February 15, 2005

Advanced life science courses offer honors credits for high school students

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - To help meet the growing demand for workers skilled in the life sciences, Purdue University and the Indiana Department of Education have jointly developed three new courses for Indiana high school students that count for Core 40 and academic honors science credit.

"The courses were developed because there is a projected shortage of life science workers in the state," said Mark Balschweid, associate professor of youth development and agricultural education at Purdue. "These new courses will help prepare students for a career in Indiana's life science industry."

The courses "Advanced Life Science: Animals," "Advanced Life Science: Plants and Soil" and "Advanced Life Science: Foods" were approved by the Indiana Commission for Higher Education for rollout starting last fall. One new course will be introduced each year, starting with the animals course this year, the plant and soil course in 2005-2006 and the foods course in 2006-2007. Since the classes are career and technical education courses, schools offering them will be reimbursed by the state for each student enrolled.

Certified science teachers and agricultural science and business teachers can teach the courses once they complete training through the Department of Education. Teachers should sign up for training by May 1 in order to be prepared to teach the courses in the fall. Training can be arranged by contacting John Demerly with the Indiana Department of Education at (317) 232-9180, demerly@doe.state.in.us.

"The training consists of several days devoted to advanced life science content and several days devoted to delivery of the content," Balschweid said. "Training will occur at two separate times during the summer of 2005."

High school students interested in enrolling in the courses need to have two years of Core 40 science course work. The three courses will include laboratory and field investigations as necessary elements.

"All students can benefit from these advanced science courses," said Demerly, assistant director for life sciences initiatives with the DOE. "The real-world connections that are taught through these courses help students grasp valuable core science applications."

University professors, representatives from Indiana's life science industry, high school teachers, and the Council for Agricultural Science and Technology reviewed and approved the curriculum for the courses. The academic standards also were posted on the Department of Education's Web site for review and comment by the general public.

"These advanced life science courses are more rigorous than the agricultural science courses that are in schools now," Demerly said. "Some schools already teaching these courses have been able to do elaborate experiments like computer-simulated open heart surgery on pigs and gene splitting."

Schools currently offering these courses are Carroll High School in Flora, South Decatur High School, Eastern Hancock High School, North Harrison High School, Owen Valley High School, Western High School, Clinton Central High School, Jac-Cen-Del High School, Warsaw High School, Switzerland County High School, Lebanon High School and Delphi High School.

Descriptions of the courses and standards are available online.

Writer: Molly Brock, (765) 496-2761, brockml@purdue.edu

Sources: Mark Balschweid, (765) 494-8423, markb@purdue.edu

John Demerly, (371) 232-9180, demerly@doe.state.in.us

Ag Communications: (765) 494-2722;
Beth Forbes, forbes@purdue.edu
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