November 21, 2001

Washington State Teacher Receives NABT Award

The National Association of Biology Teachers awarded Mary Glodowski of Juanita High School in Kirkland Washington, the Biotechnology Teaching Award for her innovative pedagogical approach to science instruction. As part of meeting the award criteria, Ms. Glodowski authored a high school Biotechnology final exam unit entitled "Assessing Critical Thinking Skills and Lab Techniques by Identifying and Unknown Plasmid" to be used in conjunction with the IMMEX problem set, "Which Plasmid Is It?" Replete with step by step instructor planning guide, Ms. Glodowski's three week lab allows students to discover the ins and outs of hands-on plasmid identification using antibiotic resistance testing, rapid transformation, plasmid isolation, and restriction pattern analysis.

Staged as a "for hire" research lab scenario, students are given the task of identifying an unknown plasmid through a variety of molecular biology protocols learned during the first semester of their Biotechnology course. During the three week exam, Ms. Glodowski's only involvement is as a "paid consultant" as students prepare, run and analyze electrophoresis gels, negotiate resource materials and manage the costs and time elements of real world business research. "Rather than having a test where you memorize facts just long enough to put them on paper, you actually had to have an understanding of what you were doing and why," said one of her students after completing the assignment, "it was an immense feeling of accomplishment."

Congratulations Ms. Glodowski on your award and innovative instruction.