Building upon the success of the Phase I grant, BSC CityLab Biotech for Students and Teachers, (R25 RR 15600), BSC CityLab Biotech for Students and Teacher Phase II expands the partnerships and dissemination of curricula and activities developed in Phase I. Through BSC CityLab's programs, over 9000 students and 300 teachers, representing more than twenty school districts in Southeastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island were served. Phase 1 of the project was built upon an existing partnership between Bridgewater State College (BSC), Boston University School of Medicine CityLab, the Bridgewater-Raynham Regional School District, and Brockton Public Schools. Phase II expands the partnerships to several other schools throughout Massachusetts which will participate in adapting the following curricula into in-school thematic investigations: 1) Whale of a Mystery, a forensic mystery that engages middle school children in biotechnology and the process of inquiry through an interdisciplinary approach toward education; 2) Lab Larceny, A DMA fingerprinting module for high school students; and 3) Chances Are, a genetics module which targets high school students. Phase II goals are: 1) to increase the dissemination of existing curricula, and 2) establish long-term sustainability for BSC CityLab programs. Increased dissemination will occur by adapting curricular units from Whale of a Mystery for use directly in the schools. Support for these units will be provided through professional development and lending labs. Increased dissemination will also occur by working with Brockton Public Schools, a long-standing partner, in a new capacity. BSC CityLab materials Lab Larceny and Chances Are, and other materials obtained through the Citylab and SEPA networks, will be developed to serve the needs of Brockton High School students through after-school programs that focus on science experiments, mentoring experiences, health topics, and careers in biomedicine and biotechnology. Plans for long-term sustainability for BSC CityLab include institutionalization of BSC CityLab within the administrative structure of the college, an entity defined as a center, and varied fundraising initiatives. The Phase II project will support these efforts at building a self-sustaining program by building a lending lab inventory that will be made available to schools for many years into the future and developing an annual conference that will raise the profile of BSC CityLab within the biotechnical and biomedical business communities. Health topics of current interest addressed through this initiative will include: 1) the process of informed consent and its application to genetic tests, 2) human genetic variation and its relationship to race and medicine. These will be discussed through the afterschool programs, and further developed through the annual conference, in which keynote speakers and other speakers and facilitators will develop the ethical, legal, and educational ramifications of these topics.
