Art Torres, co vice chairman of the stem cell agency, said that California is "a fertile ground for stem cell science," but added that to "realize the full potential of this burgeoning field" requires development of "an educated workforce."
In a news release, CIRM said the high school science program provides “a robust source of educational materials with a wide variety of teaching formats and levels of presentation.” Four units were provided on the CIRM Web site. The agency said the program can be taught in a day or fill a week. Another component is in development.
The program is tied to legislation that requires the state Department of Education to post on its Web site the model curriculum launched by CIRM.
In response to a question, Don Gibbons, chief communications officer for CIRM, said the program cost $45,500 to produce, including the component under development.
We also asked about CIRM's outreach to promote use of the program and whether the agency had an email list for all high school science teachers in the state.
Gibbons replied,
“We previewed it (the program) at the Nat. Bio Teachers Assoc. last November in Denver. The California chapter of that group is just forming and we will ship materials to their organizing meeting in two weeks in Roseville. We developed a list of county science coordinators around our school outreach for Stem Cell Awareness Day and will be reaching out to them, as well as the 50+ teachers who asked for a CIRM researcher guest lecture that day. The state has a master site for high-speed access to on-line resources and we will be posted there. We will be seeking to present at the Cal Sci Educ Conf this October. Etc.”The CIRM announcement was covered Thursday by the San Francisco Business Times in a brief article by Ron Leuty.
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