workforce education

This morning I attended the Fifth Annual WBBA Governor's Life Sciences Summit. The breakfast was great; the talks were okay.  I do enjoy the stories about people who's lives were saved because of biotechnology and I agree that the focus of the summit, research and discovery are important, but I can't help thinking about the missing piece. For the past ten years, I've been involved in a national experiment to help build an educated workforce for biotechnology. Through that time, I've learned about one glaring area where Washington state is missing out. There's one word for the missing piece.…
This summer, I had the good fortune to attend three (or was it four?) conferences on science education. One of the most inspirational conferences was one on Vision and Change in Biology Education. This conference was co-sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the AAAS. It was a call to action for biology educators and many of the points and findings resonated deep in my bones. Then, I read the press release from the AAAS. And right there in the middle, I found this statement from the AAAS CEO, Alan Leshner. Leshner said the goal of undergraduate education should be to give students…