Every year, the MassBioEd Foundation honors a Massachusetts school for inspiring students to explore life sciences careers through innovative biotechnology education and exemplary science career programming, to be recognized at MassBio’s Annual Meeting, March 21-22nd.
This year, we’re proud to recognize Essex Technical High School as the 2017 Joshua Boger Innovative School of the Year for its commitment to engaging students in hands-on biotechnology experiences. This award comes with a $5,000 grant for lab equipment and supplies.
Essex Technical High School has been well represented at a variety of BioTeach workshops and trainings and has engaged students through MassBioEd’s experiential learning opportunities. The school’s efforts to include biotechnology labs in regular biology classes through peer-to-peer mentoring and proposal to introduce basic biotechnology into area middle schools through near-peer mentoring speaks to a school-wide effort to increase the number of students who are excited about biotechnology.
With small grants from BioTeach, support from Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, and Essex Technical High School’s continued commitment to learning and implementing new biotechnology-based curricula, the school has grown the vocational biotechnology program to include student-driven research into the causative agent of Lyme disease, sophisticated molecular biology techniques, tissue culture, and protein assays. A clear measure of success at engaging students in biotechnology and inspiring them to pursue life sciences courses in high school is the increased student enrollment in the biotechnology program at Essex Technical High School and the increase in student interest in pursuing careers in life sciences fields.
Essex Technical High School’s commitment to bringing cutting-edge biotechnology experiences to its students is inspiring. MassBioEd looks forward to supporting their continued success. Congratulations on a job well done!
