RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK … The North Carolina Biotechnology Center’s wide-ranging education and training program “is one of our most pervasive in terms of reaching across the state,” says communications director Barry Teater.
Since 1990, the Biotech Center has awarded more than $4.1 million to equip teaching laboratories and help faculty develop new biotechnology courses and teaching materials. Teater tells Local Tech Wire the Biotech Center budgeted $275,000 for its educational grant programs and $75,000 for its recently completed teacher workshops in 2004. “We don’t know exactly how much we’ll budget for 2005 but it will be more,” Teater says.
A total of 1,140 teachers, from 98 NC counties, 85 this year, have attended the Biotech Center’s summer workshops, which include curriculum follow-up materials the teachers will use in their classrooms.
Teater says only two small rural western counties have yet to enroll a teacher in the workshops. The Center also funds instructor-initiated grants.
A recent listing of where the Center allocated its educational grant dollars shows that NC State University received the largest amount over the years, $478,766. UNC-Chapel Hill, received $152,704, and Shaw University, $45,000.
North Carolina Central University, $79,600. Duke University received $40,000, Laboratories for Learning, $54,794, and Central Carolina Community College, $20,000. Grants to high schools range from #3,552 for Apex, to $5,000 for East Wake. Altogether, the Triangle region’s schools and teachers collected $1,255, 863, as one might expect, the highest amount spent in any one region.
The south-central region that includes Charlotte received the next largest total amount, $621,695, with UNC-Charlotte getting the largest single amount, $396,668 and Davidson College, $68,430.
In other regions, East Carolina University received $390,501 and the area as a whole, including community colleges and high schools, a total of $525,699.
In the North Central part of the state, NC A&T State received $174,000, UNC-Greensboro, $105,000, and Wake Forest University, $80,224. The region as a whole received a total of $832,240.
Western Carolina University received $63,000 and Wilkes Country Schools $23,600 in the western part of NC, where grants totaled $424,207.
In the Northeast, Elizabeth State College received the largest single amount during the time the grants have been given, $60,300. The region’s schools received a total of $135,899.
NC Biotech Program: ncbiotech.org/ouractivities/education/educate.cfm
