BIOTECHNICAL INSTITUTE OF MARYLAND HOSTS SUMMER PROGRAM FOR AREA HIGH SCHOOL SENIORS STUDYING BIOMEDICAL SCIENCE
On Monday, June 25, eleven rising high school seniors from Baltimore City Public Schools began a six-week summer program at the BioTechnical Institute of Maryland, Inc (BTI) in Fell’s Point. These dynamic young scientists from Friendship Academy of Science and Technology (FAST) and Paul Laurence Dunbar High School for Health Professional are all participating in the Project Lead the Way Biomedical Science (BMS) curriculum at their schools. BMS courses complement traditional science courses and often serve as the foundation for STEM-centered or specialized academies. Like other programs that fall within Maryland’s Career and Technology Education (CTE) programs of study, BMS is designed to prepare students to pursue a post-secondary education and careers—in this case, in the biomedical sciences. The program is a partnership between Baltimore City Public Schools’ Office of Learning to Work and BTI.
The students in the program come from a wide variety of backgrounds and neighborhoods in Baltimore, and have diverse career aspirations which they shared with each other during their orientation. Included in their ranks are a future sports scientist, medical illustrator, veterinary technician, biomedical researcher, OB/GYN nurse, family practice physician, pediatrician, audiologist, architect and engineer
Their summer program at BTI will build on the students’ last three years of bioscience instruction by utilizing tools and techniques in laboratory instruction combined with access to up-to-date equipment and expert instructors to further prepare them for their senior year. Informal sessions with local bioscience industry leaders and academics as well as targeted field trips will complement the lab and classroom instruction. Led by Dr. Timothy Fawcett and Dr. Wayne Butscher, the group will explore scientific topics ranging from sub-cellular structures, biomolecules, DNA extraction/purification and gel electrophoresis, restriction digests, western blotting and diseases.
This inaugural summer program for local high school students is a departure from BTI’s long-running and successful Laboratory Associates Program which provides tuition-free lab training to unemployed and underemployed motivated and bright Baltimore city residents in order to assist them in obtaining meaningful and promising careers as laboratory technicians in the area’s growing bioscience industry.