Science Teachers Get Information and Tools to Teach about Biotechnology and Ethanol

The Kansas Corn Commission’s Seed to STEM summer workshop for science teachers wrapped up today after two days of intensive sessions that included classroom and lab instruction as well as tours of a farm and an ethanol plant. The workshop was designed to help science teachers incorporate lessons about biotechnology and ethanol in their classrooms. In addition to the two-day workshop, each of the 26 science teachers walked away with $400 worth of lab equipment for use at their schools.

Teacher quotes from the workshop:

“There is nothing worse than going to a workshop where they say, ‘You could do this in your classroom if you only had this stuff in your lab.’ With Seed to STEM, we are walking away with that stuff!”

“There’s book learning and real learning, and this is real learning.”

“Being able to take these things and share them with our kids, that’s the best thing you could do for us.”

Kansas Corn Commission CEO Greg Krissek said the commission was interested in supporting science education in schools.

“There is truly an amazing amount of science involved in corn farming today. In this summer’s courses, we are focusing on biotechnology and ethanol. We want to get high school teachers and their students energized about the role science plays in agriculture,” Kansas Corn Commission CEO Greg Krissek said. “With the lab materials we are sending home with the teachers, we are not only giving them lesson plans, we are supporting science education in their schools.”

For more information on the program, visit seed2stem.org