BioTech Solves Crime
Students attending BioTech Academy put their knowledge to good use this summer when they participated in a mock murder mystery activity, complete with a crime scene and forensic evidence. The crime scene was set up by BioTech instructors, and featured a bloody car, bullet holes and a whole lot of mystery.
BioTech Academy is run by BioTech Partners, a non–profit organization whose goal is to connect youth underrepresented in the sciences with lab experience. BioTech Partners organizes high school internships, yearlong jobs for community college participants and support services for students, as well as the BioTech Academy, a high school program that offers classes and paid internships for students between their junior and senior years. Interns with the BioTech Academy work twenty hours a week for eight weeks and learn a slough of biotechnology skills, such as yeast culture maintenance, bacterial transformation and DNA electrophoresis. “The program is all about hands–on learning and inquiry,” said Debbi Bellush, Executive Director of BioTech Partners. BioTech Academy also equips its students with tools to succeed in the future, by providing financial planning lessons, career counseling and mock job interviews. Students also learn good laboratory practices and gain experience that could help them start careers in science in the future. In fact, 97 percent of BioTech Partners’ high school graduates pursue some kind of post secondary education, as opposed to the 51 percent of California public high school graduates on average, and in the past six years, 100 percent of participants have graduated high school. Since the program started, approximately two thousand students have been educated, and more than 950 internships and co–op training position placements have resulted in combined student earnings of about three million dollars. The experience and knowledge gained at BioTech Academy can also help students secure employment in the sciences. “Fifty of our program graduates have been hired by Bayer,” said Bellush.
The goal behind the CSI–type case was to demonstrate the everyday applications of the science students learned over the summer. The mock murder featured a missing woman, whose car was found covered in blood splatters, blood trails and sporting a bullet hole. Students compared blood splatters and patterns, examined ballistics from the bullet, and ran DNA tests on the blood from the car. They then compared the DNA from the bloody car with DNA profiles of the missing woman’s boyfriend and mother. After their research was done, they testified in a mock–court and explained their findings to a mock jury, who deliberated and reached a verdict. “The students had to examine everything, then they testified as scientific experts. They had to prove whatever their hypothesis was,” explained Bellush, “We really wanted to show that what they are learning is used in the real world.”
The activity was a huge success. Students learned many new skills and were able to apply the science they learned over the summer to a real¬life situation. “Everybody loved it!” said Bellush.
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