"Be patient, it is a meticulous process." These wise words came from students who completed a 2-week series of ABE labs this fall at South Carleton High School in Ottawa, Canada. Their teacher, Shona Schneider, was pleased to see that like in the first year she conducted the labs, her students in this second year gained new perspectives on biotechnology and lab work.
“It is a great experience to see what is possible and what they can do, and to try these highly technical skills for the first time,” Schneider says. “Many students go in thinking ‘I can never do that. That's too science-y. It's too much.’ But then they see they can do it.”
Indeed, all her students, more than 40, noted at the end of the labs that they were confident now, where they were not at the start. One student wrote, "I am a professional micropipetter and gel loader." Among students’ favorite activities were gel electrophoresis and pipette art.
Also importantly, 10 students came out of the process knowing that biotech lab work and genetics is not for them. “They were happy for the experience but are also happy to be moving on,” Schneider notes.
Among those who liked it, comments ranged from “This experience is making me consider more biotech-oriented programs because I previously believed that I did not enjoy biology as much as the other sciences until these more bio/chem-related labs” to “I discovered that I may have an interest in health science or microbiology.” (See quote box for more.)
These responses were not a surprise to Schneider, who already saw big results from the ABE labs in her first year running the program. “Last year, for the students who were on the fence about biology and not sure about which program they wanted to do, the ABE labs really solidified that they wanted to do biomedical or biotech, and they applied to universities for that,” she explains.
Schneider also noted that several of her students last year who were likely going to pursue a trade, like construction or HVAC work, shifted to an interest in medical technology and healthcare after the ABE labs. “They started looking at these other more technical programs that they hadn't really considered,” she says. “And their parents came in and said, ‘This doesn't come from us. This is from them. They just really love it. And we just never thought they'd have this interest.’”
Schneider, who has been teaching for 30 years, has a degree in biology and worked as a technician at Agriculture Canada before pursuing education. When she first saw the ABE labs at a professional development institute, all the techniques she learned as an undergraduate came flooding back. “It was not quite like riding a bike, but close. It was really fun to be able to do that kind of work again because you don't usually do that kind of work as a high school teacher,” she says.
Schneider has also been impressed by the organization of the labs. “Everything is taken care of. The lessons are there; the instructions are there. You just have to go pick up the stuff and set it up in your classroom,” she says. “Everything had really been clearly designed by people who had tested it with students in a classroom.”
Having access to these resources at Carleton has been a game changer for Schneider’s students who live in the surrounding rural community. “It’s worth noting that the impact of the ABE labs was felt across genders and cultures—everyone from girls from academic families to boys from rural community families who own family farms,” she says. “There was somebody from every group that was into the labs, whether newcomers to the country or multigenerational Canadians. Everybody loved it.”
