In late July, ten high school biology teachers from around the state met in Hot Springs, Arkansas for a week long professional development workshop aimed at bringing high end laboratory science into high school classrooms. The workshop, Laboratory Applications in Genetics and Microbiology, took place on the campus of the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences, and the Arts (ASMSA) and was taught by two teachers from ASMSA, Patrycja Krakowiak, PhD and Jon Ruehle, PhD. The focus on the project was two-fold: expansion of content knowledge past the basic curriculum into the latest innovations and medical applications in genetics and microbiology and the corresponding laboratory applications of the fields to enhance student learning of the content.
Specific lectures in genetic testing, human genome sequencing, recombinant DNA technologies, forensic genetics, detection of bacterial infection, and bacterial diversity prepared teachers for extensive afternoon labs in bacterial identification, bacterial transformation, and electrophoresis. This, in turn, takes high school teachers outside of the textbook and into a hands-on approach to teaching that also gives them the knowledge to inspire students to pursue a future in laboratory science.
The workshop provided all of the lessons and lectures given during the week in a binder with biological research articles and lab protocols. Teachers were also given a new textbook and corresponding lecture notebook, electrophoresis gel box, tray and combs, a PowerPac mini power supply, and digital micropipets for use in lecture and lab demonstration in their own classrooms. Additionally the teachers were given supplies for up to 30 students to perform some of the labs taught to the teachers throughout the weeks. These supplies included: a forensic DNA fingerprinting kit, a pGLO bacterial transformation kit, and a gram stain/ bacterial morphology kit.
For the workshop instructors, one of the most important outcomes of the program was the energy of the teachers involved. Jon Ruehle said, “We’ve done this program a few times now and every time we do it, the teachers are more knowledgeable and energetic and excited to take this information back into their classrooms than the year before.”