By Sofia Vialpando
Staff Writer
The new biotechnology course will be implemented next year which will aim to prepare Costa students to be successful in university laboratory settings and will be taught by current AP and CP biology teacher, Jessica Bledsoe.
The new biotechnology course will be introduced to Mira Costa starting in the 2015-2016 school year. The class will only be offered for one period. The 15 students will remain in the class for their next 3 years at Costa. Although, once the students reach their senior year, they will be doing more advanced learning.
“The seniors will be doing their own independent research and we are also going to try to get them into a laboratory, possibly UCLA or USC, to do some advanced things that we won’t have the technology or space to do at Costa,” Bledsoe said.
A majority of the time spent in class will be in the lab. Bledsoe’s goal is to teach kids how to be comfortable and confident in a lab setting. Bledsoe will be teaching students laboratory techniques, not just facts from a textbook.
“In a normal lab science class, you spend about 80% of time in a classroom and 20% in a lab, in the biotech course will be about 80% of time in a lab and 20% in class,” Bledsoe said.
In addition to laboratory skills, students will also be taking home a portfolio of their achievements put together over the three years spent in the biotechnology class. These items will go on to help them land jobs in the science field or even college admissions.
“Students will have an industry rated lab notebook where they will write everything that they do in my class that they can bring to a job interview or university which is very valuable,” Bledsoe said. “Also, at the end of everyone’s senior year they will write their own research experiment and they will leave with a publication from Mira Costa.”
After speaking with university professors, Bledsoe learned that underclassmen were unable to become successful in labs because they did not have enough experience in labs during high school. Bledsoe then conversed with a current biotechnology teacher during a science conference and found that his students were leaving with tremendous results and knowledge.
“It really got me excited about more than adequately preparing students to enter into an undergraduate lab, or job in the industry, and have them be wildly successful because that is not what we see, generally, in high school students,” Bledsoe said.
After learning more about biotechnology courses, Bledsoe pitched it to the MBUSD school board and the Costa biotechnology course became board certified. However, an issue that presented itself was funding for the expensive and high-tech equipment needed. Shortly after, a grant given to the school was available for a STEM course and it was given to the new biotechnology class.
“Funding was something that was my major concern,” Bledsoe said. “But, after the grant passed and we had the funding we could put it in place for the very expensive, technologically advanced equipment that we needed for the class.”
The new biotechnology course will be a very competitive class to enter. With only 15 students accepted, many students will not be chosen. According to freshmen Ryan McPhereson, the biotechnology course will give students advantages in the lab that they otherwise would not have.
“I am very excited for this course and I think it will better prepare me for college and overall help me gain a more in depth view of the biotechnology industry,” freshman Ryan McPhereson said.
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