Building a Biotech Pathway

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Building a Biotech Pathway

• Xan Simonson-MPS Biotech Director
• Stan Kikkert- MCC Biotechnology Director
• Steve Slater-ASU-Polytechnic Professor
• June 4, 2008

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Biotech Academy

• 3 year program
• creates a small community of learners
• school-within-a-school format
• college preparatory, career related curriculum
• students gain knowledge of the global impact of
  biotechnology

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Biotech Academy History

• The Academy is designed around 3 main components
• A small learning community
• Partnerships with Business Community
• College Preparatory, Career Related Curriculum

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MPS Biotechnology Academy
MPS Biotech Academy A Marriage of Two Worlds
Traditional Academics
Career and Technical Education
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Mission Statement

• The Biotech Academy will provide students with
  the skills and knowledge to make a seamless
  transition into a successful post high school
  education and or related position within the
  bioscience industry

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Marketable 21st Century Skills

• Bioscience Technology Applications Learn the
  Latest Bioscience Computer Applications
• Leadership Opportunities through Career
  Development Events
• Communication Oral and Written Skills
• Problem Solving How to Solve Problems and be a
  Self Starter
• Collaboration Learning to Work as a Member of a
  Collaborative Team is Essential to Post Secondary
  Success

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Diploma

• Academy Students are encouraged to meet the
  requirements for the Scholastic Diploma, and will
  take their core academy classes together as a
  cohort

The Biotech Academy Serves as Early College
Preparation for its students.
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Academy Curriculum

• Core Classes are taught under the umbrella of a
  bioscience theme
• English course for Juniors is Technical Writing
  and American/Science Literature
• Economics- Students study a biotech company for
  their stock project
• Math-students learn and use common conversions
  for the laboratory and algebraic applications
• Science- Biotechnology I students are treated as
  employees, learn Standard Laboratory Operating
  Procedures and design their own research projects

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Science Curriculum Pathways
Pathway 1
Pathway 2

9th Grade
10th Grade
11th Grade
12th Grade
12th Grade Students are Encouraged to Work/Intern
Afternoons in a Bioscience
Industry Placement
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Academic Plan
Mesa Public High Schools 231 Biotechnology
Program
24 Program
Academy Students Can Earn 18 College Credits or
More!
Community College
University
Outcomes Associates Degree Bachelors Degree
Biotech Certificate Masters Degree Doctorate
Degree
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Student Research

• Develop necessary content and technical skills
• Students identify soil bacteria using 16S RNA
  Homology
• Culture soil samples
• Isolate DNA
• Amplify section of DNA
• Amplified DNA is analyzed using bioinformatics
• Identify the bacteria using
• this analysis

ATGTCGTCGGAGACG
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Summer and School Year Internships

• ASU Biodesign Institute
• Paid Summer Internships Available
• U of A Summer of Excellence
• Internship includes room and board and college
  credit 5 week or 10 week program available
• TGen 8 Week Paid Summer Internship
• BNI Scientific Enrichment for Students
• Unpaid Internship to hone laboratory techniques
  and participate in scientific research
• SCENE Research Experiences for High School
  Students
• Unpaid but provides scholarship opportunities for
  AZ Universities

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MPS Biotechnology Program

• In Partnership with Four Major Grants
• NSF Grant 1M
• Development of a True 222 Educational Pathway
• AZ Improving Teacher Quality Grant
• Provide teacher training in the field of
  molecular biology
• Science Foundation AZ Grant 1M
• Bringing Authentic Genomic Research to the High
  School Classroom. Training Teachers
• USDA/CSREES GRANT 200,000
• Undergraduate Bioscience Engagement Track- to
  increase the number of under-represented
  minorities in Biosciences

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In four years

• Started with an idea for a single Biotechnology
  class 2004-2005
• Moved to a 2 year Biotech Program Pathway
• Developed into a 3 year Biotech Academy
• Graduated our first and second cohort

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• In the Beginning

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• Now

3 Classrooms, 3 Research Labs, Clean Room, Grow
Room, Conference Room, and Land Lab
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• After Lab Rooms

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Student lab station
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• Best idea from other facilities

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Biotech Academy Successes

• 2007 Pathways to Postsecondary Education Award
• AZ Commission for Postsecondary Education awarded
  our academy this award in recognition of showing
  excellence in preparing, encouraging and
  transitioning into postsecondary education
• 100 of Graduates are Currently Enrolled in
  College
• 2005 Woods Scholar ASU Polytechnic Applied
  Biological Sciences
• 2007 Woods Scholar ASU Tempe Bioengineering
• 2008 Flinn Scholar Finalist
• AZ Science and Engineering Fair
• Winners 2006, 2007, 12 place winners in 2008
• National Agriscience Fair
• 2007 2 Silver Medalists
• AZ BioIndustry Companies Hire Our Students!

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Why Success!

