CLEMSON —Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) in Chevy Chase, Md., is sending two members of its award-winning media design team to Clemson this week to train an elite group of South Carolina middle and high school teachers in advanced DVD production.

Blake Porch and Jennifer Bricken of the HHMI BioInteractive group will be working with Clemson scientists Dale Layfield and Jim Morris. HHMI BioInteractive has received recognition from Scientific American and won Aurora and Telly awards for its educational programming used by thousands of teachers worldwide. “Potent Biology: Stem Cells, Cloning and Regeneration,” a DVD recently completed by Porch for the “Holiday Lectures on Science” series, will be the basis for this year’s workshop.


“Ethics and societal implications of stem-cell research will be an important part of the discussion,” Morris said.

Teachers will use state-of-the-art technology, including a laser-dissection microscope and a fluorescence-activated cell sorter to isolate cells — the first step to learn in exploring stem-cell research. By the end of the week, each teacher will create a DVD presentation on stem cells specifically adapted to their classroom needs.

In addition to earning college credits for their work, teachers attending the workshop will receive a full set of the Holiday science lecture series and a DVD player.
Most of the teachers also completed at least one — some as many as six — SC LIFE exploration course. The goals of the SC LIFE program are to encourage students to pursue science studies in college and to go on to science-related careers by engaging them in relevant scientific lessons and research from an early age.

One of the ways the project accomplishes this it to help teachers stay up-to-date in their science knowledge.
This teacher education project is a part of Clemson University’s SC LIFE, supported by $5.4 million from HHMI in the past 10 years.
The BioInteractive Web site is at biointeractive.org/.