Agua Fria Union High School District schools will offer biotech class in 2009

Agua Fria Union High School District is offering a new class next semester about biotechnology.

Stuart Charlip, a science teacher at Desert Edge High School in Goodyear received a grant from Northern Arizona University and TGen, a Phoenix-based research institute, to learn about biotechnology and its application in a classroom two years ago.

With the knowledge gained, Charlip brought the experiments into his Advanced Placement biology class this semester as part of a lab.

Next semester, students can enroll in a biotechnology course at Desert Edge and Millennium high schools, said Lexi Cunningham, assistant superintendent for educational services.

The students will learn about DNA fingerprinting and bacterial transformation, which can help improve personalized medicines, said Charlip.

"A lot of this is important because the idea in the long run can lead to gene therapy and personalized medicines to create vaccines," he said. "Most kids think of biology as dissection. This is a science that they don't normally see, and it's not a stagnant area of life."

The school board authorized a new textbook adoption for the class.

"We completely revamped the class and we wanted a text book with the newest information possible," Charlip said.

Cunningham said the books could cost more than $5,000, but added biotechnology is one of the many science courses the district looked at to make sure they were aligned with state standards.

Stuart Charlip works with his student Linzi Holley at Desert Edge High School in Goodyear.