C-BEF

The following resolution commending the Chesapeake Bioscience Education Foundation, sponsored by Delegate Chris Peace (R-Hanover), passed the Virginia House and Senate unanimously.

HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 196

Offered January 27, 2010Commending the Chesapeake Bioscience Education Foundation.

Patrons– Peace, Cosgrove, Loupassi and O’Bannon

WHEREAS, according to the National Academies of Science, the United States is falling dangerously behind other nations in developing its future workforce of scientists, engineers, and technology experts; and

WHEREAS, according to the national 4-H Council, a mere five percent of current United States college graduates earn science, engineering, or technology degrees, compared with 66 percent in Japan and 59 percent in China; and

WHEREAS, according to a survey by the Alliance for Science and Technology Research in America (ASTRA), Virginia ranked twenty-fifth in the United States in the number of biochemists and biophysicists and twenty-ninth in the number of biomedical engineers per 100,000 civilian workers; and

WHEREAS, the Chesapeake Bioscience Education Foundation (C-BEF), a Richmond, Virginia-based nonprofit organization, was formed to promote science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) curricula and to develop and promote programs to encourage young students to engage in the challenging work of math and science so that they are not precluded from subsequent career choices in the biosciences; and

WHEREAS, the Chesapeake Bioscience Education Foundation funds summer internships for Virginia students to learn about careers in the life sciences; and

WHEREAS, the Chesapeake Bioscience Education Foundation organizes and funds awards for excellence in the life sciences at the annual Virginia State Science and Engineering Fair; and

WHEREAS, the Chesapeake Bioscience Education Foundation has made significant financial grants to expand the “Biotech in a Box” program at Virginia Tech, thereby materially increasing the number of schools and students who are able to benefit from the program; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED by the House of Delegates, the Senate concurring, That the General Assembly hereby commend and congratulate the Chesapeake Bioscience Education Foundation for its service to young people across Virginia; and, be it

RESOLVED FURTHER, That the Clerk of the House of Delegates prepare a copy of this resolution for presentation to the board of directors of the Chesapeake Bioscience Education Foundation as an expression of the General Assembly’s gratitude for the organization’s commitment to improving the quality of life for all Virginians.

Obama Unveils Projects to Bolster STEM Teaching

By Erik W. Robelen, Education Week
Published Online: January 7, 2010

President Barack Obama yesterday announced more than $250 million in private investments to help attract and prepare new teachers for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, collectively known as the “STEM” field, and to help improve instruction in those areas by practicing teachers.

The new commitments roughly double the amount the president first announced in November as part of his “Educate to Innovate” campaign for excellence in STEM education.

The campaign is described by the White House as a partnership that involves efforts not only from the federal government, but also from leading companies, foundations, nonprofit groups, and science and engineering societies to work with young people across the nation to excel in science and math.

The largest single commitment in yesterday’s announcement comes from the Intel Corp. of Santa Clara, Calif., and the Intel Foundation, which are planning a 10-year, $200 million effort to expand on work under way to improve math and science education, including through increased professional-development opportunities for teachers.
Teacher Lana Hansen of Centennial, Colo., listens in the East Room of the White House as President Barack Obama honors educators for excellence in mathematics and science teaching and mentoring.

Other efforts the president announced include growth of the “UTeach” program, which aims to produce teachers with deep content knowledge in math and science, and an expansion of work by the nonprofit Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, based in Princeton, N.J., to revamp teacher-education programs and bring new talent into classrooms to address significant shortages in math and science.

“Our future depends on reaffirming America’s role as the world’s engine of scientific discovery and technology innovation,” President Obama said during an East Room ceremony. “And that leadership tomorrow depends on how we educate our students today, especially in math, science, technology, and engineering.”

At the event, Mr. Obama highlighted some of the U.S. Department of Education’s work during his administration to improve STEM education, but said government alone can’t meet the challenge, and he highlighted a number of public-private partnerships.

