Schools often lack the laboratory resources necessary to present students and their teachers with modern-day, hands-on science, particularly science applicable to human health. CityLab, a regional biotechnology learning laboratory, provides such scientific experiences for middle and high school students and their teachers. Located in an urban medical center, CityLab is a partnership between scientists and educators at BUSM and high school teachers throughout greater Boston. CityLab has state-of-the-art equipment, two full time high school teachers, and a full time scientist, jointly providing laboratory opportunities to students and teachers on a daily basis. Since its inception, over 8,500 students, one third of whom are minority, have used CityLab and over 800 teachers have been certified to lead their classes. Demand for the current year is above capacity. Seven laboratory modules are fully operable and are drawn from major health disciplines such as biochemistry, cell and molecular biology, immunology and microbiology. The next phase of the project has two broad goals: dissemination and evaluation. Dissemination will see the establishment of other CityLab sites and satellites, as well as partnerships with school systems and other institutions, reaching additional communities in New England. The CityLab curriculum will be enhanced by the development of four additional curriculum modules. CityLab will expand its teaching methodology by including teleteaching and videoconferencing. A fully operable mobile laboratory will allow CityLab to reach students not able to come to CityLab and to reinforce prior CityLab experiences for some students. Dissemination will also include the continued distribution of the curriculum and the production of a Replication Manual for those institutions interested in establishing an independent CityLab. A CityLab Biotechnology Camp for high school juniors and seniors will be formalized. Finally, to complement on-going internal evaluative procedures, external evaluation techniques will be used to assess the impact CityLab experiences have on students' decisions to pursue higher education and careers, especially in science.
