Biotech festival begins with call for science teachers

Victoria's week-long festival of biotechnology education kicked off last night (May 13) with a call for more specially trained teachers.

Genetech 2002 is touted as a showcase of biotech education initiatives for primary and secondary students, teachers and the general public intended to help people understand and embrace science.

The education collaboration between Melbourne Museum, The Gene Technology Access Centre, the Biotechnology Education and Training Program and CRCs from the University of Melbourne, incorporates a week of activities, workshops and lectures on current biotech issues.

Launching Genetech 2002, former Labor politician and chairman of the Victorian Schools Innovation Commission Barry Jones said the state had experienced a sharp fall off in the number of students taking physical sciences.

"We're trying to improve the level of performance and the level of excitement," Jones said.

"Biotech has profound implications in medicine, agriculture, environment, botany and we need teachers who understand the importance so they can be stimulated to put more effort into teaching students about it."

Jones said Victoria was well-placed to lead the states as a science base given its large number of medical research institutes.

"What we're trying to do with the schools innovation program is encourage that sense of wonder, that sense of excitement and empowerment gained from having an understanding of things," he said.

"Not just because it leads to jobs but because it helps people understand their own capacity and where they fit in the world."

Innovative teaching

Also speaking at the launch, Helen Connelly from the Department of Education and Training said its biotech strategies, largely funded through the Department of Innovation and Regional Development's Science, Technology and Innovation program, were "centred on encouraging innovative science teaching, particularly in physical sciences".

She said about 2000 secondary students had so far taken part in Gene Technology Access Centre workshops since they began out of a proposal by University High, University of Melbourne and Walter and Eliza Hall Institute in 2000.

Other initiatives included bringing rural VCE students to Melbourne to take part in biotech workshops, and a planned virtual biotech lab at St Vincent's Institute of Medical Research.

As well as training future generations to continue Victoria's scientific tradition, Prof Ashley Dunne of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research said it was important to ensure the public understood the ramifications of new technologies.

Speed of discovery

Dunne, who is also part of the CRC for Cellular Growth Factors, one of the sponsors of Genetech 2002, said that while the event was a celebration of science and its discoveries in the area of human health, it also presented an opportunity to discuss controversies such as stem cell science and cloning.

"These are immensely exciting times and the speed of discovery is absolutely staggering," he said.

"Genetech 2002 and Medical Research Week in June are two events where we can bring ourselves and the public up to speed about what we're doing and where we are going," he said, adding that there was no group more important than students and teachers.

"It's absolutely essential that public debate on what we want and what we don't want keeps pace with technology, and scientists have a very important role to play in developing the skills of articulation to convey these things to the public."