Project Name:    Gunn Biotechnology Program
District:     Palo Alto Unified School District
State:      California
Contact:    Geri Horsma
E-mail:    ghorsma@pausd.org

Brief Description: 

A program offering an elective biotechnology course to juniors and seniors at Gunn High School, with a secondary focus on preparing students for careers in science and technology.  Students can earn college credit for their work, and are also encouraged to take part in a science teacher assistant course after completing the biotechnology class.

Subject the program is most concerned with:

Science and technology.

Which part of the school system (e.g. elementary school, middle school, high school, all levels, special math/science school, etc.) the project focuses on:

High school; specifically juniors and seniors.

Primary focus of the program (e.g. new curriculum, attracting or retaining teachers, classroom technology, community outreach, etc.):

A new course focusing on hands-on laboratory experience, and preparing students for future careers and coursework involving laboratory science and technology.

Role of the school board in implementing or supporting the program:

The board had to approve the text of the program, but was not involved in designing it.

Community and business partners:

Various local and regional partnerships, including:
Santa Clara County Biotechnology Education Partnership
Bay Area Biotechnology Education Partnership
Bio Link

Higher education partners:

This project developed in collaboration with Foothill Community College through Dr. Celeste Carter, Director of the Biotech Program at Foothill.  Dr. Carter was instrumental in designing the course curriculum with a focus on preparing students for entry into a higher level biotech program such as that at Foothill College.  The collaboration with Dr. Carter is ongoing, and involves her support and guidance in selection, preparation, and implementation of several labs.  Her work on the NSF program Case Industry Practices in Biotechnology provided several labs for the course, which she helped to prepare and implement. 

Funding and resources:

This project was funded in a variety of ways, including materials and donations from industries and biotech partners, grants from the Local Education Foundation, and a Perkins grant designated for career and technical preparatory courses.  Individual schools received funds from their PTSAs and parent donations.

Duration of the program:

This program is currently in its eighth year.  Some biotech students also enroll in the Science Teacher Assistant Course following their biotech class.  Their hands-on lab skills are highly valued as they help teachers prep for other classes. For the 2008-2009 school year, the district will be adding a third biotechnology class.

Detailed description: 

The Gunn Biotechnology program grew out of student interest developed through exposure to introductory biotechnology labs offered in the biology classes.  After many years of successful implementation of these labs, there was a growing enthusiasm and interest among students to learn more about biotechnology.  Concurrently, there was a growing emphasis by the Palo Alto Unified School District and Gunn High School administration to offer new career development pathways to allow students to plan and prepare for their future careers.  The biotechnology field provided an ideal venue to assist students in thinking about career options since the field encompasses careers in both the private and public sectors and offers a variety of different possible areas of focus.  Beginning in the early 90’s, students performed DNA “fingerprinting” (restriction analysis) and bacterial transformation through labs supported by the Santa Clara County Biotechnology Education Partnership.

In the spring of 2000, PAUSD/ROP Dave Hoshiwara, the Vocational Education Organizer, and Geri Horsma collaborated with Dr. Celeste Carter, Director of the Foothill Community College Biotechnology Program, to draft a high school biotechnology curriculum that would prepare students for entry into more advanced college-level biotechnology courses.  This pilot program generated initial interest at Gunn, resulting in 41 students who wished to enroll for the fall of 2000.  We were advised to limit the initial enrollment to 28 students in order to provide safe laboratory conditions and to develop the first year of curriculum and materials for the class.  The course was highly successful, and continues to be today.  In the fall of 2005, the demand was so great that Gunn added a second section.  We continue with two sections of juniors and seniors in biotechnology for this school year of 2007-2008. We also now have eight students who are either biotech graduates or currently enrolled in biotechnology and who are presently taking Biotechnology Exploratory Experiences, a subsequent class, in which they help in the lab to prep materials for biotech and other science courses.