Somerville High School (SHS) last month was named Innovative School of the Year by the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council.
The council created the Innovative School of the Year recognition last year to recognize Massachusetts high schools breaking new ground in the field of biotechnology, according to Lance Hartford, the executive director of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Education Foundation.
Hartford praised SHS's commitment to partnerships with other academic and research institutions, including Tufts, in the field of biotechnology as well as its emphasis on career guidance for students interested in pursuing biotechnology after graduation.
"We feel that really to have an effective program at the high school level, students need to both understand the science and understand what kinds of opportunities are out there," Hartford said.
Somerville's focus on biotechnology, embodied in an academic program initiated in 2005, is unique, according to Somerville High School science teacher Chris Angelli.
"We were one of the first schools in the state to offer a biotech program," Angelli said. The program offers students opportunities to do research in laboratories and develop interest in a possible career in biotechnology
Angelli has taught biotechnology classes at the school for two years. The courses draw a variety of students, from those already interested in careers in science to those simply curious about the field, he said.
Such course offerings are valuable to students' post-grad pursuits, given the school's proximity to Boston, a hotbed of the biotechnology industry, Angelli said.
"Boston really is the East Coast hub of biotech, so we would be doing a disservice to our students to not have a course that gave them a head start on the process of getting into that field," Angelli said.
As part of its biotechnology curriculum, Somerville High School has forged an academic partnership with Tufts. Tufts and SHS collaborated in piloting the "Getting the Dirt on Somerville" project in the fall of 2009. In the project, Tufts students and students from the high school collected soil, grew microbial colonies and isolated the DNA within the finished cultures, according to Meredith Knight, the project coordinator with Tufts' Chemistry Organized Outreach Program.
The Chemistry department will again collaborate next month with SHS on a project where students analyze their maternal ancestry though a cheek swab DNA test, according to Knight.
"I love working with Somerville High School," Knight said. "These teachers are really open to doing these types of projects, and they also have the flexibility and support of their administration, and that means a lot."
