Georgia Bio initiated an education and workforce development program in January of 2007 through a partnership with the DeKalb County School System and the Biotechnology Institute to improve student achievement in science. This program is overseen by GaBio’s Education and Workforce Development Committee , co-chaired by Dr. Eve Higginbotham, Dean, Morehouse School of Medicine, and Dr. Laurie Downey, retired President and CEO, Solvay Pharmaceuticals.
Since 2007, Geoirga Bio and many partners have worked to align strategies and priorities of these multiple platforms into a model of life science workforce development, piloted in the Innovation Crescent, a thirteen county region spanning Atlanta to Athens that encompasses about 85% of Georgia’s life science industry. The model is working – Georgia stands poised to show the world that its pipeline of knowledge workers is a key competitive advantage to the regional life science industry.
Achievements
- Georgia Bio is exposing more students to bioscience and bioscience careers. We are providing hands-on activities to students, then showing them how the science is relevant to companies and people working in Georgia. With the Georgia Department of Education (GDOE), we have developed biotech tasks aligned with the Georgia Performance Standards for the existing middle and high school life science curricula and related to Georgia industry and careers. These tasks are available statewide via the Georgia Performance Standards website (www.georgiastandards.org) aligned with the science curriculum maps. Georgia Bio has tested these tasks in the Innovation Crescent, and has expanded training to over 100 teachers in 2009.
- Georgia Bio is bringing new biotechnology
curricula to Georgia’s
high schools. Through science electives and Career,
Technical and Agricultural Education pathways launching in fall 2009, nearly
300 students in four counties will learn science through hands-on, process-oriented
curricula. Click here and scroll to Healthcare Sciences curriculum. With support from the Work Ready Regions
program of the Governor’s Office of Workforce Development, we expect to expand
the courses to seven counties in 2010. These
courses will articulate into two and four-year education programs in the
region. From this experience, other districts will be able to jumpstart this
state-approved curriculum.
- Georgia
Bio is supporting learning opportunities for teachers. Since 2007, we have helped send 22 Georgia
educators to the nationally-recognized Teacher-Leader Workshops at the Biotechnology
Institute’s Annual Conference on Biotechnology Education to learn the latest
techniques for teaching hands-on biotech in their classrooms, and to share
their training with their peers in their home districts.
As part of the 2009 BIO International Convention activities in Atlanta, Georgia Bio, the Biotechnology Institute and Georgia Tech are providing a Best Practices workshop to over 200 science educators to showcase exemplary science, math and technology programs related to biotechnology and outstanding teaching practices and programs.
-
Georgia
Bio is connecting business and science professionals with the classroom. We have participated in career fairs, science
fairs, classroom visits and demonstrations.
To expand this outreach in the future, we have launched a new website
where scientists can register as volunteers, and teachers can access and
request information. Register to Vounteer for Classroom Outreach
- Georgia Bio is convening a common dialog to keep our workforce strategies ahead of the curve. Our inaugural Life Sciences Workforce Forum in November 2008 connected over 200 educators and employers around a common question: In this fast changing industry, how do we characterize the present workforce, and how do we anticipate change in the future?
Now an annual event, our 2009 Forum at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will feature a keynote by the Director of the Office of Science Education at NIH, Dr. Bruch Fuchs.