Abstract

To meet the challenges of the 21st century, students need a higher level of competency in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics than at any point in our history. This goes beyond terminology and abstract theory. They need to understand how different concepts relate, and most importantly how they form the basis for the technology economy. To address this need, we have developed a novel teaching platform built around the idea of a “mini‐biotech company”. The students in the biotechnology class in Bertie Early College High School, in Windsor, North Carolina learn Essential and Common Core Standards of biology and chemistry by going through the steps of making recombinant protein to be used in university research and related to the industries in their community. The year‐long program starts with a one‐week summer camp, biotech boot camp, held at NC State University. During this week, the students are introduced to concepts and techniques related to initial process development, process scale‐up, production, and validation. In addition, the students are taken to different area biotech companies where they meet working scientists and learn about their career paths. Then over the course of the next school year, the students work in their high school laboratory to develop their own process for optimal protein expression based on their equipment and available time during a school day. At the end of the school year, each student presents a poster at a biotechnology symposium held at their school, and the students that put forth the most work and leadership are selected to attend a national level science conference. Over the course of this program, students gain a deeper understanding of fundamental biochemical concepts while gaining practical, relevant work experience leading to an understanding of biotechnology beyond that of most undergraduate students.Support or Funding InformationBurroughs Wellcome Fund SSEPThis abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.

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