angelli knows what it takes to get high school students excited about science—and it’s not in a textbook. Angelli, a teacher at Somerville High School, used the initial investment of a BioTeach grant to lay the groundwork for a series of biotechnology electives, cutting-edge labs, and the opportunity for students to see how school work can turn into a career.

“The response has really been overwhelming. We have gotten to the point where we have begun to turn students away because we just don’t have the room to put them in the classroom,” Angelli said. “I never got this experience until college. This exposure helps the students understand before that point.”

In 2005, Somerville High School was one of the first Massachusetts High Schools to be named a BioTeach School by the Massachusetts Biotechnology Education Foundation. Through the BioTeach program, schools across the Commonwealth receive grant funding for new equipment to update science labs for biotechnology, access to engaging and "real-life" curricula so every student can experience an exciting biotechnology lab through the core biology curriculum. The program includes ongoing teacher training that keeps pace with biotech discovery and annual stipends for additional supplies and maintenance.

Building on the success of the initial BioTeach grant, Angelli has developed two biotechnology courses at Somerville High. There is no doubt in his mind that being a BioTeach School has helped greatly.

“MassBioEd has given us so much guidance over the years. We have used the workshops to learn the labs, and just going to the events and networking with other teachers and seeing what they are doing in their biotech programs.” Angelli said “The funding is huge, it is extremely helpful. The money helps us buy supplies, and without supplies, there is no lab.”

Angelli’s two courses—Biotechnology 1 and Biotechnology 2—are taken consecutively during an academic year. They are offered as electives, but Angelli assures that these courses aren’t light ones.

“The course is offered to high performing juniors and seniors each year. Most, if not all, are enrolled in other AP courses.” Angelli said “This is a very rigorous course. I teach very high-end theory… I try to give the big picture and the whole story.”

The course is very lab intensive, with students undertaking six labs throughout the duration of the course. Each lab can take from two class periods to up to a week for the students to conduct, and each is preceded with background lessons, and preparation and practice using lab techniques.

Angelli instructs the students four out of the five class periods during the course of a week. The fifth session is taught by Meg Walendin, a Guidance Counselor at Salem High School. She holds discussions on how the students can use the biotechnology courses to help them in college and how the coursework might eventually lead to a career.

“These courses are geared towards getting students interested in science and showing them that there are actually very lucrative careers in the science field for them to go into,” Angelli said “With Meg teaching once a week on how they can actually make careers out of this science, it really enforces the idea that this is a career, not just a course they take as an elective in high school.”

Somerville high school also has partnerships with Biogen Idec and Tufts University that really help the students have more hands on experience. All freshman students visit the Biogen Idec lab, where they learn how to work with gels and other basic lab equipment and supplies. Each semester the classes take two trips to Tufts to conduct experiences with mitochondrial DNA, as well as job shadow Tufts staff.

Angelli feels like the partnership with Tufts has pushed his courses above and beyond what other schools are offering.

“We have really benefitted from the partnership with Tufts because we found the right people. When I talk to other teachers they say our program is where they want theirs to be. It’s a great feeling to know that we are succeeding with these kids,” Angelli said.

The students’ reception of Angelli’s biotechnology courses is overwhelming. The first year, Somerville offered students two biotech courses, both of which were full. In each of the second and third years, administrators have added an additional session of the two courses.

As someone determined to stay ahead of the curve in the fast-changing world of science equipment and study, Angelli has also spearheaded the creation of an equipment “lending library” between Somerville and three other high schools. The lending library will be used as a way for the four high schools to purchase very expensive equipment that they otherwise couldn’t afford on their own. All the equipment will be held at Tufts and each school will be able to use the equipment to supplement what they have.

With the lending library being developed and the courses still growing, Angelli sees the biotech curriculum as something that will continue to evolve and improve.

“My hope is that we can make this a required course very soon, instead of just an elective. We do everything you would do in a regular course, but colleges still see it as an elective. They don’t take it as seriously,” he said. “If and when this becomes a required course, it will increase the chances of these students getting into a good biotechnology program at a college because they are seen to have already had the experience. That is what the goal of this program is, to help these students get to college and push them towards careers they didn’t even know existed.”

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