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Biotech teacher puts Gateway on (European) map

Huntington- Gateway High School biotechnology teacher Cyndi Jensen—and her students—will be working with biotechnology classes in Germany this year, on a collaborative research project.

It is all part of program through the Boston Museum of Science and the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research, who are funding a project to identify how biotechnology is taught on both sides of the Atlantic.

Jensen and three other Massachusetts science teachers were selected in a competitive application process to work with four European teachers.  The American teachers spent a week in Europe during October, meeting their partner teachers and visiting European high schools and universities. They also discussed the political forces impacting biotechnology and medical research on both continents.

Jensen was matched with Thomas Wiederkehr, a biotechnology teacher at the Justus-von-Liebig-Schule (school) in Waldshut-Tiengen, Germany.  They were the only two teachers in the project who taught a high school course specifically dedicated to the subject of biotechnology (the other teachers taught units on biotechnology within other science classes).

Thomas and Cyndi decided that they would work with students on monoclonal antibodies and ELISA testing to see if they could design and build a home pregnancy test in a classroom lab.  Students are researching the components of various pregnancy tests and figuring out how they work.  Students are also exploring the ethical considerations related to home pregnancy tests.  For example, they discovered that some tests were available at the dollar store, others required payment of $20 or more.  One student researched the chemical composition of both tests and discovered the reason for the price difference:  the expensive test offered results within 48 hours of conception; the inexpensive test was not reliable for several weeks.

The American and German classrooms are hard at work on their projects, and are using technology to post and share their findings.  The Boston Museum of Science offered an on-line “blackboard” that partner teachers could use to communicate in their projects.  But the Jensen-Wiederkehr team decided to move their project to a location that would allow their students to communicate directly with each other.

Colleagues at Gateway set up a system in “Moodle” – a free, open-source software program that a number of staff are using to conduct evening on-line debates between students and post homework. They helped Jensen set up a news forum for students to post research results.  Gateway students are enjoying their on-line discussions with their European counterparts, and look forward to having a “Techie Chat Line” to log less formal posts.

In March, the European teachers will come to the United States and visit the four Massachusetts High Schools (including Gateway) along with classrooms at various colleges and universities.  The Boston Museum of Science will also be hosting their annual Biotechnology Symposium during the visit, and Jensen and Wiederkehr plan to present their project findings at the conference.

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Gateway Biotechnology teacher Cynthia Jensen (2nd from left) with American and European teachers who are sharing classroom projects this year.  You can see Zurich, Switzerland in the background