Industry invests in students -- its future workers
WEYMOUTH -- Erin Bengiovanni's high school biology students still dissect frogs. Now they also dissect DNA.
Her sophomores use laboratory equipment to separate pieces of dye-stained DNA drawn from bacteria, a technique known as ''gel electrophoresis." The process has given rise to the state's growing biotechnology industry. But it also captures students' attention because of popular television programs, Bengiovanni said.
''This is the stuff kids see on TV all the time," she said. ''They're telling me, 'It's just like on 'CSI.' ' "
As at dozens of other schools around the state, some of Weymouth High's DNA-separation equipment comes from an industry-funded effort to promote biotechnology education.
Facing a keen shortage of trained workers, drug developers led by Genzyme Corp. of Cambridge and Serono Inc., the Rockland unit of Switzerland's Serono SA, have put up hundreds of thousands of dollars to install more equipment in the state's high schools.
One goal is to get more students interested in biotech and, eventually, to ease the labor shortage. The Massachusetts Biotechnology Council lists more than 500 skilled job openings on its website, many requiring advanced technical degrees. But others require only a bachelor's of science degree or less, such as for technicians to support animal or drug-manufacturing laboratories.
Massachusetts jobs in ''education and health services," a measure that includes much drug-company work, rose to 585,200 in February from 579,200 at the same point in 2004, according to the state's Division of Career Services.
Growth might have been even faster, some executives say privately, explaining why the council helped arrange a $1.4 million US Labor Department grant last year. It aims to raise $9 million for the effort in the schools overall.
''It's very philanthropic, but it's also selfish," said Una Ryan, the council's chair and CEO of Needham vaccine-maker Avant Immunotherapeutics Inc. ''We need people who are better-trained."
The goals might seem more aligned with a vocation curriculum rather than scientific one, but science teachers in Weymouth say they don't believe the companies are imposing an agenda with the support.
For one thing, the state's curriculum already includes material on DNA. Also, the donated equipment enables schools to run lessons that they previously were sending students to take at a crowded Boston University program, CityLab.
In Weymouth, grant money helped train teachers to run electrophoresis tests, done in a small tub of water charged with electrodes to pull apart tiny pieces of DNA from bacteria through a gel, at different rates depending on their size. Dyes make the different strands distinguishable against a backlight.
Roger Shores, another science teacher, said several of his students plan to take more biotechnology courses over the summer. Having taught for 20 years, Shores said the effort by the biotech companies reminds him of previous outreach efforts to students by defense contractors and Internet companies, now both fading in influence. Shores says he doesn't expect the biotechnology sector to decline, since its science is so advanced.
''The others come and go, but not this field," he said.
Ross Kerber can be reached at kerber@globe.com.
