At the Milwood Magnet Meet & Greet (left to right):
Jennifer Clark, KCIS Director of Community Relations & Partnerships;
Jerry Colca, Ph.D., President and Chief Scientific Officer, Metabolic Solutions Development Company; Coco Cook, KCIS Director of Mentoring & Tutoring
Milwood Magnet Teachers Meet with Biotechnology Leaders
Last spring, the Milwood Magnet Center for Math, Science and Technology received a grant enabling the school to focus its programming on the field of biotechnology. The new curriculum, launched this fall, encompasses many of the fastest-growing and most exciting career fields in the country.
On October 7, the school, in partnership with KCIS, invited a wide variety of community leaders in the field of biotechnology to a “meet and greet,” in order to introduce them to the school’s mission and to offer ways that they can get involved. The meet & greet was led by Tamela Brown, Curriculum Integration Teacher, ad Atiba McKissack, Technology Integration Teacher.
Nearly 20 community members, representing a wide variety of biotechnology professions including veterinary science, technical writing, and chemistry, attended the meeting.
Milwood Magnet Principal Kevin Campbell first provided some background information on the decision to apply for the funding to become a magnet school – meaning a school can choose a curriculum based on a theme and a unique method of instruction, and that the school is open to students throughout the district. The school serves a high number of low-income students – nearly 80% of the student body is eligible for free and reduced lunch – and school leaders recognized the need to find a new way to engage students with learning.
Milwood’s biotechnology curriculum aims to engage students accustomed to high-tech entertainment and communication with real-world learning. The innovative curriculum uses a different theme during each the 6 marking periods. Each theme is integrated into every class so the students continue to apply the theme in different ways during the course of the day.
Milwood’s 6 biotechnology themes are: Technological Innovations, the Global Food Chain, Bio-Fuel, Medical Biotechnology, Environmental Biotechnology, and Sustainable Systems.
Brown and McKissack encouraged the community partners in attendance to think about ways that they can give back to students – such as creating a school advisory board, offering students a chance to visit job sites, speaking in a class, or developing an individual relationship with a student.
For additional information, please contact Jennifer Clark, Director of Community Relations & Partnerships with Kalamazoo Communities In Schools at 269-337-1601 x213 or jclark@kcis.us.
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