The “UTeach” program, which is led by the National Math and Science Initiative, a Dallas-based nonprofit organization working with philanthropic support, will expand to prepare more than 4,500 undergraduates in STEM subjects to become new math and science teachers by 2015, and 7,000 by 2018, according to the White House. UTeach, which is a partnership that brings together companies, foundations, states, and federal agencies, aims to produce teachers with deep content expertise by enabling science and math undergraduates to concurrently receive a teaching certificate. The expansion plans will grow the effort to 20 universities from 14.
Increasing the Pool

The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation effort will expand from Indiana to include Michigan and Ohio.

It includes fellowships, funded with support from private philanthropies and state coffers, that provide $30,000 stipends to prospective teachers who agree to spend a year in the revamped teacher-education programs and teach for three years in rural and urban secondary schools that serve students who are predominantly from low-income families.
NASA Administrator Charles F. Bolden Jr. listens as President Barack Obama honors teachers who received awards for excellence in mathematics and science teaching and mentoring.

Arthur Levine, the president of the Woodrow Wilson foundation, said the effort is already making an important impact on the teacher pool in Indiana.

“For example, in Indiana, with 80 teachers, we were able to increase the number certified annually in STEM subjects by 20 percent,” said Mr. Levine, who previously was the president and a professor of education at Teachers College, Columbia University. “In Michigan, we would prepare enough STEM teachers to fill all the vacancies in Detroit, Grand Rapids, and Kalamazoo,” though he added that the program would not necessarily target those particular cities.

Altogether, over the course of the three-year programs, the Woodrow Wilson fellowships will prepare more than 700 math and science teachers at 14 institutions, with a total of nearly $40 million in public and private funding, according to the foundation.

Mr. Levine also emphasized the efforts to overhaul teacher-preparation programs at participating universities.

“We’re basically asking them to throw out their program and start over again in many cases,” he said.

To help expand the work, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation will provide $16.7 million over two years in Michigan, and in Ohio several foundations jointly will provide some $10 million.

The Intel effort will provide training to more than 100,000 U.S. math and science teachers over the next three years, including an intensive, 80-hour professional-development course in math for elementary school teachers.

“With the president shining a light, you get a whole new level of attention and excitement” for STEM education, said Shelly M. Esque, the vice president for corporate affairs at Intel and the president of the Intel Foundation.
‘Summer of Innovation’

President Obama also announced several other public-private partnerships to improve STEM education.

NASA, in partnership with companies, nonprofit groups, and states, will launch a pilot program to enhance STEM learning opportunities for students during the summer. The “Summer of Innovation” program will work with thousands of middle school teachers and students during multiweek programs this summer to engage students in stimulating math and science-based education programs.

Meanwhile, the Public Broadcasting Service and its 356 partner stations, in collaboration with the National Science Teachers Association, will launch a multiyear STEM initiative to expand the PBS teacher community, provide a platform for sharing effective teaching practices, and inspire the next generation of teacher-leaders.

The Obama administration has also sought to use the $4 billion Race to the Top Fund, part of the federal economic-stimulus program, as a mechanism to bolster its STEM agenda. In awarding the competitive grants, the U.S. Department of Education will look in part at whether states are committing to improve STEM education.

Beyond that, the federal government across a variety of agencies provides more than $3 billion annually to improve STEM education at all levels. (“Federal Projects’ Impact on STEM Remains Unclear,” March 27, 2008.)

At the White House event, Mr. Obama praised the educators assembled to receive awards for their excellence in teaching math and science.

“In the end, the work that you do, and the difference that you make, are what all these reforms are all about,” he said.

NIH funds new phase of high school-university research partnership

Erin Dolan, outreach director for the Fralin Life Science Institute at Virginia Tech, examines Arabidopsis thaliana, a model plant for many research projects. High school students participating in the Partnership for Research and Education in Plants create controlled environments to observe responses of genetically altered versions of the plant to help university scientists determine the role of specific genes. Credit: Virginia Tech Photo
A five-year-old Virginia Tech outreach program, which has more than 12,000 high school students doing research and providing results that scientists can use, has received a $1.3 million Science Education Partnership Award from the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR), a component of the National Institutes of Health. The Fralin Life Science Institute’s Partnership for Research and Education in Plants (PREP) also received a $200,000 administrative supplement from NCRR to expand benefits to more students and more high schools and to conduct a rigorous study of PREP’s impacts on student learning.

