Teachers are schooled in pharmaceuticals
By: Katie Wagner
MONTGOMERY In a media center-converted classroom in Montgomery High School, one of the school district’s biology teachers posed a scientific question to 58 high school educators of a variety of disciplines from five states.
Paul Spinelli wanted to know what scientific information would be helpful for removing algae from a pool, with the algae meant to be analogous for a disease in a cell.
With notebooks and pens in hand, small groups of RxeSEARCH Summer Institute participants put their minds together to solve the problem Tuesday, during the third lesson of the one-week program designed to train teachers of multiple disciplines how to teach students about the pharmaceutical industry.
"I think you need to know the make-up of the algae, the properties of that algae. How it divides is essential and you need to know its lifecycle," said Dr. Yvonne Clark-Hall, a science teacher at Weequahic High School in Newark.
Chris Resch, a Montgomery High School science teacher said knowing the algae’s ideal living conditions would also be useful information for returning the pool to an algae-free state.
Later in the lesson, the teachers moved to a row of test tube-covered bookshelves and paired up to determine the compounds that would prevent a "disease-producing" reaction from occurring.
"They’ve created really great structured lessons that teachers can use and adopt to their own classrooms," said Andrea Mullen, a chemistry teacher at East Side High School in Newark.
While the majority of the 11 lessons included in the program focus on the scientific process of creating and testing a drug, the others address the business decisions, writing, and marketing involved with developing and selling drugs.
Ms. Mullen said she was introduced to the concept of teaching students about making medicine two years ago and that her reason for studying with the institute this summer was to figure out an interdisciplinary approach to conveying the material to her students. She hoped to work with the other two teachers from her school participating in the program to create a plan for distributing the parts of the curriculum among teachers of different disciplines.
"I think the ideal situation would be a group of students who have the same teacher for science, math and history over a two week period," Ms. Mullen said.
Karen Stalowski, a language arts teacher at Montgomery High School, described the lectures on chemical reactions and lab work included in the course as "foreign," but "vaguely ringing some bells."
She added, "It’s fun, because it’s something different."
"I’m also thinking of it from the perspective of my students, because they do this kind of stuff every day," she added. "I’m sure as I think about it more that it’s going to help me make some connections to what’s going on here and what’s going on in my own class."
Ms. Stalowski said one way she hopes to incorporate the program’s curriculum into her language arts classes is by having her students read and analyze articles from science journals, which she said should help her students to improve as critical readers.
Five out of six of the program’s instructors are Montgomery High School staff. Montgomery school administrators said they hope to have the program’s curriculum taught in some of the high school’s courses this school year.
"The first thing that was attractive about this is we are very focused on educating our students on a global society," said Montgomery Assistant Superintendent Jane Plenge.
"The way that schools are set up as different subjects is useful, but there has to be a way all these subjects come together to help us answer important, complicated questions and issues together as a society," Ms. Plenge said.
Another of the program’s qualities that the school district administrators found desirable was that it informed students of the variety of jobs offered by pharmaceutical companies.
"Because pharmaceutical companies are major employers in the region, we felt it was important to expose students to opportunities in language arts, mathematics and art and show them the industry is not only for kids who see themselves as scientists," said Erin Peacock, the district’s science programs director.
This goal was shared by the program’s team of curriculum-writers, which consisted of Montgomery High School science teachers and staff; a West Side High School English teacher; National Science Resources Center curriculum-developers and staff from pharmaceutical company Bristol-Myers Squibb.
"Scientists do work, very difficult for the common person to understand and they have trouble expressing themselves in a way that makes it possible for people to understand what they’re talking about," said Rama Bulusu, a chemistry teacher at Montgomery High School and member of the curriculum-writing team. "Scientists need skilled people, who can really put out the skills of a product in an advertisement. There are multiple sets of people involved in the process and, at a certain stage, you need people who can put forth their views."
Bristol-Myers Squibb sponsored all Montgomery High School teachers involved and the majority of teachers from other high schools as well. The pharmaceutical companies Johnson & Johnson, Schering-Plough, Wyeth and GlaxoSmithKline also sponsored teachers.
This was the second summer teachers had come to the high school to be trained through the institute, but this summer’s curriculum was considerably different from what teachers saw last year, due partially to feedback from high school students, who participated in pilot programs at Montgomery High School and a Newark school last summer.
Locally, Princeton High School and West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District high school teachers participated in this year’s program. Other teachers came from New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Iowa and other New Jersey school districts.
How and where the program will be brought to high school classrooms is not clear at this time.
Anders Hedberg, corporate contributions director for Bristol-Myers Squibb, was the initial person to propose the idea of teaching high school students about the pharmaceutical industry through this type of program.
"In science education we (the United States) have a lot of catching up to do," Mr. Hedberg said during a press conference.
"In order for this program to work anywhere, you need an authentic partnership between a community business (pharmaceutical company) and a school," he added. "The fact that it’s only 11 lessons, I believe, allows it to be tested without interfering with a school’s curriculum."

