More than 100 bioscience educators will discuss ways to expand statewide biotechnology curricula and programs at the state’s first bioscience education summit on April 18.
The event is hosted by the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University; the Flinn Foundation; and Mesa Public School’s Biotechnology Academy with funding support from Arizona’s two largest utilities, SRP and APS. The daylong conference will be held at the Fiesta Resort Conference Center in Tempe.
Highlights of the bioscience education summit include:
• Martin L. Shultz, chair of Arizona’s Bioscience Roadmap Steering Committee, and Jim McPherson, assistant vice president for public affairs at the Flinn Foundation, will summarize five years of progress into Arizona’s ten-year strategic plan to strengthen its bioscience sector.
• Mitch Horowitz, director of strategy for Battelle Technology Partnership Practice, will outline recommendations to improve high school bioscience education made by a 25-member task force convened by the Bioscience Roadmap Steering Committee.
• Elaine Johnson, director of the BioLink National Center in San Francisco, will talk on trends in educating a 21st Century biotechnology workforce.
• Katy Korsmeyer, president of the Bay Area Biotechnology Education Consortium and program director of the Santa Clara County Biotechnology Education Partnership, will outline successful models for providing biotechnology education in the Bay Area.
Teachers will participate in afternoon breakout sessions to share best practices (moderated by Xan Simonson, director of Mesa Public Schools Biotechnology Academy), key funding and partnering opportunities (moderated by Ken Costenson, outreach educator at the Biodesign Institute), and a bioscience education “state of the state” (moderated by Darrell Sheppard, senior community outreach representative at SRP).
Richard D. Fisher, director of educational outreach for the Biodesign Institute, will lead a wrap-up discussion of the breakout sessions. A tour of the Biodesign Institute will conclude the conference.
