BIOCOM Institute's Science Education Bureau

Connecting today’s professionals with tomorrow’s talent!

The Science Education Speakers Bureau helps to:

1. Improve students’ understanding of the various career opportunities inthe field of health sciences and how professionals use scienceknowledge and skills in their everyday work;

2.  Increase student interest and achievement in science by enhancing existing curriculum.

The Science Education Speakers Bureau is an innovative program that matches industry professionals from business, research and higher education with middleschool classroom volunteer teaching/speaking opportunities. The program leverages the involvement of a community rich in scientific professionals to provide positive science role models to students and teachers.  This project will have a significant impact on the quality of teaching and learning of science throughout the region’s 700 public schools.

This match between industry and educators will be managed through the BIOCOM Institute, San Diego County Office of Education and SDSA for a “just-in-time” science investigation.  Middle school teachers will name a window of time during an instructional sequence that is appropriatefor infusion of relevant content from an expert in thefield.  The teacher will also chose one of seventeen lessons from the program’s learning matrix for industry professionals to utilize in middle school classrooms. Each lesson is aligned with the conceptual development of the science standards and will showcase an applicable research or industry example. The lessons will be web archived and lab supplies or manipulative kits will be prepped and shipped to the industry professional to take to class.

As volunteerism is an important practice to life science companies, this project will give industry professionals the tools to co-teach in middle school classrooms where their knowledge and skills will be valuable in educating and motivating our future workforce. Our unique model provides a dissemination system that reflects current science applications.  Instructional guides are available to train industry professionals on the middle school classroom environment and curriculum.

The Science Education Speakers Bureau is a mechanism where industry professionals can relate real-world opportunities in science to young students before they have made their mind up about a career path.  The ultimate goal of this project is to increase student interest and appreciation for science and develop ahomegrown workforce that meets industry’s needs.