Prepping budding scientists

Thursday, Jan. 11, 2007

by Margarita Raycheva

Staff Writer

A unique college-level program in biomedical science will allow Frederick County sophomores and juniors to use state-of-the-art microscopes and specialized computer software to explore the human body, spot illnesses and learn from mock deaths.

‘‘It’s a broad-based preparation for students who are interested in the medical field,” said Charlene Bonham supervisor of career and technology education at county schools. ‘‘There is nothing else like that in the county high schools.”

The Frederick County Career and Technology Center will be one of 10 sites across the state to test the program before it is released nationally, Bonham said.

Frederick County Public Schools recently received a $25,000 grant from the Maryland State Department of Education to start the program.

Budding doctors, nurses, forensic scientists, radiologists, paramedics, dietitians, technicians and pharmacists could all benefit from the four courses of the program. It will also be open to any student wishing to explore a new field of interest, Bonham said.

The curriculum for the program was developed by Project Lead the Way, a national initiative which promotes careers in engineering.

The main goal of the program is to stimulate interest in biomedical sciences and make it easier for local students to continue that education after high school, Bonham said.

Through the new program, the Career and Technology Center will work closely with biomedical centers across the county and at Fort Detrick. It will partner with Frederick Community College to allow students to pursue degrees in bio-processing technologies, nursing, respiratory therapy and surgical technologies, Bonham said.

The Maryland Department of Education played a major role in promoting the new program and assigning funds for it in Frederick County, she said.

‘‘They see these students as a direct pipeline into these degrees,” Bonham said.

To complete the course, students will have to take four courses similar to those college students would take for a degree in health professions or medicine: principles of biomedical sciences, human body systems, medical intervention and science research.

Among other subjects, students will learn the history of organ transplants and gene therapy and build systems to monitor body functions.

At the end of the program, they’ll also do research together with local doctors, nurses and other medical professionals.

The program will start with one course in 2008 and will continue by rolling out a class in each of the following four years. Each class will be open to about 25 county students. No pre-requisite courses will be required from students to start the program, Bohnam said.

Lynn Gilli, program manager for career and technology education at the Maryland Department of Education, said the program is an example of the state’s desire to create qualified workforce that will attract employers.

‘‘There is going to be a shortage of workforce in that field,” she said. ‘‘We want [students] to be prepared.”

One of the goals of the program is to increase the number of female and Hispanic students to choose engineering-based professions, she said.

But the major point of Project Lead the Way was to achieve unified professional training across the country, said Gilli, who is also the coordinator for Project Lead the Way in Maryland.

Students who ace the course and complete the exams at the end of each class, will also have a chance to skip introductory classes in colleges offering relevant degrees nationwide.

That is already happening with Project Lead the Way high school engineering program. The program was started in 1996 and now is offered at schools in 46 states.

In Frederick County, the program is offered at Walkersville and Linganore high schools.

At Linganore High School, the program has been going on for four years and now 300 students are enrolled in it, said Bill McKenzie, technical education department chair at the school.

The program has a math-heavy curriculum and includes classes such as digital electronics and engineering design. But its also geared toward the engineering ‘‘late bloomers,” the students who wouldn’t immediately choose career in science, McKenzie said.

‘‘They don’t have to be engineers,” he said, ‘‘but they have to be motivated.”

Most importantly, it offers students a chance to get involved in hands-on projects and complete internships in the field, McKenzie said.

About 30 students in the cluster have completed summer internships with the engineering company Bechtel, while others have interned at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and Penn State University.

Keri-Beth Nagel, program director for bio-processing technologies at Frederick Community College, said she expects the new biomedical program to ease students’ way into college.

‘‘Biology is like a new language,” she said. ‘‘The more exposure you get to it, the better.”

Nagel will be teaching the first course of the new program at the Career and Technology Center until the center can hire its own teacher.