Montgomery, Ala. — February 12, 2014 — HudsonAlpha Vice President for Educational Outreach Neil Lamb, Ph.D., testifies today before the Alabama House of Representatives Ways and Means Education Committee about the many ways HudsonAlpha is making a difference in Alabama education.
Lamb will highlight for lawmakers how the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology is progressing in its goal to train every life science teacher across the state of Alabama on an ongoing basis.
“Thanks to support from the State of Alabama, we are strengthening the foundational knowledge of our educators, providing engaging experiences for their students and connecting them to new research discoveries and their potential application,” Lamb said. “It is an exciting time to teach life science, and HudsonAlpha is proud to play a role supporting and encouraging our teachers.”
Accompanying Lamb before legislators will be educator Cheryl Mangum, a life sciences teacher at Fairview High School in Cullman County, Alabama. Mangum has attended many HudsonAlpha workshops for educators and has implemented what she’s learned into her courses. She will be sharing with lawmakers about the impact the HudsonAlpha programs have had on her students.
“My experiences with HudsonAlpha have completely changed my teaching methods,” Mangum said. “After attending the first workshop, I became more aware of the many misconceptions that my students brought into my classroom and those that I had also unintentionally reinforced. I began to use the materials and information from HudsonAlpha to dispel the misconceptions in a way that the students could grasp.”
Over a two-year period, educator workshops have been held across the state. These opportunities have reached over 400 educators from 240 schools, in turn impacting nearly 60,000 students each year.