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Message from the Director:
A Fantastic Year!
Over the past eight years, Connecticut’s BioBus Educational Programs has far exceeded its initial goals of
bringing exceptional life science experiences to students and teachers through a mobile laboratory. Today, we offer an equipment loan program, comprehensive teacher professional development, and innovative bioscience curricula.
The 2009-10 school year will see further expansion of our programs. Under our new name, Bioscience Explorations, we will begin a new focus on elementary school students, as well as continuing to develop cutting-edge curricula for middle and high school students. More about those developments later.
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Percentage
of Visits to Each Connecticut District Reference
Group During the 2008-09 School Year |
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First, let’s take a quick look back at this school year which began with a BioBus Mobile Lab visit to Eastford Elementary School in Eastford and ended with a visit to Edgewood School in New Haven. The BioBus Mobile Lab and BioConnection programs reached 73 schools this year, 36 percent of which were state-designated Priority School Districts. This year, we continued to make District Reference Group I a key priority; 24 percent of BioConnection visits and 29 percent of BioBus Mobile Lab visits served that group. The chart at right illustrates the percentage of each district reference group served during the 2008-2009 program year.
Through the BioBus and BioConnection programs, teacher workshops, and other outreach events, we reached over 8,445 students, 160 teachers, and thousands more at public events.
I want to personally thank the dozens of students and teachers across Connecticut who submitted very creative ideas to our naming contest. The BioBus Board of Directors combined several of those ideas to arrive at Bioscience Explorations. While the BioBus Mobile Lab and BioConnection will continue to be cornerstones of our work, this new name fully encompasses all that we do and will allow for the strategic growth needed to better serve Connecticut students and teachers.
Since we did not use one name in its entirety, we pooled all of the participants’ names and drew the winner of a BioBus Mobile Lab visit for the 2009-2010 school year. The winner is an elementary student from Worthington Hooker School in New Haven. Congratulations!
This summer, Bioscience Explorations staff scientists will be busy developing new high school curricula, including expansions into stem cell research, cancer biology, and the drug discovery process; new middle school curricula, including a focus on climate change, alternative energies, and genetics; and new elementary curricula (we will leave this one a surprise). So please stay tuned!
We wish you a wonderful summer!
Sarah Berke
Director, Bioscience Explorations
Bioscience Explorations Debuts New Experiment This Fall
How do DNA mutations occur? Can human cells repair damaged DNA? What are some of the consequences of DNA damage that is not repaired? This fall, Bioscience Explorations will pilot a new experiment titled
The Gene Screen for students in grades 7-10. The goal of this new experiment is to highlight the link between UV exposure and skin cancer.
“Skin cancer is the most common type of cancer, affecting an estimated one in five people in the United States. However, it is largely preventable,” said Kerry Donahue, senior staff scientist at Bioscience Explorations.
“By investigating the skin organ, the role it plays in protecting the human body, and the consequences of not protecting skin from UV light, we hope to empower students, teachers and ultimately, the general public with the knowledge and strategies to significantly reduce their risk of developing the disease,” said Donahue.
In The Gene Screen, students on the BioBus will investigate the effects of ultraviolet light and various sunscreens on a UV-sensitive strain of
Saccharomyces cerevisiae, or yeast, to learn about the processes of DNA mutation and repair.
According to Donahue, yeast possess DNA repair mechanisms similar to those found in humans. The particular strain of yeast used in
The Gene Screen cannot repair DNA mutations caused by ultraviolet light, thereby providing a unique platform for understanding the potential effects of UV radiation on DNA damage, skin cancer, and the benefits of proper sun protection.
The Gene Screen experiment fits into Connecticut’s Core Science Curriculum Framework and is aligned with the National Science Education Standards for content and teaching.
Bioscience Explorations Explores Bringing Stem Cell Research into the Classroom
At CURE’s recent International Stem Cell Research Symposium, StemCONN 09, Bioscience Explorations staff scientists held a symposium on how to bring stem cell research into the high school classroom. This symposium was the result of discussions with key educators and scientists from across nation. During the meeting, 25 key educators and scientists discussed how best to approach classroom initiatives and outlined a collaborative approach for these educational organizations to build a comprehensive stem cell education program.
Since then, Bioscience Explorations staff scientists have been working with stem cell research experts to develop new curricula, internship opportunities, and professional development workshops for high school students and teachers.
To gain a better understanding of high school educators’ current knowledge of stem cell research, Bioscience Explorations collaborated with StemCONN 09 co-chair Laura Grabel, Ph.D, professor of biology at Wesleyan University, to survey teachers. Here are three of the questions posed:
TRUE or FALSE:
1. It is illegal in the U.S. to generate new embryonic stem cells lines.
2. Undifferentiated stem cells can be used directly for tissue transplants.
3. Embryonic stem cells are likely the only type of stem cells that can produce all the major cell types in the body.
CURE Presents Awards for Research Excellence
Two students received awards from CURE for their work presented at the Connecticut Science Fair, March 10-14, at Quinnipiac University. Congratulations!
Marrium Qureshi, of Madina Academy, received the CURE Award for Excellence in Middle School Life Science for her research entitled “Packing the Future.”
Ms. Qureshi created and tested eco-friendly starch-based biodegradable packing peanuts.
Amanda Williams, of Oxford High School, received the CURE Award for Excellence in High School Life Science for her research entitled “Extraction and Determination of Presence of Recombinant Bovine Somatotropin in Beef.” Ms. Williams designed a method to detect an artificial hormone fed to cows to increase milk production.
In recognition of their outstanding achievements, each student received a $50 award and a commemorative crystal inscribed with a DNA double helix.
Bugs and Scrubs Workshop Gains National Exposure
How can educators teach disease concepts in the classroom without breaking the budget?
Bioscience Explorations Director Sarah Berke, Ph.D., and Senior Staff Scientist Kerry Donahue addressed this very question during a workshop at the National Science Teachers Association’s Conference Annual Conference on science education in March.
“The workshop was based on experiments conducted on the BioBus Mobile Lab as well as inexpensive experiments that were developed for classroom use and appropriate for middle and high school students,” said Berke.
The presentation Bugs and Scrubs: Teaching Disease Concepts in the
Classroom is available on our website under the Professional Development section. Educators can download activity guides and the PowerPoint presentation from the March conference.
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Thanks to the continued support of our sponsors, all Bioscience Explorations programs are offered free of charge. Since 2001, the programs have reached more than 72,000 students and 1,100 teachers from 590 schools across Connecticut.
Bioscience Explorations is a project of CURE, the leading organization promoting life science initiatives in Connecticut. CURE is a member-supported coalition of more than 100 educational and research institutions, biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, and other supporting businesses. It is dedicated to promoting the growth and increasing public understanding of biomedical research and science in Connecticut.
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