SCCBEP
Santa Clara County Biotechnology Education Partnership
Program Director and BABEC President
Katy Korsmeyer, Ph.D.
kuokaty --at-- scientist.com
The Santa Clara County Biotechnology Education Partnership (SCCBEP) is a growing collaboration among secondary teachers and educators, the Santa Clara County Office of Education, higher education, Life Technologies, LifeScan, Johnson & Johnson, Amgen Foundation, New England Biolabs, and private individuals. Our common goal is to bring cutting edge biotechnology and science education to students and teachers in Santa Clara County schools. Since its inception in 1992, SCCBEP has grown to provide lab equipment and reagents to grades 7-12 in public and private schools of Santa Clara County. Support is extended to some schools in Watsonville, Aptos and Salinas. SCCBEP offers teacher workshops in biotechnology lab procedures and teaching methods, classroom and on-call technical support, DNA Day Contests, summer student internships, and public education events. SCCBEP also facilitates equipment and supply donations for BABEC and, through BABEC, provide a collaborative teacher network in the Bay Area.
SCCBEP currently supports biotechnology curricular lab kits: DNA Spooling Pipet Art DNA Fingerprinting (restriction analysis) Bacterial transformation of red fluorescent protein RFP protein purification and PAGE analysis Amgen Bruce Wallace RFP Labs Diabetes Technology Natural Products Drug Discovery Forensic Science 7 PCR labs supported by BABEC and Life Technologies (Applied Biosystems and Invitrogen). SCCBEP staff manages distribution of equipment, supplies, and reagents for these labs through "mobile kits" which circulate among participating schools and teachers. SCCBEP is an exciting, growing volunteer organization providing a vital service of educating Santa Clara County students and teachers using curricula reflecting current advances in science. For further information, please contact Katy Korsmeyer, SCCBEP Program Director.