Biology Education Enrichment & Career Help – BEECH
BEECH was created by Katie McDonald and Dr. Diane Shakes. Katie is a native to Lee County, Virginia. Dr. Shakes is a Biology Professor at the College of William & Mary.
Katie grew up in Jonesville, Virginia and took her first biology classes at Lee High School. After graduating from Lee High in 2017, she attended the College of William & Mary. During her first semester, she learned of the many opportunities her peers had in their high school science classes in Northern Virginia and other states. Recognizing a need in her Southwest Virginia hometown, she sought to start this project to provide students with skills that will help them succeed in science courses.
After conducting research in Dr. Shakes’ lab during her sophomore year, junior year, and summer research in 2019, Katie sought to provide science skills to students in her home town that would aid them in college science courses. These skills will help students better understand how to engage with primary research papers. Additionally, these skills developed through engaging with research papers will prepare the students to participate in science research.
Through a Charles Center Honors Fellowship, Dr. Diane Shakes, Katie, and high-school biology teachers Mrs. Amanda Horton and Mrs. Denise Carter developed activities for their students. The students completed nine activities throughout a semester that aligned with their curriculum. At the end of the semester, the students chose two activities that were improved for future biology students. These activities are the Cell Membrane & Cancer activity and the Lysosomes, Autophagy, & Cancer activity which compose the Biology Education Enrichment component of BEECH.
The Career Help component of BEECH was created because students have little access to individuals in science careers from both academia and private sectors. Students can view interviews and recordings of individuals from a range of careers in science and healthcare fields in the “Science Careers” tab. The contact information for each individual is included with their video.
The overall motivation for BEECH is to help students in rural areas:
- develop skills to aid them in succeeding in college-level science courses
- expose students to a range of fields in science
- introduce students to a variety of careers in science and medicine.