/Portals/2/logos/__TFMF_qlggxk55w12mnp55tm5pvwbz_70181f9c-ff60-40db-a5d8-a3e463f7a4b4_0___Selected.jpg en-us Copyright 2008 - All Rights Reserved. Wed, 22 May 2013 12:22:18 GMT 15 By Tasha Arrington
Are you interested in science? Are you looking for an opportunity to participate in a pleasurable and out of the ordinary way? For all you science people out there who are looking for something fun and interesting to do during school, but think all the classes here at Port Angeles High School are just too simple or too plain, I just want to say I bet you have never heard of the biotech class here at PAHS. “Biotech is amazing,” says Bethanie Johnson (10). In this class led by Mrs. Duncan Taylor, one will learn the basics of the newest and greatest technology in the science world today. For example, the biotech class right now just got done learning about genetically modified organisms (G.M.O’s). The class learned how to take a gene out of one organism and plant it into a dissimilar organism. This might not sound amazing, but in reality this is extraordinary. The lab that students just finished is a model of real life work that could very well end up saving a life someday. For example taking the human insulin gene, putting it in a bacterium, which produces the protein, and then extracting the insulin protein so diabetics can use it to control their blood sugar. Biotech students are already sharpening life skills that they can use to potentially save a life. How amazing is that? In this lab students worked with a “lab rat” bacterium called E-COLI JM101. This is a specially designed bacterium that can only survive if it is fed the correct amino acids in a petri dish. E-COLI JM101 won’t grow in a living organism in other words. The biotech class uses this bacteria as an alternative to that of human bacterium. The biotech class has taken E-COLI JM101 and has transformed it into a florescent color show. Mrs. Duncan Taylor’s class has successfully taken a protein out of coral, and infused it with E-COLI JM101. When (if) the bacteria starts to show color, it is proof that E-COLI JM101 has picked up that imported gene (the protein) and is functional and is now using the cell’s machinery to make said protein; thus it becomes a living art project. To see what the bacteria looks like in color flip to the cover. PAHS students Virginia Caynak (11) and Christy Fagundes (11) said that the lab, “was fun, but smelled awful.” Most of the students with whom I talked to said that Biotech is a class that is both fun and educational. You can learn so much from a yearlong or semester long course. If you plan on majoring in a science or are interested in science then this course is for you. If you think you’re up to the challenge of having fun seriously consider joining this class this coming second semester by talking to Mrs. Duncan-Taylor or a guidance counselor—it might just be worth your time! ]]> Thu, 15 Dec 2011 22:29:33 GMT