News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
White County High School will use a $5,000 grant to enrich Bio STEM competency.
Environmental and chemistry teacher Teresa Buckner said teachers were hoping to spark interest among the student population to pursue higher-level science.
Buckner said students are already creating genetic fingerprints and genetically engineering an organism to glow in the dark.
“So they’re giving an organism a trait that it didn’t normally have before,” Bucker said. “And by getting them involved or engaged in those kind of activities we’re really hoping that they would choose to go ahead and pursue careers in higher level science fields.”
Bucker said the high school already has a huge Career and Technical Education program and a lot of it is geared towards applied engineering type fields and medicine. Buckner said the science department wanted to give students some high-level skills that you would find in a scientific laboratory.
Buckner said Bio STEM doesn’t just necessarily mean working specifically with DNA. She said these skills will allow students to pursue pharmaceutical careers, chemistry-related careers, and biochemistry.
“We have a lot of Biotech companies entering Cookeville,” Buckner said. “There’s been quite an influx of them and we have a few here in Sparta and it’s just a field I know we can spark an interest in.
Buckner said that improving science education could draw more companies to commit to the area. She said teaching students to use scientific equipment and familiarity with lab work will also give them a head start for higher education.
“The more skills we can reach our students, the more competent and successful they’re going to be in college,” Bucker said.
