Science Education Speakers Bureau

The Science Education Speakers Bureau will help to:

1.  Improve students’ understanding of the various career opportunities in the field of health sciences and how professionals use science knowledge 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 K-12 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.

For many students, the opportunity to spend time with an industry representative will be an experience that broadens their perception of science and engineering career pathways.  Concurrently, the opportunity for science teachers to access real-time industry professionals and relevant science content to enhance core science instruction is a welcome an essential component in their classrooms.  The Science Education Speakers Bureau is an intentional and strategic initiative to engage San Diego’s life science cluster in a well articulated outreach effort to provide targeted assistance to science teachers.

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 appropriate for infusion of relevant content from an expert in the field.  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.

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 a homegrown workforce that meets industry’s needs.

For more information please download this PowerPoint Presentation in PDF format (2MB)

For more information please contact:
Kristie Grover, Director, BIOCOM Institute
(858) 455-0300 x107        
kgrover@biocom.org