PREP was started in 2004 by Erin Dolan, associate professor of biochemistry in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and outreach director for the Fralin Institute, in collaboration with Frans Tax at the University of Arizona and Eric Brooks at Buena High School in Sierra Vista, Arizona.

“It is part of the Fralin Institute’s outreach work with high school students and teachers to involve them in molecular life science. We have the Biotech-in-a-Box program, professional development programs for teachers, and partnership opportunities,” said Dolan. “PREP began when some of the high school students we were working with wanted to collect real data - in addition to the demonstration lab projects like those provided by Biotech-in-a-Box.”

So, what kind of real data can students collect? “Microbes are not compelling for 15-year-olds, but plants are large enough and hardy enough for student caretakers,” said Dolan.

The plant of choice is Arabidopsis thaliana, a relative of the mustard plant. It has a small genome so it was the first plant to have its genome sequenced. It is now a model plant for many research projects. “Plant scientists are systematically - one at a time - knocking out the genes in this plant, and then growing the resulting plant to determine the role of the missing gene. Sometimes it is obvious - the plant looks or acts different,” said Dolan. “Sometimes, there is no visible difference. Maybe the missing gene is one that helps the plant respond to drought or insect attack, but that attribute is unknown until the plant is appropriately stressed.”

Arabidopsis thaliana has 25,000 genes. Imagine the environmental variables that have to be tested. “We have lots of high school students and they can stress the plants in ways we can’t even imagine. So the scientists are knocking out genes of interest and giving the seeds to the students, who are designing environments to study plants’ reactions,” said Dolan. “Students have made discoveries that are acknowledged in grant proposals and publications.”

For instance, in an article her group published in the journal Plant Physiology in May 2008, Virginia Tech biology Professor Brenda Winkel acknowledged by name the students in Cheryl Weidow’s fall 2006 biotechnology class at Louisa County High School, who first pointed out the enhanced pigmentation phenotype of plants she had provided for study. Winkel described the finding for a magazine article last year: “The students noticed that the mutant plants were redder than normal. We were able to quantify the difference and showed that it was real,” said Winkel. “It is easy for us [the scientists] to overlook subtle differences in the appearance of a plant when we are focused on under¬standing how things work at a molecular level. The students are quite astute. It demonstrates how working with different perspectives can move things forward.”

Shannon Beasley, a teacher at the Central Virginia Governor’s School for Science and Technology in, Lynchburg, Va., said of PREP, “The students are able to directly contribute to science that is current. There are not many opportunities for students to work with universities and for scientists to get data.”

The goal of the Science Education Partnership Award is to change that - to expand the opportunities. Dolan points to three activities the award will support.

“First, we need to build a cyber infrastructure so that we can collaborate better with people at a geographic distance. For us, that means schools in Norfolk or Southside for instance. It will also enable high schools across the country that are not near a research facility to be involved in research,” she said.

“Second, we want to involve low and average achievers - not just the high-achieving students. Because low and average achieving students are used to NOT getting quick answers, they may be more creative in their approach and may blossom doing research where there is not a quick answer,” said Dolan.

“Finally, we want to build the capacity for scientists and teachers from all over the country to mentor high school students in research.”

More than 65 teachers and 30 scientists are involved in the partnership. Dolan’s team will evaluate PREP’s impact on student learning, teachers’ ability to mentor students in research, and scientists’ ability to mentor students in research and to communicate about research with the public. “This program helps the scientist broaden the impact of their research program. One of the biggest challenges of doing research is the lack of public understanding of how science is done. PREP blurs the boundaries between the practice of science and science education.”

Horace G. Fralin’s desire to support the field of biotechnology and the teach¬ing, research, and outreach missions enabled creation of a permanent endowment to support the Fralin Life Science Institute. Proceeds match contributions and grants from other sources, helping to sustain the center’s activities, including the outreach efforts. The project described was supported by Science Education Partnership Award from the National Center for Research Resources, a component of the National Institutes of Health.

