June 3, 2013
Biomedical Advisory Meeting Minutes
· Call to order Jeff Shaver (chair fill in) @ 4:30
· Approval of minutes-Nov & March meetings approved-by Jen Pang, seconded by Jeff Shaver.
· Introduction- Welcome Candace McKeen-Hllingsworth from Mariner High School, for a complete list of attendees - see sign in sheet.
· WANIC Summer DNA course is full and not accepting any more students.
· There is still space available for teachers to enroll in summer DNA course through Shoreline CC.
· Jeff Shaver is now working for EXO Labs as an educational specialists. Jeff also did a presentation on a new product featured by Exo Labs-FOCUS APP & MICROSCOPE CAMERA. Focus microscope camera connects your microscope to your Ipad. Works with 2nd generation Ipads only. It is quick and easy set-up, and user friendly App. Students can measure, annotate, save, and send images. The camera has multiple lens options. Find out more my contacting Jeff or go to the website www.exolabs.com .
· NWABR 2013 Expo recap- Jen reported that 30 Washington High Schools and over 390 students competed. 140 mentors and over 80 judges participated (judges from across the US and even outside of US!). UW’s Dr. Greg Crowther was the keynote speaker and was very well received. Over 100 awards were given to students in the various events. The event budget was completely fundraised by various sponsorships, charitable trusts, ect.
o Things that went well-students loved that it was at the Hub-UW. They got to visit the campus, talk to current students ect. The recommendation is for the competition to stay at UW. Students felt prepared and understood what to expect. The templates and information online was great. Lunches went great, no issues. Registration was easy. Dr. Crowther commented that he enjoyed students acting assertively and engaging judges to speak with him. His advice was for teachers to share this with their students to be prepared to be open to sharing their project to mentors and judges outside of their regular judging times.
o Challenges-For those students who are not in a class and want to sign up for the event, they need to be educated on how to properly sign up. Students want tee-shirts! Suggestion for multimedia presentations to be looped at lunch to keep them focused during last ½ hour of lunch. Transitioning them from lunch was a bit of a challenge. Students showed concern that 1st year students were in the same competitions as 2nd or 3rd year students. Other CTSO organizations that have competitions (DECA, FBLA, Skills USA, ect) all have students competing together (1st year-3rd year). Students should be told not to “recycle” old projects and submit year after year. Can students be issued a mentor and meet them earlier than January?
o The Future of NWABR & Bioexpo. Federal funding to support NWABR is being reduced, not sure if there will be an expo next year. It is likely that it will not exist like it has in the past. A student fee has been discussed, and reduction of the number of entries. Jen is planning to create a Bioexpo taskforce committee to address these issues (meeting 2-3 times over the summer). Joan and Jen need assistance in running the expo as well. Jen will not know the status of her position at NWABR and the future of Bioexpo until the fall. The cost of the event is around $60,000.
· Edmonds SD will be secretary for 13-14 school year and responsible for sending out agendas, minutes and work with Maureen M (chair).
· Industry Reports-
o Jeff Shaver highlighted the Focus camera. It works with 2nd generation Ipads-
o Theresa shared that Bioquest Academy curriculum has been approved by OSPI to be taught by skills centers in the summer for .5 occ ed credit. This course will be piloted at Moses Lake SD this summer. The global health embassadors curriculum is still being developed and we will know more in the near future.
· Meetings for next year?- Next meeting for 2013-14 school year is scheduled for Sept. 30th @ UW Genome Center. Other meeting dates will be decided at this meeting. Start time is 4:30(4:00 social time).
Submitted by Damen Schuneman, NSD