Rowan Hamilton

During Biotechnology Engineering, junior Grayson Koenemann and senior Sam Leuthy perform a DNA fingerprinting lab. The lab involved the restriction enzyme digestion of the DNA followed by agarose gel electrophoresis of the digested DNA samples.

For the first time in the district this year, West is offering a Biotechnical Engineering class.

“The Engineering and Biotechnology classes are part of Parkway’s Project Lead the Way, a program started at Rochester college and Purdue university, that incorporates math and science with engineering classes,” Technology and Engineering teacher Cliff Amen said .

Science teacher Chris Azar is teaching the new classes, but has not be working alone. The students of Amen’s Engineering classes have been assisting the biotechnology classes by building them instrumentation to use in class on experiments and for research.

“Biotechnology uses a lot of robots. By building the instrumentation that Azar uses, the students are learning the needs of the biotechnical industry, how to problem solve and how the engineering works,” Amen said.

While most biology classes focus on only living organisms and there characteristics, Biotechnology classes focus on combining natural sciences and engineering principles to learn about the applications of things like cells and organisms. The curriculum offers new opportunities for teachers and students to work together and gain an alternate experience.

“This class is a lot more real world and official; it gives us an understanding of what the real field is like. There are a lot of fun applications,” senior Paige Smith said.

Biotechnology is very experiment driven. Students work independently and with each other on projects, often utilizing their own time as well as class time.

“It’s a hands on class with a lot of projects that you work on.  We’re actually getting to test DNA and some forensics,” junior Polly Barclay said.

Because Amen and Azar share many students, people taking both classes are working closely with each other, and subsequently sharing ideas and experience.

“I think it’s really cool that the science students can use our tools to collaborate; we are thinking in ways we don’t normally think,” junior Kiwi Hatton said.