Source: Virginia Tech

http://www.physorg.com/wire-news/16202996/print.html

First-ever report by Battelle, BIO and Biotechnology Institute finds wide disparities in achievement and uneven program efforts

Atlanta, GA— States across America are failing to prepare students for pursuing biosciences in higher education—a key pipeline for developing the bioscience workforce of the future.  A new report funded and researched by BIO, Battelle, and the Biotechnology Institute provides the first ever comprehensive study of middle and high school bioscience education in the 50 states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia.  The report also finds a wide disparity across measures of student achievement in overall science and biosciences, an uneven record across states in incorporating the biosciences in state science standards, supporting focused bioscience education programs and higher level bioscience courses, and ensuring science and bioscience teachers are well qualified.

The findings, which came to light at BIO’s annual convention, indicate a clear need for improved science education that incorporates the biosciences at the middle and high school levels if the United States bioscience industry sector is to remain globally competitive.

“The biosciences are a dynamic economic driver with a sizable footprint in nearly every state,” explains James Greenwood, President of BIO and member of the Board of the Biotechnology Institute.  “The bioscience industry is a knowledge-based sector dependent upon the skills of its workers. Bioscience workers are needed to conduct research, translate innovation into product development and improved health care techniques, and ultimately to manufacture biomedical and other bioscience-related products.  The prospect of the United States losing its competitive edge in student achievement and the subsequent skills of our future workforce is a matter of significant concern.”

This is not to say that bioscience education is non-existent in the United States because there are many examples of programs that work.  However, the report does say that these programs should be replicated across the country and that states need to commit resources to them.

“The biosciences are the great adventure of our time, and states that aspire to play a part, either as supporters or leaders, must nurture their life science education programs,” says Paul A. Hanle, president of the Biotechnology Institute.  “This report rates the states’ performance in life science education according to certain indicators of achievement.  It also identifies best practices and programs throughout the nation.  Both will be vital tools to help states wanting to strengthen their life-science education efforts.”

This review of state activities in bioscience education suggests a number of actions that should be taken. For example, individual states:

Should incorporate biotechnology as they revise their science standards and should involve research scientists with expertise in the biosciences in their development.
Must commit to improving student achievement in biology and the life sciences and ensuring that their high school graduates are ready to pursue college-level bioscience courses.
Should improve the collection and dissemination of data, tracking student participation and performance in the biosciences and the broader sciences.
Should take a more systematic approach to teacher professional development, experiential learning, and career awareness.
“The study recognizes the important link that high schools and middle schools have as the primary feeders to post-secondary institutions and in shaping career preparation,” explains Mitch Horowitz, Vice President and Managing Director of the Battelle Technology Partnership Practice.  “The vast majority of bioscience jobs require some level of post-secondary education to ensure quality control and good manufacturing practices, conduct clinical research, design and engineer new products, or conduct research and development.”

The report provides the following evidence that states are not measuring up:

• On average, only 28% of the high school students taking the ACT, which is a national standardized test for college admission, reached a score indicating college readiness for biology and no state reached even 50%.
• Only 52% of 12th graders are at or above a basic level of achievement in the sciences, and for 8th graders only 57% are at a basic level of achievement.
• Average scores for 12th graders in the sciences have actually declined from 1996 to 2005 and shown no improvement for 8th graders both overall and on the life science component.
• A significant gap exists in science achievement for low-income middle-school students, although the gap is slowly narrowing.

Some states fared much better than others with respect to student achievement in the biosciences.  While it is difficult to give a single grade across states because of the limited quality and comparability of the student achievement data, the patterns of student performance suggest the states fall into several broad categories.

Leaders of the Pack:  Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio, Vermont, Wisconsin
Second Tier:  Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, Missouri, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, Washington
Middling Performance:  Alabama, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Michigan, Montana, South Carolina, Wyoming
Lagging Performance:  Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, West Virginia
Not Rated:  Alaska, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, New York, the District of Columbia were not rated as they did not participate in the NAEP Science Assessment Test in 2005.

