Curriculum Projects

Students will explore the different careers found in Biomanufacturing by conducting a series of experiments that mimic the day to day operations found in industry. Students will use yeast cells as the basis the labs. They will conduct microbiology-type experiments by growing some of the yeast cells on petri dishes and examining the number of cells that grow both on the plates and under the microscope. Next, students will grow yeast cells in a similar fashion to what is seen in large-scale bioreactors. They will analyze the results of the experiment by applying computer skills to create graphs and charts of their results. In addition, Students will also design a filtration apparatus that will separate the cells from the product they are producing and calculate the yield percentage. These activities can be used as part of a microbiology or biochemistry unit or as an introduction to biotechnology.

Children with severe speech and physical disabilities are being included in the regular education setting at a higher rate due to the increasing number of integrative education opportunities and placement of students in the least restrictive environments in the education setting. There are students in our regular public school classrooms whose severe speech and physical disabilities require their use of alternatives to speech and other types of assistive technology tools to make them successful in the regular education setting. These speech devices, referred to as augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) provide a special challenge to the student and the school teaching staff. These devices and assistive technology needs requires teachers to think differently about how a student will discuss, report and/or ask questions about science discussions as well as how they will draw, design and write to complete lessons and science journals. These students are expected to participate in the standard course of study however; they may often require many adaptations and/or modifications to the curriculum in order to be able to fully participate like their typically developing peers. Regular education teachers are often not equipped with the background knowledge to know how to make these adaptations/modifications successful for the student. This Kenan project will focus on developing a multitude of ideas for teachers, therapist and other school staff to access on how to adapt and/or modify the K-2 science curriculum. A road map for ideas will be linked with the standard course of study so that teachers can access the ideas quickly and easily when needed.