• MPS SentBIO2007
• Biotech Director
• 2 Biotech Teachers
• Mesa High
• Principal
• Biotech Academy
• Counselor

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• Governor Janet Napolitano in her 2006 State of
  the State address said, We expect our students
  to be more technologically literate, more
  grounded in math and science, and more adept at
  lifelong learning than ever before

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BIOTECHNOLOGY PROGRAM

• Stanley Kikkert Ph.D.
• Director Biotechnology Program
• Mesa Community College

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MCC Biotechnology Program

• First Community College Biotechnology Program in
  AZ.
• Established 2001
• Originally conceived for workforce development to
  supply technicians for the nascent AZ Bioindustry
  
• Cornerstone of the 222 Biotechnology Pipeline

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Keys to Success
Dedicated Faculty Low Student to Teacher
Ratio Modern Facilities Focus on
Innovation Strategic Partnerships
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Relevant Technologies
Nucleic Acid Manipulations Protein
Purification Eukaryotic Cell Culture DNA
Microarrays Real Time PCR Fluorescent
Microscopy Stem Cells
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Industry Partnerships
Tgen, Biodesign Institute, Orthologic, Intrinsic
Bioprobes Barrow Neurological, Carl T. Hayden VA
Medical Center, Genosensor, Sun Health Research
Institute, Applied Microarrays, Alcor Institute,
Innexus.
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222 Pipeline
Teacher Training Workshops and Certification Mobi
le Lab Dual Enrollment Biotechnology
Course Concurrent Courses for High School
Students Transfer Agreements with 4 Year
Universities Research Based Curriculum Supported
by National Science Foundation
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Our Larger Role
Returning Students
Graduate School
Employment
High School Instructors
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Our NSF ATE Grant Allows us to Initiate the 222
Program

• Provides partial funding for one DNA sequencing
  project. Additional funding from Dr. Slaters
  other grants.
• Provides money to purchase some critical
  equipment, including laboratory equipment kits
  that can be loaned to high schools.
• Allows us to train HS teachers during the summer
  and loan them equipment that permits a short
  course on molecular biology.
• Provides salary to evaluate efficacy of teaching
  methods.

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www.mccbiotechnology.net
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Remaking Biology Education

• A Research-Based Approach

Steven Slater, ASU Polytechnic and The Biodesign
Institute David Rhoads, ASU Polytechnic Xan
Simonson, Mesa High School (PI on SFAz
grant) Amanda Grimes, Ken Costenson, Mesa High
School Stan Kikkert, Mesa Community College
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Biology education lags far behind biological
research.

• The Education that science students are
  experiencing is lagging seriously behind how
  biologists design, perform and analyze
  experiments. (NRC, 2003)
• Arizonas biology students are generally poorly
  prepared to perform the hands-on lab work
  required in research settings. (Battelle, 2003
  for the Flinn Foundation)

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Practice like you play

• This age-old coaching wisdom also applies to
  other types of education.
• Students should learn experimental science by
  doing experimental science.
• Whenever possible, the experimentation should be
  real research. That is, the experiments should
  be designed to produce novel results that might
  lead to publication.

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We are creating an educational pipeline founded
on genomics research.

• Bacterial genome projects run through ASU, in
  collaboration with several other universities,
  form a framework for educating students.
• Genome finishing and functional annotation is
  done by a consortium of students in high schools,
  community colleges and universities.

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We are creating an educational pipeline founded
on genomics research.

• Tasks are initially assigned to students
  according to their abilities and interests.
  Students take it from there
• Data are managed in a central annotation database
  (a sort of regulated Wiki) managed by Joao
  Setubal at Virginia Bioinformatics Institute.

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A 222 pipeline in Arizona

• The genomics consortium is composed of
  participants in our 222 pipeline (2 years high
  school, 2 years community college, 2 years ASUP).
• All three schools are involved in the same genome
  project, with appropriate research tasks going to
  each school.

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A 222 pipeline in Arizona

• Whenever possible, class work becomes research
  that will contribute to analysis of the genome.
• Our initial focus is on amino acid metabolism in
  Agrobacterium and related species.
• 222 pipeline development is funded by an NSF
  ATE grant. Genome projects are funded by an NSF
  research grant to Dr. Slater and collaborators.

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So how does our SFAz grant fit in?Widening the
pipeline entrance

• Focus is on intensive training of high school
  science teachers in molecular biology and
  genomics so that they can enter our
  research/education consortium.
• Grant provides funding for tuition, books, and
  supplies for three ASU courses for current high
  school teachers.

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Widening the pipeline

• Grant also supplies equipment and supplies to new
  high school biology programs run by these
  teachers, on condition that school districts
  match the support.
• ASU faculty provide training and on-site support
  to enable establishment of new programs.

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The classes got underway this fall

• Taught at the Mesa Biotech Academy.
• Met Tuesday and Thursday nights for 4 hours each.
• Focus on theory and practice of molecular
  biology.
• 1st year- basics taught, 2nd year will be
  launching into genomics research projects
• Labs are designed to be easily transferred to
  other high school programs.

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So far, things are going great
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Goals from here

• Establish new biotech programs around the Phoenix
  area.
• Make new courses for teachers a part of the
  regular teacher training curriculum at ASUP.
• Continue to integrate experimentation into
  classrooms.
• Take more student research through to publication.

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Weve already been successful on the publication
front
2007 Just submitted to Genome Biology a paper
with eight undergraduate coauthors. Two more
with similar student participation are currently
being written.
2001 Cover of Science with 12 undergraduate
coauthors
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We teach people how to remember, we never teach
them how to grow. - Oscar Wilde

• Our goal is to produce confident scientists who
  can think critically, innovate experimentally,
  and clearly communicate their ideas.

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Contact Information

• Xan Simonson
• nxsimons_at_mpsaz.org
• 480-472-5783
• Stan Kikkert
• kikkert_at_mail.mc.maricopa.edu
• 480-467-7862
• Marshall Logvin
• marshall.logvin_at_smcmail.maricopa.edu
• [phone]
• Steve Slater
• Steven.C.Slater_at_asu.edu
• 480-727-6164