The report also finds an uneven record across states in incorporating the biosciences in state science standards, supporting focused bioscience education programs and advanced bioscience courses, and ensuring well-qualified science and bioscience teachers.

Only thirty-one states reported that their science standards explicitly mention or define standards or applied laboratory or other instruction tools specifically for biotechnology or the biosciences.

At least half the states have at least one school with a bioscience focus, and all of the states have schools with a focus on broader STEM education.  But states do not seem to be succeeding in encouraging high school students to take upper-level science courses. Although data on this subject are very limited, the share of students taking the AP biology exam averages 4.6% of high school graduates.

The report also notes that nearly one in eight U.S. high-school biology teachers was not certified to teach biology.  The average share of biology teachers who are certified in a given state ranged from 50% to 100% in data collected by the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), although 88% of biology teachers are certified nationally on average.

There are a variety of ways to see the results of the study. To access a copy of the report, an executive summary or presentation about the findings, go to one of the following addresses:

http://www.battelle.org/sub_pages/bioed_reports.aspx

http://www.biotechinstitute.org/programs/educationreport.html; or

http://bio.org/battelle2009

Virginia data and rankings: http://www.bio.org/local/battelle2009/VA_bio_09.pdf

Battelle is the world’s largest non-profit independent research and development organization, providing innovative solutions to the world’s most pressing needs through its four global businesses:  Laboratory Management, National Security, Energy Technology, and Health and Life Sciences.  It advances scientific discovery and application by conducting $5.2 billion in global R&D annually through contract research, laboratory management and technology commercialization.  Headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, Battelle oversees 20,400 employees in more than 130 locations worldwide, including seven national laboratories which Battelle manages or co-manages for the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and two international laboratories—a nuclear energy lab in the United Kingdom and a renewable energy lab in Malaysia.

More than eighty people turned out April 29th to support the Chesapeake Bioscience Education Foundation (C-BEF) at a special fundraiser at Indoor Biotechnologies in Charlottesville, Virginia. The event, “Biotech and Art After Hours,” was organized by the Virginia Biotechnology Association, and featured more than twenty works of art, Moroccan food, lab tours and networking with the crowd heavy with bioscience leaders from across the piedmont region of the state.

“We couldn’t have been more pleased with the strong support we received for the Foundation,” said Mark A. Herzog, executive director of the Virginia Biotechnology Association (VaBIO). “The event was like nothing we had ever done before in terms of mixing works of art in a wet-lab environment. The patrons who attended really enjoyed the experience.”

Chesapeake Bioscience Education Foundation is a non-profit charitable organization that develops and promotes programs designed to encourage young students before they choose specific careers, to appreciate and participate in the challenging work of math and science so that they do not preclude subsequent career choices in the biosciences. Among other initiatives, C-BEF funds internships at eligible biotech companies through matching grants.

Photos of the event are available here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/VaBiotechnologyAssn/CharlottesvilleBiotechAfterHoursForCBEF#

In addition to VaBIO, the event was sponsored by the Charlottesville Business Innovation Council, the University of Virginia, Indoor Biotechnologies, Woods Rogers PLC, Birch Studio Graphics, Diffusion Pharmaceuticals, Afton Scientific, Garris and Company, PGxHealth and Klann Plastics.

The Chesapeake Bioscience Education Foundation (C-BEF), an initiative of the Virginia Biotechnology Association (VaBIO), is offering matching funds of $1,500 each for up to ten summer internships. The criteria are as follows: The biotechnology or medical device company must be planning to match or exceed the $1,500 award for the intern and the intern must be enrolled in or a recent graduate of a Virginia institution of higher education or be a resident of the Commonwealth.

Selection will be based upon the quality of the proposed internship experience. Applicants should outline the job description, the proposed salary for the position, the name, university affiliation and contact information for the intern and the likely start and end dates. Grants will be paid to the companies at the end of the internship experience once final documentation has been submitted to C-BEF. Recipients will also be required to fill out a short questionnaire at the end of the program.

Applications can be found here and must be completed and returned by May 8, 2009.